[ad_1]
Rumors of a Walmart acquisition of Vizio went from theory to reality this week, with the retail giant set to pay $2.3 billion for the smart TV maker. The move strengthens Walmart’s retail media service, Walmart Connect, and adds streaming capabilities to help attract more brand marketing ad spend. The deal also allows Walmart to add to its existing data as the industry becomes more competitive due to the rapid growth of retail media and Amazon continues to strive to capture a larger slice of the market.
Marketers and ad buyers see Walmart and Vizio’s partnership as a way for retailers to bridge the gap between brand advertising and retail ad spend while increasing distribution and scale by bringing Walmart Connect to new homes. I think so. Vizio collects data from his 23 million opt-in devices, 18 million of which are via his SmartCast, the company’s smart TV operating system. The potential for Walmart Connect to leverage Vizio’s automatic content recognition (ACR) data to enhance its targeting and measurement capabilities is attractive, buyers said, but it remains to be seen how the two companies will combine their data efforts, or how Vizio will combine their data efforts. It is unclear what will happen to existing partnerships.
“Vizio has a ridiculous information platform, Walmart has a ridiculous information platform, and Walmart has a ridiculous amount of information, data, so it’s clear there’s some opportunity when you bring them together,” said Jennifer Cole, VML’s chief media officer. “Given the growing number of streaming viewers and the potential advertising costs, it’s easy to see why Walmart would want to explore a path into streaming, especially with Amazon’s recent push to partner with advertisers.” can be understood. “People are doing it because the advertising dollars are being handed out,” Cole said.
Vizio’s platform has more than 500 direct advertiser relationships, and will help brands acquire more advertisers and increase their ad spend, especially as Amazon targets advertisers, according to a release about the deal between the two companies. This is likely to be attractive to Walmart for retailers looking to capture. Brand advertising costs from Prime Video. While Walmart is probably not the only retail media player keeping an eye on streaming ad dollars, agency executives say the company is in a unique position to enter into such a deal with Vizio, and in the current privacy environment. He says it is important to combine retail and streaming data. This will continue to be an attractive move.
Asked whether the partnership was part of Walmart’s efforts to increase competition with Amazon, Vinny Rinaldi, head of media for The Hershey Company, said: “They’re obviously trying to go after Amazon. I think so.” How a marketer views his Walmart products and his Amazon products will vary by category and brand, as the two retailers play different roles for each brand. “But Walmart has an advantage, especially in fast-moving consumer goods, where we don’t own the end game,” Rinaldi said.
Walmart’s deal with Vizio could have a trickle-down effect beyond Walmart’s retail media offering. This move could impact the media planning and buying processes of marketers, agencies, and measurement companies like iSpot, Nielsen, Video Amplifier, and other companies that use Vizio’s ACR data. It is from. Especially when your current contract expires. It’s unclear what Walmart plans to do with Vizio’s ACR data going forward, and Walmart did not respond to questions by press time. Vizio, iSpot, Nielsen and VideoAmp also did not respond to requests for comment.
Some worry that planning could become even more difficult if Vizio loses access to ACR data or becomes part of Walmart’s sort of walled garden, but those concerns Some believe that may be exaggerated. Once the Walmart-Vizio deal goes through and the two companies start working together, it will become clearer what will happen with access to that data. Until then, it will likely be business as usual for both companies.
As Walmart moves further into streaming (currently, the company’s partnership with Trade Desk allows access to streaming video), Walmart is asking advertisers to measure how Vizio and Walmart’s data ties together. and how the report works for both companies and how it works for advertisers. Overall, make sure both companies’ infrastructures are set up to communicate for reporting purposes, agency executives say.
“The key is to connect the measurement pipeline,” said Stephen Fry, director of integrated media planning at Media by Mother, adding that Vizio’s ACR data shows that “Walmart is There is no doubt that this is something that is not dealt with in Japan.” I think tying that into Walmart’s overall technology stack would be a pretty breakthrough advancement, and we’ll probably get a lot of value out of it. ”
Frey continued, “If you can basically connect these data warehouses and do full-funnel measurements, I think you can really unlock a lot of value from that.”
Amy Owen, head of commerce at UM, echoed this sentiment: “Value is data.”
[ad_2]
Source link