Dan Robbins
101 Great Minds on Music Brands and Behavior
Dan Robbins, VP of Ad Marketing & Partner Solutions, Roku
Dan Robbins, the mastermind VP of Ad Marketing & Partner Solutions at Roku, unleashes a tidal wave of creativity and innovation that electrifies the advertising realm.
With a visionary spirit, Robbins catapults Roku to the vanguard of the streaming revolution, harnessing the ever-shifting media landscape like a sorcerer.
His brilliance in forging formidable alliances and creating spellbinding advertising campaigns has elevated the bar to unheard-of heights. Dan fearlessly dances on the edge of imagination, reshaping the Roku brand with an irresistible allure that fascinates audiences.
With the heart of an adventurer, Dan Robbins defies conventions, shaping the very fabric of media consumption. Robbins continues to alter the fundamental nature of media consumption and has ushered in a ground-breaking future for streaming media.
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“any brand that wants to be a customer first, or build lifetime value with their consumer, should be thinking about the whole experience.”
— DAN ROBBINS, VP OF AD MARKETING & PARTNER SOLUTIONS, ROKU
Uli Reese: What was the first brand to ever make an impact on you?
Dan Robbins: The one that comes to mind is the Brownies’ Little Bites snacks. The school bus would drop me off, and I had a long, winding walk uphill to my home. I would get up the driveway, and the first thing I would do was go to the pantry, where there was always a box of Little Bites brownies or muffins. That’s how I knew school was done. Every time I see Little Bites, it still makes me smile.
Reese: Why did you decide to work in this industry, and what is your advice to young people?
Dan: I majored in history but loved studying people and thought that media, technology, and entertainment was a fascinating place to do it. I started my career at Nielsen in research and data analytics and did a whole bunch of different things, from local TV to digital, from tech development to national TV pilot testing. I moved to Roku to launch our measurement and analytics functions for our advertising business. Then, I went into programming research, and now, my current role. I don't know that I have a magic formula for young people, but one thing I try to share is that keeping a student mentality is incredibly important. Read across topics, listen to podcasts, subscribe to newsletters, go to conferences. Curiosity is fuel for learning.
Reese: What are the biggest challenges and the biggest opportunities at Roku in terms of audio and sonic?
Dan: It's helpful to look at where the entertainment industry stands. In television, only about 50 percent of America still has traditional pay TV. That's down from about 90 percent [at its peak]. Streaming has now surpassed broadcast and cable, and ad-supported streaming is growing faster than streaming overall. Roku now reaches nearly half of all U.S. broadband homes. So, there’s a lot of momentum for streaming and advertising specifically.
Within Sonic marketing, Roku launched a whole home experience with our own audio products. Our speakers and sound bars that improve the sonic experience. Secondly, in many homes, the television is the best audio system consumers have got. There's a good amount of audio streaming -- whether that's listening to podcasts or playing music on Spotify, Pandora, or iHeartMedia – that happens on the TV screen. Hence, television is now very much a home for music and entertainment.
Reese: With ownership a huge issue for CMOs today, what is your view on sonically future-proofing a brand?
Dan: Our brand pillars are around ease, choice, and simplicity. In a crowded world, Roku makes brands, creatives and content unmissable. When you turn on your TV, you know exactly where you can find what to watch. So if we’re starting with that brand promise and premise, then when we think about the experience of surprising and delighting every TV viewer around the world, sound is one way to deliver on surprise, and delight. When you turn on your Roku device, we have our audio signature that accompanies the Roku logo. Voice search helps guide streamers to their favorite shows. TV ads are non-skippable and audio-first. Streaming is a canvas to make sonic storytelling stand out.
Reese: What’s your advice to a fellow CMO who has yet to immerse themselves in sonic?
Dan: Every product and brand is sonic. When you start watching a new, free Roku Original and the title card plays, that’s a brand moment. When you open a car door, and it beeps, that's a brand moment,When you crack a bag of chips open, that's a brand moment. There's an opportunity for everybody to think about their consumer experience sonically. And I’ve always believed that many successful marketers, and perhaps people more broadly, enjoy being wrong. They embrace new information that forces us to re-evaluate, and we're willing to try things despite all the usual insecurities of fear, shame, and ego, and that's not easy to do. But again, bringing a student mentality to these things and following the consumer at the core to me always feels like the North Star.
Reese: Would you agree that having the opportunity to think about sonic strategy and visual strategy as one means marketers can do some incredible work?
Dan: The idea that there’s a convergence of all of these different types of media to me is a big opportunity. I often think about the idea of distinctive brand assets; what are the things that make the brand unique that both the brand can own but that are also reflected in the consumer experience and are valued by fans and consumers? We have Roku City, which we think is the largest digital public art experiment in America. When you're done streaming, or you're coming back to streaming movies and television, there’s this whimsical world that shows up on your TV. There's an opportunity with audio to create distinctive brand assets.
Reese: What does the future hold for Sonic and Audio?
Dan: My crystal ball is as murky as anybody else’s but firstly, I come back to this idea of starting with the consumer experience. We know that audio and sonic are vital parts of the experience. That means any brand that wants to be a customer first, or build lifetime value with their consumer, should be thinking about the whole visual and audio experience. The shift to streaming, the growth of artificial intelligence, and the ways tangible experiences can go digital and vice versa - all of that is accelerating. There’s a tremendous opportunity for marketers to not just take the same playbook that they've always had, but to start afresh with where the consumer is today with sounds, sight, and motion in mind.
Reese: In that instance, how do you find a way to reach Gen Z, who are lost in their headphones?
Dan: Gen Z is the first generation to grow up streaming-first. For them, streaming audio and streaming video is not an emerging medium; it's simply the way they entertain themselves. Three-quarters of Gen Z is watching video-on-demand streaming channels to TV. For a marketer, it’s an opportunity to start with these platforms to surprise, delight and engage them in a way that's authentic.
Reese: Before we wrap up, what would you like to share with your fellow CMOs?
Dan: It's an incredibly positive time to be in marketing. There's so much opportunity, and I think collaboration and partnership is increasingly the way to stand out with these new audio, visual and storytelling opportunities. For our community, in general, it’s incredibly encouraging.
Note: The interview took place in New York on the 11th May 2023.
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