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Roku Head Of Marketing Talks About Plans For 2022

Roku’s licensing deals with smart TV manufacturers have helped it maintain a lead with their own smart TV platforms like Samsung, LG and Vizio. In the past month, the company added another partner through a deal with Sharp to launch Sharp Roku TV HD and 4K models in the U.S.

But Roku isn’t without its challenges. On Friday the company announced the resignation of Scott Rosenberg, senior vice president and general manager of its platform business. He plans to step down in the spring of 2022. 

Rosenberg joined Roku in 2012. He has been a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and board member of the IRTS Foundation.

Jordan Rost, head of ad marketing at Roku, may step in to fill Rosenberg's position.

Rost joined Roku in 2020, leading marketing for the company's ad business across brand, demand, customer and user, and sales marketing. Rost also worked at Google for nine years as trends and insights lead in marketing, agency partnership lead, and agency sales manager.

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Data & Programmatic Insider (D&PI) connected with Rost to talk about some of the trends he sees for CTV and data in 2022.

Roku and other streaming services have hurdles to overcome, such as ensuring that retargeted ads from data signals on CTV match those on mobile devices and on desktops and find the correct person.

Rost said that as a top TV streaming platform, it expects to “lead TV streaming measurement across the industry.” The following are excerpts from the interview.

D&PI:  What tech innovations do you expect to see in 2022 to target ads via Roku?

Rost:  We’re focused on bringing the benefits of TV streaming -- targeting, optimization, attribution -- to linear TV with Dynamic Linear Advertising.  TV programmers can replace traditional TV ads with targeted ads in real-time, which means marketers can minimize over-frequency in live linear TV plans and improve ROI with Roku data and attribution. We are uniquely positioned for this -- we have the scale, direct consumer relationships, and our OneView ad tech stack to deliver.

D&PI:  What are some of the trends you’re seeing for 2022, and what is Roku doing to prepare?

Rost:  In 2022, marketers will accelerate into the TV streaming decade with new ad experiences that surprise and delight beyond the traditional TV spot, new activation strategies tied to direct consumer relationships, and new measurement tools that deliver true business outcomes. To prepare, our top priority is to continue innovating for our clients.

Whether it’s developing streaming-first creative, providing more precise audience building and campaign measurement, or adjusting campaigns due to supply chain constraints. 

D&PI:  What do you see as the biggest challenge for advertisers and Roku in 2022?

Rost:  One of the biggest challenges we see for 2022 is ensuring first-party relationships with consumers are based in connection and trust. Platforms or partners that lack a direct relationship with consumers are limited in data and measurement that they can offer, which can limit brands’ effectiveness.

More transparency over data collection can yield more accurate ad measurement. First-party data provides more accurate signals that can benefit brands. These signals allow more effective targeting and measurement as brands also strengthen identity graphs.

D&PI:  What types of measurement tools is Roku working on?

Rost:  In 2021, we launched a new measurement alliance with Nielsen to measure all four screens -- TV streaming, traditional linear TV, desktop, and mobile -- and we grew the Roku Measurement Partner Program to more than two dozen measurement providers, and we became the first TV streaming channel store to implement IAB ads.txt to address transparency in TV streaming.

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