While Sam’s historically has spent heavily on direct mail, which is common for club store rivals Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club as well, it historically spent relatively little on most other media until recently. Its measured spending has increased substantially this year. Sam’s spent $94 million on measured media last year, but stepped up spending considerably to $98 million in the first half of this year, according to Kantar.
That pales alongside Walmart. Overall, the company, including Sam’s, spent $477 million in measured media last year, per Kantar, and $3.1 billion in total advertising, according to the Ad Age Datacenter. Walmart handed its media account to Publicis Groupe last year following a review. With sales of less than $74 billion last year, Sam’s is roughly one-fifth the size of Walmart, with U.S. sales of $393 billion last year.
Shortly after announcing the Super Bowl ad, Rogers announced he was leaving as chief member officer, replaced by Anfield, who became senior VP-chief member and marketing officer, reporting to Kieran Shanahan, newly appointed executive VP and chief growth officer. (Rogers later moved to Keller Williams as chief growth officer.)
Contributing: Brian Bonilla