Connected television platform Roku has hired Lauren Benedict to oversee its global advertising sales, the company announced on Monday.
Benedict joins Roku after serving as the Chief Revenue Officer of Spotter, where she oversaw ad sales initiatives for some of the world’s leading brands. She also worked as the Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales at MNTN, helping to build out that firm’s performance connected TV enterprise sales team. Benedict also spent more than a decade at Hulu, now owned by Disney, where she worked as the Senior Vice President of Addressable Sales.
Benedict’s arrival at Roku comes at a time when the company is leaning into its platform and advertising business as a way to drive immense revenue. Roku earned its first $1 billion from advertising and subscription sales during its most-recent financial quarter, accounting for a significant chunk of its $1.2 billion in overall revenue.
“Lauren brings a wealth of ad sales leadership experience across some of the largest and most innovative streaming platforms in our industry,” said Jay Askinasi, the Senior Vice President and Head of Global Media Revenue and Growth at Roku, who will also serve as Benedict’s direct report. “Her track record speaks for itself, and the balance of Hulu, Disney, MNTN, and Spotter experience gives us supreme confidence that she will accelerate Roku’s ambition to lead the market in performant premium video. Her expertise in streaming and performance monetization will be invaluable as we continue to solve TV’s biggest challenges in advertising.”
“This is a pivotal time for Roku’s advertising business as marketers continue to shift towards CTV being fundamental to their buys,” Benedict said in a statement on Monday. “I am thrilled to join Roku to help our advertising partners reach engaged audiences across the platform and deliver optimal campaign performance.”
Roku serves more than 90 million connected TV users around the world, many of whom have purchased one or more of the company’s low-cost streaming pucks and sticks, or have Roku built into their smart TVs. A number of companies manufacture Roku TVs with the Roku operating system under license, including TCL, Hisense and Element, and Roku has started making and selling its own models of smart TVs over the past few years.
The platform offers easy access to popular streaming apps like Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Disney Plus, Peacock, Paramount Plus and YouTube, and some cable TV replacements like YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, Fubo, DirecTV Stream, Philo and Frndly TV, among others.
The company is expected to present at the Upfronts in late April.
