• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, December 6, 2023

Scale continues to be a hang-up for some giant brands when it comes to streaming buys, but Coca-Cola is using Roku’s reach to millions of cord cutters as an integral part of its iconic holiday campaign this year.

As the first sponsor of Roku’s new All Things Food content hub, Coca-Cola will have an outsized presence through the Roku City screensaver and ads, including ones promoting one-click buys of its products via a DoorDash partnership. 

The food hub offers easy, consolidated access to the best of all types of culinary programming available through Roku, from how-to to competitions, across SVOD, AVOD, linear TV and originals. 

Much as it continues to be a cornerstone for big brands, including Coca-Cola’s holiday marketing, linear TV is no longer reaching a growing number of consumers — younger consumers in particular — a reality that is the primary selling point for major streaming players.

According to Roku, its first-party data show that 66% of viewers who watch lifestyle content on The Roku Channel are cord-cutters. As of Q4 2022, Roku estimated that the channel was reaching about 100 million people through U.S. households.

And Roku -- which is also launching an All Things Home hub -- is pushing to offer brands “new and exciting ways” to connect with the cord-cutting demographic, says Katina Papas Wachter, head of integrated brand partnerships, The Roku Channel.

Coca-Cola’s red-and-white holiday imagery will be featured in billboards for five days on the Roku City screensaver, which reaches 40 million households monthly, according to Roku.

The sponsorship also includes a branded, category-exclusive “marquee” ad that offers in-content video, and a custom, holiday-themed vignette created by the Roku Brand Studio, featuring actress Simone Boyce. (Boyce is featured in “The Roku Rundown” on The Roku Channel.)

Coca-Cola is also continuing its sponsorship of the Martha Stewart Roku Original series “Martha Holidays,” and the food hub will be featuring the Season Two premiere.

The brand will, in addition, be leveraging T-commerce action ads allowing Roku users to order Coca-Cola products via a single click of their Roku remote — no QR code or typing in of credit card numbers required — and have them delivered by DoorDash.

The activation, through an extension of a Roku-DoorDash partnership that kicked off in February, offers $3 off a DoorDash order with purchase of select Coca-Cola products during December.

Roku first used the one-click remote ecommerce tech with Walmart, in a partnership that began in mid 2022.