Roku Bows Shoppable Ads for Retailers at Its First NewFront Event

Roku has a new program for retailers to pair shoppable ads with Roku Pay so they can sell products from TV ads, it announced at its first in-person Interactive Advertising Bureau NewFront in New York Tuesday. It also announced a collaboration with Microsoft to explore how TV advertising -- linear and streaming -- affects online searches. It highlighted The Roku Channel as its home of free and premium entertainment on the platform, saying it was a top-five channel on the Roku platform in the U.S. by active account reach and streaming hour engagement in Q1. The company unveiled new Roku Original programming featuring celebrities Kevin Hart, David Castaneda, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Zoe Lister-Jones, Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse and others. Roku Brand Studio announced a partnership with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine to bring brands into 12 short-form films across drama, comedy, documentary and animation genres; it also noted an exclusive partnership with Variety to share the top 10 Roku searches each month.