Walmart is launching its first shoppable video series, a 23-part holiday-themed installment the retailer is dubbing a “RomCommerce of sorts” starting Dec. 2 on Roku, TikTok and YouTube.
The “Add to Heart” series follows the story of New York designer Jessica as she returns to her hometown for the holidays. After losing her luggage, she visits her local Walmart to buy necessities, where she encounters old flame Javi, and they rekindle their romance. Guest stars in the series of roughly 2- to 3-minute segments include 330 shoppable products from a host of brands the characters encounter around town, while dining, shopping and decorating.
Walmart has produced hundreds of shoppable livestreams and other videos over the years and was an early user of shoppable video formats on Roku, TikTok and YouTube. Walmart also has worked with shoppable formats across Meta, Snapchat and most recently with NBCUniversal’s Peacock on AI-powered shoppable ads.
In an interview, Walmart U.S. Chief Marketing Officer William White said working with only three platforms on this holiday series was not an indication the giant retailer is giving up on shoppable ads elsewhere.
“We think these are the three best partners to execute this particular idea, and they’ve enjoyed leaning in with us and are equally excited,” White said. “We’ll learn along the way as we launch it, and I think you’ll continue to see a play across a number of different platforms and different types of content to commerce.”
The “Add to Heart” series is the work of a host of Publicis Groupe agencies led by Fallon and also including siblings Publicis New York, Digitas, The Community and Contender, as well as Interpublic’s Golin on PR. There was plenty of input from all, White said, including Golin coming up with the idea for a “blue carpet premiere” for the series.
The idea behind the series comes from research showing nearly 60% of Americans say they’re looking to make a purchase via social media, a trend that’s kept rising the past couple of years, White said. “You pair that with the fact that Americans rank watching holiday movies as one of their favorite traditions—over decorating the tree or baking cookies—and we found a great opportunity to take things people love about the holiday season … and bring them together.”
The 330 products, among them a drone, tableware and some conspicuously placed e.l.f. eye makeup, add up to about 14 per episode. They were curated “based on what we thought are the most exciting holiday products that will be at the top of our customers’ wish list,” White said, and are available at Walmart.com/AddtoHeart.
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The series will drop in three waves, the first six segments on Dec. 2, the next six Dec. 5 and the final 11 Dec. 8, with Walmart backing the effort with some media spending as well as organic social and earned media support.
~ ~ ~CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that The Community and Contender were independent agencies.
