Key Points
- Smartly and Roku announced a partnership aimed at bringing social-media-style advertising tools to connected TV campaigns.
- The integration connects Smartly directly with Roku Ads Manager through the Roku Ads API.
- Roku and Smartly positioned the deal as part of a broader shift toward performance-focused advertising on streaming platforms.
Smartly and Roku have formed a new partnership designed to help advertisers apply social-media-style campaign management and measurement tools to connected TV advertising.
The companies announced this week that Smartly’s advertising platform will integrate directly with Roku Ads Manager through the Roku Ads API, allowing marketers to launch and manage connected TV campaigns using the same tools and workflows they already employ for social advertising.
The integration is intended to simplify the process of extending campaigns from social platforms to streaming television while providing advertisers with more detailed audience targeting, campaign optimization and performance measurement capabilities.
The integration is available immediately, allowing advertisers to begin activating Roku connected TV campaigns through Smartly’s platform.
Smartly Chief Executive Officer Laura Desmond said the partnership reflects growing demand among advertisers for more measurable outcomes from connected TV campaigns.
“Connected TV’s performance era is here,” Desmond said in a statement. “The best advertising follows attention across every screen, and streaming is where we can now finally unlock the same proven results.”
Roku executives said advertisers increasingly want connected TV campaigns to deliver the same accountability and performance metrics available on digital and social platforms.
“Advertisers want connected TV to work as hard as their best-performing channels,” said Patrick Harris, the Senior Vice President of Global Advertising Sales and Partnerships at Roku. “This partnership with Smartly makes it simple for brands to bring the speed and precision of social into TV.”
In addition to campaign activation and measurement, the companies said the partnership will streamline creative development. Advertisers will be able to adapt existing social media creative assets for use on television screens, reducing the need to create separate campaigns for connected TV environments.
For Smartly, the agreement expands its reach into the connected TV marketplace. The company supports more than 800 brands globally and manages more than $7 billion in annual advertising spend across major digital platforms.
Roku benefits by integrating another tool to attract performance-focused advertisers to its growing platforms business, which accounts for the biggest share of its overall revenue. During the first three months of this year, Roku earned more than $1.1 billion from subscriptions and advertising — more than ten times the income of its hardware sales, according to financial disclosure reports reviewed by The Desk.
On Monday, Fox Corporation announced a deal to acquire Roku for $22 billion.
