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Roku has partnered with grocery giant Kroger to integrate data from the country’s largest supermarket chain into its newly launched shopper data program.
The tie-up is geared toward CPG marketers, who can now use data from Kroger’s Precision Marketing arm for targeting and measurement purposes across Roku’s roughly 40 million households.
Roku is bolstering its targeting capabilities in the hopes of luring more brands away from linear TV, which continues to see declining viewership as consumers cut the cord.
“It’s incredibly important for CPG advertisers as they’ll continue to need to shift money out of linear and into streaming to find consumers that have cut the cord, but then there’s also an additional ability for them to make those dollars work harder for them and to measure those dollars in a way they could not before with their linear buys,” said Alison Levin, vp of ad sales and strategy at Roku.
Roku has taken major strides in building out its ad offerings this year. Last week, it added 30 ad-supported channels to its free streaming service, and in May it unveiled a revamped ad platform, OneView.
The streaming service will hold a NewFront presentation on June 22, with Levin telling Adweek that her company has already begun closing upfront deals.
Preceding the event, Roku will hold vertical-specific roadshows starting June 8 for advertisers in categories such as automotive, CPG and telecommunications.
This marks Kroger Precision Marketing’s first foray into the over-the-top television space. Cara Pratt, vp of commercial and product strategy for KPM, said success will ultimately be determined by repeat interest from brands.
“We’re looking to move beyond traditional awareness metrics—impressions, reach, frequency—kind of the core of what has stayed grounded within linear buying and planning,” Pratt said. “We’re excited about where this is going to go and how this will help brands makes the best decisions for where they want to invest.”
TV viewership overall has surged since the beginning of the pandemic, but connected TV usage has remained high while traditional linear viewership has begun to drop.
