Walmart’s pitch comes as the retailer is putting together a streaming ecosystem. In August, Walmart acquired adtech firm Vibe.co for a reported $1.4 billion. With Vizio, the deal changes the ambitions of Walmart Connect—the retailer’s ad business—from selling performance-based ads for suppliers to selling streaming ads.
As a result, Walmart is trying to pitch itself to so-called non-endemic advertisers who do not sell products at Walmart. The acquisitions of Vibe and Vizio have already given Walmart “thousands” of relationships with brands that don’t sell anything at Walmart, or don’t have a preexisting relationship with Walmart, Ryan Mayward, svp and gm of Walmart Connect, told advertisers during an event in New York on Tuesday.
“You’ll see those advertisers benefit more and more from our partnerships and from the solutions that we bring forward to solve fragmented customer attention,” Mayward said.
Walmart has also inked new partnerships with Skydance and Spotify to help brands reach Walmart customers on platforms beyond its own within Walmart’s demand-side platform. Additionally, Walmart’s partnership with Yahoo DSP is moving into alpha and expanding beyond Walmart-owned Vizio to include streaming inventory from additional publishers.
“I’d like you to think about our commerce insights as the center of a partnership ecosystem where our partners, social platforms, TV networks, DSPs, audio, streaming companies have all come together to solve fragmentation problems for our mutual clients,” Mayward told the room of advertisers.
At the same time that Walmart Connect’s pitch is evolving to focus on TV advertising, Vizio’s ad pitch is increasingly focusing on performance-focused advertisers.
“We’re creating the ‘Walmart welcome’ in your home, a trusted environment where entertainment, brands, and commerce can come together naturally,” said Courtney Naudo, svp and gm for Vizio. “Together with Walmart Connect, we can turn that trusted relationship into something incredibly powerful for marketers, connecting the influence of the living room more directly to commerce.”
Through Vizio, Walmart is launching series that feature products available in its stores and online. “For decades, television has been one of the most powerful tools brands have to build awareness and affinity,” Naudo said. “Now, we have the opportunity to connect that influence directly to commerce, and this is where Vizio’s power is within Walmart.”
