Roku mixes it up with new measurement approach ahead of 2022 Upfronts

What happened

• Ahead of this year’s Upfronts, Roku announced today that it is expanding its Measurement Partner Program to include media mix modeling

• Media mix modeling applies advanced analytics to aggregate datasets to assess the influence of various components of a given marketing mix – both internal and external – in achieving specific campaign results. Essentially, it’s an approach that provides marketers with a more granular view of which elements are driving what kinds of performance across their marketing efforts

• “We noticed a representation gap for TV streaming in older mix models,” said Asaf Davidov, director and head of ad measurement and research at Roku. “Inadequate representation of TV streaming has limited the power of mix models to determine the true impact of TV streaming investment for advertisers. We set out to solve it on behalf of the industry.”

• With the integration of MMM, Roku says advertisers will gain access to new capabilities. These include controlling for various factors such as weather or seasonality, which can help determine the impact of specific marketing dollars on sales. Through access to more granular data from across the platform, Roku aims to give advertisers a better household-level view of the links between ad exposure and outcomes, while enabling them to improve reporting and modeling capabilities

• A handful of Roku’s media partners, including Analytic Partners, Ipsos, IRI, Mediahub and Nielsen, have already signed on to use MMM through Roku. “We believe comprehensive media measurement is critical to understanding how effective our plans are at reaching humans with breakthrough ad experiences,” said Michael Piner, executive vice-president of advanced media at Mediahub, in a statement today. “Streaming TV has become a critical medium to connect our brands to their most valuable consumers. The addition of MMM in Roku’s Measurement Partner Program will allow us to more effectively measure the impact of streaming TV in media mixes through a zoom-out lens to ensure we’re delivering the optimal TV ad experience.”

Why it matters

• The company claims that, as it stands, older analytics models are insufficient in effectively and accurately representing video streaming metrics and the specific roles of individual marketing elements in overall outcomes. With MMM, Roku argues, advertisers can tap into more specific details in order to create a more comprehensive picture of performance

• Roku argues that it is uniquely positioned to offer MMM due to its “scale, data and adtech stack.”

• With the Upfronts just around the corner, brands are eyeing opportunities for big media investments. By offering new measurement solutions – especially in a time when debates surrounding streaming media measurement are heating up – Roku is making a bid for more marketing dollars

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