Dive Brief:

• Roku partnered with Warner Bros. Pictures and Mattel for an immersive campaign to promote the upcoming release of "Barbie" across its platform, according to a company blog post. 
• The effort includes a home screen takeover on July 20, "Barbie" imagery across the Roku City screensaver and a banner ad that includes the movie trailer and a QR code that viewers can scan to buy movie tickets.
• The "Barbie" campaign follows Roku's recent partnership with Shopify that allows viewers to purchase products from Shopify merchants directly from their TV through Roku Action ads — another effort to attract marketers to the platform.

Dive Insight:

Roku is the latest company to catch "Barbie" fever in the run-up to the film's release on July 21. The platform's immersive campaign looks to tap into viewer excitement for the film, which saw searches during the week of June 25 spike four-times higher than average query volumes over the preceding four weeks, per Roku's blog post.

The full-funnel campaign includes a "Barbie"-themed placement on Roku's home screen on July 20 that puts the movie in front of Roku's more than 70 million active account holders when they power up their devices. The movie will also take over the Roku City screensaver — which 85% of users have watched scroll by — with imagery including Barbie's Dream house and a "Barbie"-branded movie theater. Finally, clicking a "Barbie" banner will allow viewers to see a trailer and scan a QR code to buy movie tickets.

The campaign comes days after Roku on July 11 announced a partnership that allows viewers to purchase directly from Shopify merchants through Roku Action Ads. After seeing an ad for a Shopify merchant, viewers can press "OK" to learn more about the product, purchase it directly and checkout using Roku Pay. The seamless integration allows Shopify Merchants to turn ad impressions into direct sales, improving the ads' efficacy.

The "Barbie" campaign and Shopify checkout integration are among Roku's latest efforts to try to connect the streaming platform more directly with retailers and advertisers. Roku this year partnered with DoorDash and Walmart around interactive shoppable ads and with Best Buy around retail media and first-party data optimization. 

The company continues to look for monetization opportunities that can accelerate revenue growth until the ad market fully recovers, according to the company's letter to shareholders around Q1 2023 earnings. Roku reported 1% revenue growth in the quarter, beating investor expectations, but expects macro uncertainties to persist throughout the year and continue to drag on ad sales.