Performance Insights: Walmart’s Acquisition of Vizio

It has been fascinating to watch Walmart & Amazon compete over the years; both companies have a long history of acquisitions and partnerships that suggest a greater focus beyond groceries and direct-to-consumer goods.

Amazon has made headlines for its sports streaming investments, while Walmart has been working tirelessly to play catch up by building out Walmart Connect. The latest deal, in which Walmart is acquiring smart TV maker Vizio for $2.3 billion dollars, certainly enhances the capabilities of Walmart Connect into a new realm.

Walmart Connect is a retail media platform offering advertisers opportunities to reach shoppers online in the app and across its brick-and-mortar locations. The addition of Vizio is powerful because it enhances Walmart Connect’s reach across TV screens and provides a treasure trove of first-party viewership data. This deal allows Walmart to access Vizio’s 18 million active accounts. First-party data will only become increasingly important to advertisers everywhere as customer privacy tightens and third-party data signals vanish thanks to cookie depreciation. 

We’ve seen the groundswell in CTV for several years and have worked alongside key players, including Vizio, to test targeted video and display advertising for performance clients. The channel provides lean-in moments to capture audience attention on the big screen, enabling advertisers to ‘story tell’ on the big screen. We have seen impressive results for client growth thanks to CTV being added to the channel mix.

What we learned about Vizio is that the ad offering is fortified by Vizio’s automatic content recognition data, which identifies what viewers are actually watching. Vizio can play both sides of the TV coin, delivering ad sales and as a TV manufacturer. This has enabled them to tap one of the most reliable methods of collecting streaming viewership info. Today, many alternative TV measurement providers license ACR data from Vizio.

This move symbolizes the convergence of CTV and commerce and indicates how serious Walmart is about gaining market share. According to Walmart’s latest earnings report, its Global advertising business grew approximately 33%, including 22% for Walmart Connect in the U.S. The Vizio acquisition is on par with Walmart’s influx of deals, including partnerships with The Trade Desk, Roku, and TikTok, all in the spirit of increasing revenue and bolstering their advertising offering.

Walmart Connect Ad Types 

What ad types does Walmart Connect offer? Like Amazon, Walmart Connect primarily offers sponsored ads, which run on Walmart.com. Walmart Connect ads can also appear in Walmart’s physical stores. Most recently, Walmart expanded its ads to self-checkout screens.  

Walmart offers a host of sponsored ad formats for advertisers to test and learn, including:

• Sponsored Search
• Sponsored Products
• Sponsored Brands

Consolidation in the CTV space will likely continue due to the rich formats and priceless customer data available.