Walmart Connect’s first Vizio play— bringing CTV inventory to retail advertisers

Walmart Connect is preparing to launch a beta test for retail media advertisers to tap into proprietary connected TV inventory from Vizio, which Walmart acquired last year. The test, announced in a presentation to analysts and investors April 9 by Walmart Chief Growth Officer Seth Dallaire, is among the first steps the retailer has unveiled in its strategy behind the deal. Walmart is by far the biggest distributor of Vizio TV sets in the U.S., given that rival Costco had already moved away from Vizio before the acquisition was announced early last year. Dallaire also said Walmart is looking to expand the reach of Vizio’s proprietary operating system to other TV manufacturers, even if it doesn’t own them. “We’re launching a beta test solution in the next couple of months where we will allow a select group of Walmart Connect advertisers to directly plug in and access Vizio connected TV inventory,” Dallaire said. “Then we’re asking the Vizio team, or pushing them, to continue investing in the Smartcast operating system so that’s not a business that sits still,” Dallaire said. “Customers and owners of those TVs expect that they’ll have more functionality. They’ll be able to discover programs or find the content that they want easier.” Ad Age’s Data-Driven Marketing Playbook is May 22 For Walmart, all the viewing data, potentially linked Walmart shopping data from those Vizio owners and Smartcast users, can help fuel ad targeting and open a new, fully Walmart-owned front in the CTV retail media market. CTV is already the fastest-growing part of Walmart Connect’s off-site ad delivery business, Dallaire said. Speaking later in a question-and-answer session, Dallaire said the Vizio integration is one reason he expects Walmart Connect to be resilient despite economic pressure and uncertainty related to tariffs weighing on advertisers. Vizio is “a new connected TV inventory supply pool,” Dallaire said. “For us, there’s a ton of advertiser demand behind that. [CTV] was our fastest-growing segment of off-site inventory in the past year, and we think bringing [Vizio] into the Walmart business offers us a lot of optionality for growth, because that’s new placements that we had only been accessing through our relationship with The Trade Desk in the past.” TTD operates the Walmart Connect demand-side platform, as well as serving as the DSP for CTV trading for many of the retail media network’s clients. Dallaire also said growth of Walmart’s third-party marketplace of small sellers is bringing “a large number of potential advertisers forward” for Walmart Connect, and that Walmart’s “attribution capabilities” to show sales performance of ads both online and in stores also would help win or retain cost-conscious advertisers. Recent news: Programmatic ad power shifts as agencies and SSPs work together

Walmart Connect’s first Vizio play— bringing CTV inventory to retail advertisers

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