ROKU - KEEP STREAMING AMERICA
When Division of Labor teamed up with Roku, streaming was still in its infancy. We helped them define the category — not just try to sell another black box. We built awareness with tongue-in-cheek statements, fresh design and a clear brand positioning. With that, Roku became a leader in a new entertainment era.
Roku billboard - Books. They make great movies. (My mom hated this one.)
Back when streaming made up only 7% of the market, Roku wanted to become the leader. But leader in what? The streaming device you plug into your TV? That’s a commodity. We pushed Roku to define the entire streaming category.
The campaign behaved like a cultural moment, and helped Roku not only grow, but also become the recognized face of streaming. The creative was smart, the timing perfect — and the brand pay-off significant.
The campaign behaved like a cultural moment, and helped Roku not only grow, but also become the recognized face of streaming. The creative was impossible to ignore, the timing was perfect — and the brand pay-off was significant.
One of Roku’s radio commercials that helped define the brand.
The press was huge and the social media response was even bigger.
A certain percentage of the messages tied into provider partners like Netflix, Hulu and HBOgo.
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When Division of Labor first began working with Roku, our research showed that only 7% of America knew what streaming was. It’s hard to imagine now, but this was 2011, and streaming was still quite young. So we devised a strategy that basically said, let’s not tell people why our small black box that no one has ever heard of is better than another small black box that no one has ever heard of. Instead, we’ll sell the category and by default, we’ll become the category leader. And that’s exactly what happened. Division of Labor is a top advertising agency in San Francisco devising strategies and creative campaigns that can not be ignored. After the first Roku campaign ran during the holidays of 2011 and sales increased by 30% in the two markets that ran the campaign, San Francisco and Chicago, our clients knew the strategy and the campaign was a winner. And they increased the budget and the number of cities we would run in the following year.
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The first year Division of Labor created and ran an advertising campaign for Roku, sales increased by 30% in the two markets that ran the campaign while staying flat in the markets that did not run the campaign. Division of Labor is an advertising firm in the San Francisco Bay Area with full strategic, creative, production and media buying capabilities. The media buy consisted of out-of-home, digital and radio because the TV networks and cable would not allow us to advertise on their platforms. Division of Labor specializes in working with startups like Roku who had obtained series B funding and could focus on growing their audience, driving traffic and selling product to a wider market.
The second year we ran a new campaign using the same strategy, but we expanded to run in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago and San Francisco. And again, the results showed sales increases of 30% on average in all the markets that ran the advertising vs flat sales in other markets. Clearly the campaigns were working. Streaming was growing and Roku was leading.
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Humor is the most effective tool in advertising. Period. Full stop. TV is entertaining and a lot of it is funny. Campaigns that are funny achieve better results than campaigns that don’t. There have been numerous research studies that prove this point. Here is just one from Fast Company. But instead of citing all of them, ask yourself; what are your favorite advertising campaigns and commercials? Are they funny?
Got Milk? FedEx. Snickers. Nike. Superbowl commercials. Beer commercials. Old commercials. New ones. Radio. Out of home. Things that get attention and talk value are often funny. Not always. other emotions play a huge part in advertising. But even the campaigns that employ other emotional elements are often seen by consumers as funny because they are entertaining. Division of Labor is a top advertising agency in San Francisco because we know how to be funny, when to be funny and most importantly, when NOT to be funny.