• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, 2 hours ago

Roku executives appear to have found a few secret weapons that are gaining traction to drive performance for advertisers and growth for the company by expanding beyond streaming platforms to implement data and services. All are paying off. 

About eight months ago, the company introduced "Howdy," an ad-free lower-cost subscription streaming service.

Now research firm Antenna estimates Howdy has surpassed 1 million subscribers, with retention rates exceeding those of premium subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) averages. 

But Howdy is not the only platform gaining traction. The company has also expanded beyond its streaming platform and implemented new services tied to retail media.

The most recent platform, "Roku Curate,” enables advertisers to combine streaming data with retail purchase data.

Criteo, Fandango and Fetch -- as well as Best Buy Ads, Kroger Precision Media, and Instacart -- became early launch partners. The strategy ties retail media data directly with connected TV (CTV) to target ads.

The platform simplifies audience targeting by creating pre-built media packages that link advertising impressions directly to retail purchases, allowing brands to measure campaign performance.

The combined technologies -- Magnite’s SpringServe supply-side platform (SSP) technology and Roku Exchange's infrastructure power Curate for TV -- operate a performance channel. Deterministic data helps to support it by improving viewer identification, and logins reveal who watches, what and when.

Miles Fisher, senior director of strategic advertising partnerships at Roku, told MediaPost that audience data is consistent across CTV advertising, yet the highest-quality data frequently remains difficult to access. This means advertisers need to make a choice between premium and programmatic, Fisher said.

“It’s about solving a challenge of having to choose between quality and scale in programmatic,” Fisher said.

It depends on the path that advertisers take to access data, whether from publishers, SSPs, or others, and the sacrifices made to achieve balance and performance.

Curate bundles audience data and inventory into one streamlined buy. It connects ad exposure directly to real-world outcomes, from retail sales to ticket purchases, and reduces complexity and fees by limiting reliance on intermediaries.

When MediaPost asked for an example of how it works, Fisher said Best Buy might have an existing relationship with Dell Computers. If Dell wanted to buy inventory, it could go to any streaming platform, but now it can come to Roku to target consumers who may be looking for a computer, but exclude those who have made a purchase in the past 12 months. Then Best Buy can run a measurement study.

Brands no longer need to assemble audience data from brokers, clean rooms, and third-party vendors, because they can execute campaigns in one transaction with Roku Curate.

The closed loop is the piece that proves the ad worked.

Roku Curate tracks that an ad was served to a specific household. One of the partners reports back to the advertiser if that same household made a purchase in-store or online shortly after.