Roku today is debuting its demand-side platform (DSP) OneView, a rebrand of Dataxu tech that puts the streaming giant on equal footing with some of its biggest rivals.
Companies such as AT&T and Amazon have their own DSPs, which are used by agencies and brands to purchase ads in channels such as CTV, display and digital audio, using automation.
Big picture, OneView's self-serve platform lowers the bar of entry for companies seeking to enter the streaming TV space.
“We’ve always believed that all TV ads will be streamed,” says Alison Levin, VP of ad sales and strategy at Roku. “The ability to scale in streaming comes down to being able to scale against high-valued audiences—which is dependent on identity—and having access to as much inventory as possible.”
Although OneView couples programmatic buying with data management, media planning and attribution tools savvy marketers desire, some industry experts say the move creates another walled garden to the streaming TV space, which is expected to grow 31 percent to $5 billion in 2020, according to estimates from Magna Global.
'We knew we had to diversify'
“Drizly is like a number of DTC brands that has a relatively boring mix of two behemoths — Facebook and Google — with relatively simple means of measuring those guys,” says Jay Poropatich, senior director of growth marketing at alcoholic delivery company Drizly. “We knew we had to diversify.”
Poropatich says OneView gave Drizly a similar means to measure a complicated channel like connected TV, adding that the company is able to measure which households visit their website or app after being exposed to a Roku ad.
“We’re more interested in understanding the causal persuasion of an ad and whether it results in new customers,” Poropatich says. “Because we have a control audience who just sees our PSA ads on Roku, we can measure lift of an exposed individual versus a non-exposed.”