PLATFORMS

Lights, Camera, Roku

Roku’s building a branded content studio for connected TV advertising—a frontier analysts think will soon be dominated by the more efficient programmatic advertising.

This is something brands have been asking for, Dan Robbins, VP of ad marketing at Roku, told Marketing Brew. “They were telling us, ‘There’s far more we can do in TV streaming than just the 30-second spot,’” he said.

For the record: Hulu had its own creative studio, Greenhouse, which has been folded into Disney’s studio. ViacomCBS has one, too. But neither is a platform like Roku, which serves both an audience and publishers.

So...what’s “beyond” a 30-second spot? 

Full-fledged programs. Think: a documentary on fly fishing, produced solely by Roku, and running on the platform’s Roku Channel, but paid for by Patagonia or REI. The studio will also make ads, continue the sponsorships and native advertising it was already doing, and invest in “new products that may not exist today,” said Robbins.

• The studio-produced sponcon will be promoted on its home screen, as well as on the Roku Channel.
• Roku’s also interested in distributing the content to services available through its platform (like Hulu or Tubi) in addition to working with them to produce custom branded content.
• It’s bringing on partners from Funny or Die’s brand team to scale the effort.

Robbins declined to provide revenue expectations for the studio or specific brands already on board, but said more would be announced during NewFronts in May. 

Business has been good 

Like every other streaming platform, Roku has benefited from the pandemic. It doubled its monetized ad impressions year over year, and it still sits atop the throne as the US’s most popular streaming device, with an audience of 51.2 million active users.

And things aren’t slowing down. The biggest media holding companies have “doubled their investment” from 2019 to 2020, the platform shared in a letter to shareholders, and are committing to drop “significantly” larger spend during the 2021 upfront season.

Bottom line: Roku hopes to leverage this investment to court new partners with fresh programming opportunities. It remains to be seen whether the studio is just a shiny new toy, or a meaningful addition to Roku’s arsenal.

CAMPAIGNS

A for your Troubles

Krispy Kreme is giving away a lot of donuts—and like a parent at a last day of school party, we’re not 100% sure if that much sugar this promo was a good idea.

• If you roll up to any participating Krispy Kreme with a vaccine card until the end of 2021, you’ll get a free glazed donut. 
• The donut chain (and AOR FleishmanHillard, which told Marketing Brew it collaborated on the promo) isn’t alone here. Businesses of all sizes—from Uber and Lyft to a Cleveland brewery—are running similar vaccine-oriented promos. 

So the question is: Do vaccine promos perform well for marketers? 

Maybe yes: Emory University marketing professor David Schweidel thinks they could be an effective customer acquisition tool. “These kinds of promotions might garner the attention of consumers that didn’t consider the brand before,” he said. 

Maybe no: But Schweidel also noted that because vaccines have become politicized, brands risk turning people off. “I would also be looking at customer retention metrics,” he advised. 

TL;DR: It depends on your base. Per Schweidel, if much of your “customer base has political views against vaccination,” a vaccine card promo could hurt brand trust more than help it. 

SPONSORED BY ADOBE

Marketing Automation:

The marketing world has changed so much in the past year, we're pretty sure CMO now stands for Chief Make-it-up-as-you-go Officer.

The one constant, however? The need for exceptional, personalized customer experiences by way of marketing automation.

Not sure where to start? Try Adobe’s artfully crafted checklist.

This glorious cheatsheet lays out all the things you need to nail down to achieve marketing automation nirvana.

Learn how marketing automation can be used to keep your business agile and adaptable—aka develop the skills necessary to provide your customers (and your sales team) with what they need as the business world adjusts to a new normal.

A sound marketing automation strategy can help deliver quality customer experiences that count.

Check out the checklist right here.

AGENCIES

Agency Folks: Here’s Where You’ll Actually be Working in 2022

It feels like we’ve been talking about remote work’s fate...forever. But now that we can (maybe?) see the end of the Covid-19 tunnel, agency leaders are finally preparing to take action on the future of work. 

But it’s unclear if agency office space will grow or shrink going forward:

• On one hand, Ad Age wrote that WPP CEO Mark Read believes that “agency talent will increasingly work from ‘the best places to live’ with less regard to where the agency is based.”
• On the other, Digiday recently spoke with multiple agencies—like Godfrey Dadich Partners, WorkInProgress, and Grow—that plan to increase office space in 2021. 

TBWA\Chiat\Day NY President Nancy Reyes told Marketing Brew that she expects these two extremes: “Some companies will say, ‘Listen, we’re 100% full work from home.’ Then you’re going to have places that say, ‘Everybody in the office.’”

So, which is it? “The agency has to have a point of view about what works best for that culture […] and then find ways to be flexible,” Reyes continued.

Key word: Flexibility. No matter what Madison Avenue founders and CEOs decide, wiggle room will be essential. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• WPP is spending $200+ million to reorganize its data operations under one roof and expand its data-related offerings, reports the WSJ.
• Lysol maker Reckitt Benckiser dropped its last name as it undergoes a rebrand.
• Verizon has put Yahoo front and center of its media ambitions, as it hopes to grow a stable of subscription products under the Yahoo+ brand, Axios says.
• NBC said programmatic buys are coming to its Peacock streaming service, alongside other ad tech related news, at its ONE21 event.

SPONSORED BY ITERABLE

Do you take cream or sugar with your data? Pour yourself a cup of Joe and tune in to Iterable’s Activate Live conference on April 7. Oriana Wen, Director of Data & Innovation at Blue Bottle Coffee, will discuss how she unified online and in-store data with Segment and Iterable. Learn how today’s leading brands deliver deeper, more relevant customer experiences with the right tech stack and data strategies. Register for free here.

AD FRAUD

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is fake?

1. Lexus made a sedan with a built in vinyl record player
2. Pinterest hosts Anthropologie’s first ever “digital only” catalog
3. First it was Snoop Dogg. Now Danny Trejo’s getting his own Rosé too
4. Um, this wasn’t General Mills’s first shrimp-related mishap

FRENCH PRESS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren't those.

E-Commerce: Increase your online sales with this infographic of 30+ proven tips.

Professional: Nobody would confuse LinkedIn for Twitter, so don’t post like it. Here are seven posting tips to building your personal brand on the networking platform.

AI: As our Emerging Tech Brew pals have taught us, it isn’t as intimidating as it sounds. Here’s how marketers can start using tools like chatbots.

Tell your story: Brightcove’s reliable and scalable video platform connects audiences with your brand to drive revenue, engage customers, build pipeline, and more. Brands like Adobe and MasterClass use Brightcove to tell powerful stories—start telling yours here.*

*This is sponsored advertising content

AD FRAUD ANSWER

Alas, Danny Trejo doesn't have a rosé. Yet.

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Marketers check in after one year of WFH
• Reddit’s getting serious with Omnicom
• Disney hits the ice with the NHL