Walmart and NBCU bring shoppable ads, outcomes measurement to live sports

Walmart is joining NBCUniversal in a program to bring shoppable ad formats and new measurement capabilities to live sports, starting with the Thanksgiving NFL game Thursday on NBC and Peacock. As part of the effort, for the first time, Walmart Connect is bringing retail media and closed-loop outcomes measurement to linear TV andstreaming, and will extend the program to other NBCU live sports telecasts as well. Also read: Walmart to roll back diversity policies NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today During Thursday’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Miami Dolphins, viewers will be able to shop everything from holiday deals to packaged goods on Walmart.com using an on-screen QR code and, for the first time, NBCU’s text-to-shop functionality in its Shop the Pod program. Advertisers will have access to close-loop measurement to attribute sales across linear and streaming media during the program through a Walmart Connect and NBCUniversal data collaboration. Walmart will show a two-minute segment from its holiday ad campaign, “Deals of Desire,” highlighting its biggest deals immediately before Black Friday. Also read: Max launches contextual targeting and shoppable ad formats This is the latest in a series of partnership from NBCU with retail media players, including prior deals with Walmart, Instacart and Albertson’s Collective. Walmart Connect also has been active on the partnership front, and this collaboration appears to resemble one in its second year with Paramount and Unilever to put shoppable ads into SEC and Big Ten college football telecasts. “Everyone is trying to connect the effectiveness of their campaigns—across the customer journey—to outcomes,” said Rich Lehrfield, senior VP and general manager of Walmart Connect. “We’re constantly exploring new ways to close the loop for brands. In this case, it’s closing the measurement gap across linear and streaming for the first time with Walmart Connect’s omnichannel purchase data. Linear remains the biggest piece of the total TV market, anchored in live sports, and this is a meaningful first step to how we apply our retail data in that environment.” Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Click here For NBCU, this is the latest piece in a five-year effort to bring shoppable ad formats to TV, and the first time it’s done so across both linear and streaming, said Alison Levin, president of advertising and partnerships at NBCU. “We were intentional in our timing—launching this expanded partnership ahead of the biggest retail weekend of the year across the biggest programming on our air,” Levin said. “It’s a major accomplishment to bring our two brands together to provide a seamless and enjoyable shopping experience for consumers.” This collaboration with Walmart and Walmart Connect “is not only the future of shoppable TV, but the future of advertising,” Levin said, “making it easy for consuners to shop as they indulge in their favorite programming, while providing advertisers with closed-loop measurement to attribute sales to their campaigns.”

Walmart and NBCU bring shoppable ads, outcomes measurement to live sports

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