The secret of Roku City’s success as a comms tool
How the streaming service manages its most valuable brand asset.
What started as a fun yet functional screensaver in 2017 has become one of Roku’s biggest points of differentiation.
As the purple cityscape of Roku City scrolls by, viewers hunt for Easter eggs referencing famous TV shows and Hollywood films. They make memes and generate their own fan art. Roku City is mentioned on X every 11 minutes, according to data from Roku.
Now, the streaming service, which reaches more than 100 million households worldwide, is turning Roku City into its first brand campaign in five years.
Damon Van Deusen, VP of brand at Roku, explained that the process of transforming Roku City into a genuine piece of culture has been a slow and organic one.
As people started talking about the many TV and film references found throughout the screensaver, Roku began adding more — and more frequently. The team would then sit back and watch how consumers reacted on social media before planning their next move.
“It became a fun little cat-and-mouse kind of game,” said Van Deusen. “It became a bit of a dialog.”
Brands who stumble across something fans care about should give them ways to participate in shaping it, Van Deusen advised. Be more like a shepherd than a gatekeeper.
In 2023, Roku City began hosting paid sponsorships. The first one involved a partnership with McDonald’s, converting a building into a restaurant for Grimace’s birthday.
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Still, Van Deusen stressed that the aim has always been to practice restraint. Doing too much in an explicit manner can hinder the quiet intrigue Roku City has become known for. In other words, they didn’t want Roku City to turn into Times Square.
“We are a platform with personality, and that’s very much about those winks and nods,” said Van Deusen, who noted there’s a compelling power in scarcity that keeps people coming back for more.
After years of development and experimentation, the California-based company now has a 26-page-long brand bible that outlines the rules for Roku City to maintain its integrity and safeguard it from abuse.
As Van Deusen put it, the document exists to make sure Roku City doesn’t go “off the rails and become too advertiser focused.”
The method for deciding what to include is also more organized. Multiple teams within Roku can pitch an idea. Sometimes it’s related to an upcoming event; other times it’s a reaction to something happening in the zeitgeist.
“We’ve got an entire Easter egg process in place,” said Van Deusen. “We’re getting down to where we can flip these around within an hour or less.”
Another way Roku exercises restraint is by keeping Roku City the same for all viewers. Roku could, for example, deliver a personal cityscape based on a subscriber’s interests, income bracket or geographical location. But it doesn’t.
Van Deusen explained that doing so would hinder the sense of community that comes from everyone seeing the same thing.
“We want everybody to have that shared experience,” said Van Deusen.
Roku’s new advertising campaign, titled “See You in Roku,” consists of several 30-second spots that take viewers inside certain areas within Roku City. Once there, viewers encounter familiar TV and film characters, such as menacing mobsters or a hunky doctor. Each ad highlights a different perk of using Roku, such as a simple remote control and vast catalog of content.
Van Deusen described the marketing push as a retention campaign, since the commercials will only appear on Roku-owned properties.
“This is about building affinity,” said Van Deusen. “We’re really trying to remind viewers of all the benefits of the Roku experience.”
In June, Fox Corporation announced plans to acquire Roku for $22 billion. Van Deusen noted the deal would not alter the streamer’s focus on its popular screensaver.
“We’re full steam ahead on Roku City,” said Van Deusen. “We obviously want to keep leveraging it, and we’ll continue to do so.”
Van Deusen added that if anyone were to wreck the magic and mystery of Roku City, the most likely culprit would be people like him who decided to do too much.
“I’ve always said that Roku City is ours to ruin,” said Van Deusen. “Too much overt storytelling and too much visible, obvious, didactic information is not what is interesting to people.”
Members of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council can check out Roku’s 4 rules for managing Roku City. Not a member? Learn more by visiting commscouncil.ragan.com.
