In what can only be considered an April Fools Day joke (one sincerely hopes), Roku has unveiled a special “branded” remote control.
Looking more like a race car than a remote, the accessory touted for the Roku XD (ha) will be bundled and sold exclusively at Best Buy stores. (I wonder if anyone has informed Best Buy yet…)
Anyway, here’s the “official” background info from Roku reps:
As you know we surpassed 1 million units last Fall and with the tremendous increase in customers over the last 12 months, we’ve learned that the real estate on our home screen has become incredibly valuable. In fact, we’re rolling out new firmware this week that supports MLB.tv (go Giants) but also makes the banner on the home screen clickable. Until now we’ve used that banner to promote content partners and their channels, but given the impressions we’re generating on a daily basis, we’ve seen a lot of interest from mainstream advertisers.
Therefore, we decided to take that interest and propose to them an opportunity to advertise on something physical that our customers are using just about every day, the Roku Remote.
How could anyone possibly take this seriously? For goodness’ sake, it has a Twilight logo on the side! No gadget should ever be branded with that! (However, I will support the “Go Giants” note in the description.)
