New partnership seeks to make leading automotive dataset available for marketers to connect ad exposure to every stage of the shopping journey for the first time

Cox Automotive and Roku announce they will pair industry-leading data from Cox Automotive with TV streaming data from Roku, the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico*, to better measure TV streaming advertising. Auto marketers can better quantify exactly how advertising in streaming TV impacts web browsing, vehicle sales, and more.

“With our data capabilities combined, we will offer auto advertisers a holistic view of the consumer auto journey, revolutionizing how advertisers measure the impact of their digital advertising investment”

The partnership comes as both retail media and streaming TV advertising are growing in the U.S. eMarketer projects that U.S. digital retail media ad spending will grow 31.4% to $40.81 billion in 2023, which will make up over 18% of digital ad spending. Furthermore, the shift to TV streaming ad spend is accelerating. According to SMI’s December Forecast for TV & Streaming, TV streaming ad spend in the auto category grew +35% YOY in 2022 vs. +7% YOY in 2021**.

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Cox Automotive is transforming the way the world buys, sells, owns, and uses vehicles. The global company’s family of brands includes Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, which reach two out of three online car shoppers during their research and shopping journey***. This partnership makes Roku the first TV streaming pilot partner to offer and market Cox Automotive data for measurement in the TV streaming category.

Nearly half of potential auto buyers start their consumer journey 6+ months before a purchase****. However, most measurement solutions for auto marketers today only capture basic sell-through metrics for new and used vehicle transactions. This leaves a blind spot for brands who want to understand how TV streaming impacts search, discovery and pre-purchase behavior.

“The ad measurement of the future will start with data from direct consumer relationships because it’s more accurate and scalable,” says Asaf Davidov, head of ad measurement and research at Roku. “Roku and Cox are uniquely positioned to partner with auto marketers to go under the hood and make every marketing dollar work harder.”

Roku’s scale of 70 million active accounts paired with Cox Automotive, which receives 2.7 billion online visits**** across its online properties, offers new levels of insight to automotive marketers. The new partnership provides advertisers with a look into the entire consumer journey – from online actions at the start, to consideration, to intent, and ultimately to purchase. To get started, an auto brand identifies its target audience and runs a TV streaming campaign with Roku. Roku then passes its ad exposure data to Cox Automotive matching it with their own first-party data set. Cox Automotive can then deliver reports that tie streaming ad exposure to consumer behaviors across Cox Automotive properties.

“With our data capabilities combined, we will offer auto advertisers a holistic view of the consumer auto journey, revolutionizing how advertisers measure the impact of their digital advertising investment,” says Steve Lind, vice president of operations, advertising, at Cox Automotive. “Cox Automotive’s unparalleled audience paired with the data insights from Roku will provide a new look at performance during every stage of the car buyer journey.”

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