How Justin Breton helps Walmart ‘meet customers where they are’

Find an initiative Walmart has done in livestreaming, the metaverse or other next-generation marketing applications, and there’s a good chance Justin Breton played a role. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here The giant retailer’s head of brand marketing innovation helped launch Walmart’s presence on Roblox in 2022, and expanded the Walmart Discovered experience earlier this year to allow items purchased there to be shipped to users’ physical homes as well as show up on the platform. He’s been there as Walmart went from a handful of shoppable livestreams in 2021 to more than a hundred annually today. And he also oversaw the launch of Walmart Realm this year, combining 3D products, influencers, gaming and immersive environments. “He’s the most informed, innovative and dynamic client I’ve ever worked with,” said Nic Hill, co-founder and head of interactive at agency Sawhorse. “And I’ve worked with many marketing teams from some of the biggest brands in the world.” As a veteran of publishing and such tech companies as Foursquare and Squarespace, Breton, 36, now sees an opportunity to bring tech innovation to the biggest retailer of all. “The way we talk about the work we do at Walmart, myself and my team, is meeting customers where they are online and shortening the distance between inspiration and commerce,” Breton said. “We meet customers outside the traditional four walls of Walmart—beyond the stores, our website and beyond our app, meeting them on platforms where they’re spending their time.” If you could have dinner with one person, alive or dead, who would that be and why? This might sound like I'm drinking the Kool-Aid or cliché, or I’m saying this because of where I work, which is driving part of it, but I think I would say Sam Walton. I’ve heard quotes from him. I’ve heard people talk about their interactions with him, and he sounds like a wonderful man who was inspiring and open to pushing boundaries. I’d love to have dinner with him and understand how the work that my team is doing can continue to deliver on his vision for Walmart, specifically as it relates to these emerging platforms and new technologies, and really get a sense from him of whether there was anything that he wanted to do in the real world that wasn’t possible that these digital and virtual and emerging platforms might enable? What are the top two social media sites that you use on a regular basis? I’m a big LinkedIn fan. I like to joke with my team and colleagues that I aspire to be a LinkedIn influencer. The other one is Instagram, which makes me feel very much part of my generation. What’s currently on your bedside reading list? I almost exclusively read fiction, and I almost exclusively read at night. For me, fiction allows me to like escape the everyday and step into the shoes of different characters. Sometimes the stories that I’m reading or the characters that I learn about spark ideas or inspire conversations at work. Right now I am reading “The Five-Star Weekend” by Elin Hilderbrand. She is an author who writes a lot of stories that take place in Nantucket. And Nantucket holds a special place in my heart. My husband and I went there after our wedding. We’ve gone there every summer since. What was the last show you binge-watched? “The Perfect Couple,” an Elin Hilderbrand adaptation on Netflix. I’m also fascinated with the show “Industry” on HBO. I think the acting is phenomenal. The storylines continue to shock me. The character development is really strong every season. It also just makes me really grateful to work in marketing. The show itself takes place in London, and the characters work in a financial institution similar to JP Morgan Chase or Goldman Sachs on the trading floor. All the discussions around numbers and charts and terminology, I think, would probably just be a little bit too much for me and my day-to-day. At what age do you hope to retire? My dad actually recently retired at the age of 60. After two years of retirement, he is so happy. He’s thriving. He’s got new projects every week. And so, because my dad has been such an inspiration to me since I was a little kid, and seeing how happy he is today, I would love to follow in his footsteps. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here

How Justin Breton helps Walmart ‘meet customers where they are’

Featured Stories