Walmart is partnering with NBCUniversal to test retail media-powered ads within livestreaming sports, marking the first time inventory on NBCU’s live sports, including NFL, NCAA and MLB games, has been available through a retail media network.

The move comes as Walmart Connect reports positive results from other connected TV and digital partnerships. That includes a test of shoppable ads on Roku that’s being expanded to more premium inventory on the platform, and early indications that using Walmart data to target TikTok ads improves engagement.

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Under the alliance with NBCU, which is being added to the Walmart Connect Partner Lab, brands will be able to target CTV ads on NBCU’s live sports based on their own custom or pre-set Walmart customer segments, then measure the resulting effect on store and e-commerce sales, said Ryan Mayward, senior VP of retail media sales of Walmart Connect.

Walmart Connect has offered similar data integration with Paramount+, which became part of a subscription bundle with the retailer’s Walmart+ membership program last year, said Sylvia Yam, senior director of strategy and business development for Walmart Connect.

“CTV is where a lot of customers are spending their time now, with almost nine times growth the past couple of years,” Yam said. “We’re going to be first to market to help advertisers connect with live sports inventory on NBCU and able to add accountability to that inventory through our data and our targeting and measurement capabilities.”

One entirely unintentional data point suggesting CTV sells stuff at Walmart came late last month when a shirt worn by Roman Roy (played by Kieran Culkin) on the finale of  “Succession” on Max sold out almost instantly on Walmart.com. But Walmart's CTV testing is more likely to cover package goods brands.

Danone North America is among earlier users of Walmart Connect’s purchase-based targeting on NBCU, which “gave us the opportunity to see how the retailer’s audience targeting performs with streaming partners,” said Mary Katherine Woltz, director of media connections at Danone, in a statement. “The ability to pair premium inventory with purchaser data is proving to be powerful,” Woltz said. “We connected to more than 30% new-to-brand buyers in one CTV campaign, and a complimentary onsite display campaign on Walmart.com drove 50%” of sales attributed to the campaign.

Roku results positive

Walmart also is seeing positive results from a partnership launched last year with Roku to run shoppable ads on the CTV platform. The partnership allows viewers to add items from the ads to their Walmart online shopping carts and buy them with one click using their Roku accounts.

Since last year, 57% of Roku streamers have paused an ad to shop the product online, according to Roku internal data and a Harris Poll survey. Advertisers get omnichannel measurement reports from the program.

Walmart and Roku first-party data show the shoppable ads received at least three times higher clickthrough rates than average video campaigns powered by the Walmart Demand Side Platform (run in conjunction with The Trade Desk) during the pilot that ran from November through February.

Procter & Gamble Co. and Reckitt are among those pleased with what they’re seeing.

“We believe a frictionless omnichannel shopping experience is where the industry is going and should go,” said Jeff Metzner, VP of Walmart team marketing and communications at P&G, in the statement. “The ability to purchase a product directly from a connected TV ad has potential to reduce that friction for the consumer, so we’d like to see these capabilities continue to develop.”  

“Walmart Connect and Roku's new shoppable technology combines a frictionless shopping experience for brands and new ways to engage with consumers for the future,” said Grant Marcus, Team Lead, Omnichannel Marketing for Reckitt Nutrition. “We are always looking for new ways to reach parents and this tool helps educate and convert seamlessly.”

In light of the results, Walmart is expanding its Roku partnership to include the platform’s premium inventory within its CTV offering via the DSP, the companies announced.

“The overwhelming success of our pilot with Walmart reinforces our shared belief that the ease and convenience of TV streaming makes it the next great destination for e-commerce,” said Lindsay Pullins, director of ad revenue partnerships at Roku, in the statement.

“The simplicity and seamlessness of seeing an ad and just making a purchase through Roku is the type of experience that consumers have wanted out of interactive TV but hasn’t been delivered to them,” Mayward said. “Brands we chose for the pilot had great creative and products that lend themselves to T-commerce. You’re not going to buy a $400 TV with 10 seconds of consideration, but consumer packaged goods, definitely.”

Walmart data helps TikTok ad engagement

Walmart Connect also reported results of a program to measure the impact of TikTok ads. Following a first round of pilot campaigns, the companies found audiences targeted using Walmart Connect data had double the engagement rates of TikTok’s standard U.S. benchmarks.

Unilever was among early testers of the connection of retail and social media, said Jen Bryce, head of U.S. retail media partnerships and capabilities for Unilever, in a statement. “This first-to-market opportunity that we activated across Walmart.com and TikTok with our Ugly Sundaes campaign allowed the Unilever ice cream brands to engage on a deeper level with this relevant target audience by combining the power of influencers and Walmart’s first-party audiences while driving an omnichannel purchase experience,” Bryce said. 

This is the first time a retailer has successfully provided a closed-loop measurement for TikTok campaigns, and it showed average video viewing time of Walmart customers exceeded industry benchmarks and held audience attention longer than other retailers’ ads, according to Walmart, which is extending the partnership to more advertisers.

TalkShopLive pilot results

Despite the Roman Roy shirt experience, and “Succession” fashion social media accounts, the show was never actually a shoppable livestream. Walmart Connect, however, continues to try its hand there. It reported early results of a shoppable livestream pilot with TalkShopLive showing positive results for watch time, reach in terms of live viewers and post-event video consumption and the staying power of video for use in multiple activations, such as repurposing for social media or e-commerce category pages.

A recent collaboration between Walmart Connect and TalkShopLive showed higher engagement and conversion measures than average for overall Walmart Live shoppable events, including 86% higher total viewership, 30% higher average watch time, double the sales conversions and more than 1 million media views that leveraged edited post-event livestream content. As a result of the experience, Yam said Walmart is expanding testing to more advertisers.

Even though some U.S. brands and retailers have expressed disappointment with livestream results at least on some platforms, Walmart is moving forward with them on TalkStreamLive, Yam said. “We certainly have seen some initial success both with the livestream experiences hosted on Walmart.com and our partnership with TalkShopLive, given some of the early engagement and reach metrics. We’re excited to continue exploring different ways livestreams can be extended.”