From DTC to retail shelf: How Oats Overnight scaled search demand at Walmart
Brand blocking and Sponsored Search helped drive new customer acquisition.
Challenge
As a direct-to-consumer-founded brand expanding into retail, Oats Overnight needed to scale search demand while educating Walmart customers on its convenient, spoon-free breakfast format.
Objectives
The brand aimed to increase brand awareness, grow branded and non-branded search demand and drive digital sales.
Strategy
Good Peeps, Oats Overnight’s agency, activated a full-funnel Sponsored Search strategy to capture new customers through high-intent non-branded queries, with branded coverage in place to protect and retain existing demand.
Tactics
Keyword discovery and scale
Automatic Sponsored Products campaigns were used to farm keywords, build relevancy, and scale coverage as demand increased.
Expand search reach
Manual campaigns expanded beyond oatmeal-specific terms into queries like “protein breakfast” and “on-the-go meals” to capture intent tied to value and convenience.
Defend and conquer strategy
Brand term campaigns ensured competitor conquesting didn't erode existing demand, while automatic and manual Sponsored Products carried the growth strategy.
Drive visibility and discovery
Sponsored Brands helped deliver premium placements in high-intent search results, while Sponsored Videos drove brand presence and discovery across relevant oatmeal and breakfast digital aisles.
Wins
New-to-brand sales1
Digital sales2
Digital units2
Search term impression share for "overnight oats" during the month of January3
Sources: 1Walmart first-party data, February 1, 2025 – January 31, 2026. New-to-brand is defined as a customer who purchases a brand’s product from Walmart site and app as a result of an ad campaign, after not having purchased the brand on Walmart site and app for the previous 12 months. 2Walmart first-party data, February 1, 2024 – January 31, 2025 vs. February 1, 2025 – January 31, 2026. 3Walmart first-party data, January 1 - January 31, 2026.
Takeaways
Defend and discover
Protecting branded search ensures hard-won brand awareness isn't captured by competitors, freeing your non-branded campaigns to do the heavy lifting on new customer acquisition.
Drive awareness and sales
Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Videos help drive sales while also building brand familiarity across multiple shopping moments.
“Partnering with Walmart Connect has helped us drive incremental sales and encourage first-time trial of Oats Overnight.”
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