Evolving commerce media to spark growth: Partner Connect 2026

More media was supposed to create more opportunity. Instead, it created a new challenge: making it all work together.  

Customers move across social, CTV, audio, search and stores without thinking about channels. Advertisers don’t have that luxury. Behind each touchpoint are different platforms, workflows and ways of measuring performance.  

At Partner Connect 2026, Walmart Connect’s annual event for agency, technology and media partners, we focused on what comes next: not simply adding touchpoints but creating better connections between them. 

That’s what our theme, evolving commerce media to spark growth, means to me: bringing audiences, activation and measurement together to make advertising simpler, measurement smarter and business outcomes stronger.  

And our partners are essential to making that vision real. 

Expanding reach and choice across the media ecosystem 

A more connected ecosystem should give advertisers greater choice while making activation simpler. That means giving them the flexibility to reach customers across the media mix through the platforms they already use, without adding complexity. 

At Partner Connect, Ryan Mayward, general manager and senior vice president of Walmart Connect U.S., shared how we’re putting that into practice by building on our work with Spotify to bring closed-loop measurement to audio and expanding access to Walmart Connect capabilities through Google Display & Video 360, Yahoo DSP and Warner Bros Discovery.  

And access shouldn’t depend on size. Ryan joined Arthur Querou, co-founder and CEO of Vibe.co, to discuss how Vibe.co is making CTV advertising more accessible to businesses of all sizes, opening the door for more advertisers to participate in CTV. 

More sellers are part of the equation, too. As Kyle Carlyle, senior vice president of global Marketplace fulfillment at Walmart U.S., shared, Walmart Marketplace is expanding customer choice while connecting more sellers with Walmart’s reach and capabilities to help grow their businesses. 

Together, these investments are about more than adding reach. They’re about connecting audiences, inventory and demand while giving advertisers more choice in where and how they activate. 

Connecting inspiration to action

Customers don’t experience marketing in channels. They move from watching to discovering to shopping, often without thinking about where one experience ends and another begins.

That creates an opportunity for advertisers to connect moments of inspiration more directly to moments of action.  Courtney Naudo, senior vice president and general manager of VIZIO, showed what that can look like through branded content programs like Backyard Escapes, bringing advertisers into premium entertainment and linking those experiences to shopping online, in stores and through real-world activations. One Walmart takes that idea further, bringing together media, commerce and culture across Walmart. 

At Partner Connect, Khurrum Malik, vice president of business and product marketing at Walmart Connect, joined William White, chief marketing officer of Walmart U.S.; Kelly Solomon, chief digital marketing officer of Revlon; and Ryu Yokoi, chief media and marketing capability officer of Unilever North America, to show how brands are already bringing that idea to life. Revlon’s Spring Beauty Event connected creator-led discovery to shopping in stores, while Unilever’s Back to College initiative spanned branded entertainment, shoppable virtual shops and on-campus experiences, including participation in Join the Club, a premium branded content series jointly created by VIZIO and Walmart Connect. 

Simplifying those connections is just as important. Linda Lomelino, vice president, product, data monetization and ads, Walmart, shared how we’re making it easier for partners to activate and build with Walmart Connect through investments in Partner Center, developer capabilities and simpler campaign experiences.  

Across brand and performance, the goal is the same: reduce friction, make every investment work harder and create a more connected path from media to commerce. 

Measuring smarter, with a clearer view of what’s working 

More measurement doesn’t necessarily mean better measurement. 

When campaigns stretch across channels, advertisers need more than a view of what happened. They need to understand what contributed to the outcome and where to invest next. 

Jon Gibs, group director, media insights and analytics, Walmart Connect, shared how we’re making Walmart’s commerce signals more actionable. Unified attribution connects performance across channels, incrementality helps advertisers understand the impact of their campaigns and Scintilla Media Data Feed brings Walmart signals into the tools and workflows partners already use. 

The clearer the performance picture, the smarter the next decision can be.  

Let’s build what’s next, together 

The future of commerce media won’t be built by asking advertisers to navigate more platforms, workflows and complexity.  

It will be built through partnership that connects audiences, inventory and demand across platforms, making the ecosystem work better for advertisers. 

We’re grateful to the partners who have helped us get here and who continue to help shape where we’re going. We were thrilled to celebrate the winners of this year’s Walmart Connect Partner Awards at Partner Connect. 

We’ve made meaningful progress together, and there’s much more ahead. The next phase of commerce media isn’t about adding more pieces to an already complex ecosystem. It’s about connecting what we have in smarter ways — and building what comes next, together.  

Ready to make your media work better together? See how Walmart Connect can help bring media, commerce and measurement together for your business.