mParticle announces single SDK for OTT streaming TV apps on Roku

Step by step, Over-The-Top (OTT) television is becoming a full citizen of the marketing ecosystem.

The latest step was announced today by customer data platform mParticle, which is releasing an open source software development kit (SDK) for apps on the Roku streaming TV platform.

A Roku box attached to a TV and connected wirelessly to the internet allows viewers to watch streaming TV via individual apps for Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Now, Sony’s Crackle and other non-cable programming services that are on the web.

Before this announcement, mParticle CEO and co-founder Michael Katz told me, Roku-based OTT services often had to build custom setups so that their customer data could be combined with user activity data (like TV program preferences or ads seen) and then used with common marketing tools.

mParticle notes that Roku is the most popular streaming TV box, with an estimated 49 percent market share, but it has not previously had support for even basic analytics, much less advanced tools.

Now, the single mParticle SDK can capture user activity, send it to the mParticle platform, combine it with customer data, and then allow it to be utilized through a single Application Programming Interface (API) with over a hundred common advertising, marketing and analytics tools.

They include the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, AppNexus, Criteo, Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, MailChimp, Oracle Responsys and others. The programming service brand, such as Hulu or Crackle, can now readily employ the combined customer and activity data to target ads, manage follow-up emails, generate detailed analytics and conduct other marketing and advertising tasks.

OTT TV also recently added the ability to track real-world purchases back to ads shown on ad-supported program services like Crackle, when audience measurement firm Tru Optik announced a partnership with global research agency Kantar Millward Brown.

[Article on MarTech Today.]

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.