Adobe has inked a deal with TV streaming and hardware business Roku which allows marketers to target their first-party audience segments on the Roku platform.
The move means marketers can match both customer and device IDs when making ad buys and is the first time Roku has allowed its own first-party data to be matched with brands through programmatic ad buys.
As part of its "aggressive innovation agenda," the Roku partnership is one of many marketing and advertising announcements made at the annual Adobe Summit in the US.
Aimed at giving its customers the ability to more precisely target the audiences moving to over-the-top (OTT) TV services, by allowing for programmatic ad buying and access to Roku ad inventory helps marketers better scale campaigns, manage frequency and more effectively measure success on OTT.
“With the shift to streaming, marketers have an unprecedented opportunity to reach consumers in a targeted, relevant way on TV,” Roku GM of platform business Scott Rosenberg said.
“Roku has a direct, first-party relationship with its consumers and the most advanced ad capabilities in OTT. This partnership gives Adobe clients a seamless way to activate their data and reach customers who’ve moved their TV viewing to Roku devices.”
The deal with Roku, which makes smart televisions and streaming devices, means that brands using both Adobe Advertising Cloud and Adobe Analytics will be able to see how their advertising spend leads to site behaviour and drives business objectives such as revenue.
Roku is integrated directly with TV sets made by manufacturers HiSense, Insignia, Haier and TCL and competes with smart TVs, Apple TV, Amazon's streaming media stick Fire TV, Chromecast, game systems and more.
Earlier this year Conviva released a report looking at the current state of streaming and streaming players which found that while Roku is still the most popular streaming player, accounting for 41% of all streaming viewership, Amazon's Fire TV is catching up.
What does this mean for Telstra TV?
In 2015 in Australia, as part of a strategic agreement, it was revealed that Telstra would leverage the Roku streaming platform to deliver its streaming service and player, Telstra TV, to consumers. Telstra TV bundles its own BigPond movie service together with the streaming services including Stan, Netflix and various catch up TV channels. Last year reality TV streaming platform Hayu became the latest platform to join Telstra TV, as part of the telco's strategy to bring together more of its entertainment expenses into one monthly payment.
At the time, the then group managing director media and marketing at Telstra, Joe Pollard, said licensing the Roku streaming platform enabled Telstra to launch a streaming service and player "without the magnitude of cloud services, software and tools otherwise needed to become an OTT operator".
AdNews has approached Telstra for more details on how the Adobe deal will impact its local moves.
Ben Jankowski, Mastercard's group head of global media, described the partnership as an exciting development that will “do much to expand and enhance growth in OTT".
“As marketers understand the promise of advanced TV and embrace the opportunities, they will discover the possibilities in precision and targeting that the medium offers,” Jankowski says.
Keith Eadie, vice president and general manager of Adobe Advertising Cloud, says that with lines continuing to blur between advertising and marketing technologies, marketers want to understand advertising's paid media paths, and how they drive valuable site paths that use that data to better optimize campaigns.
“Adobe Advertising Cloud’s focus on intelligence, accountability, targeting and inventory (especially TV) enables advertisers to deliver connected experiences in advertising to today’s increasingly discerning consumer,” Eadie says.
“This partnership with Roku allows Adobe customers even more effectiveness while running campaigns on a leading TV streaming platform.”
Suresh Vittal, VP of the Adobe’s experience cloud platform and products, told a media briefing that teh company is on an "aggressive innovation agenda" and that the benefits of the 2018 Marketo and Magneto acquisitions are steadily coming to fruition.
Adobe eyes B2B marketers via LinkedIn
In addition to the advanced TV moves with Roku, Adobe has deepened its longstanding relationship with Microsoft via a LinkedIn deal focused around account based marketing.
Adobe and Microsoft are now set to align data sources to populate account-based profiles. The move is aimed at empowering B2B marketers and sellers to easily identify, understand and engage B2B customer buying teams.
The new partnership makes it easier to target tailored LinkedIn ads to specific people, for example, those involved in the purchasing decisions, such as finance managers.
“One of the biggest challenges for marketers running campaigns is ensuring that their messages are reaching the right audiences and delivering ROI at scale,” says LinkedIn’s vice president of business development, Jen Weedn.
“By extending LinkedIn account-based marketing capabilities to Adobe Experience Cloud users, we’ve created a seamless way for them to identify and target the right audiences on LinkedIn with meaningful content, ultimately helping improve success of their campaigns.”
Adobe senior VP of digital experience business, Steve Lucas, says the partnership will drive better orchestration, measurement and the delivery of targeted content for a more personalised experiences at both the individual and account level.
“Orchestrating the engagement of multiple individuals in a complex marketing and sales journey is at the heart of account-based experiences and what B2B marketers do day in and out,” he says.
“With these new account-based capabilities, marketing and sales teams will have increased alignment around the people and accounts they are engaging, and new ways to measure that business impact.”
Adobe launches Commerce Cloud
During the Las Vegas event, which draws more than 16,000 people, Adobe also unveiled how it has put to use its 2018 acquisition of commerce platform Magneto, by introducing the Commerce Cloud.
The proposition builds on Magento’s offering, leveraging more than 300,000 developers and providing fully managed commerce across physical, digital and virtual storefronts.
Other announcements include the launch of Marketo Engage, as well as global availability of Adobe Experience Platform, the arrival of a new Journey IQ, which helps provide a better understanding of the entire customer journey, and enhancements to Advertising Analytics, a new integration with Adobe Advertising Cloud that allows marketers to see the connection between their advertising and the success of their marketing campaigns.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.