Walmart Connect Ramps Up On-Site Offerings with Upcoming Launch of Display Self-Serve Platform and Acquisition of Thunder Advertising Technology
FEBRUARY 3, 2021
By Janey Whiteside, Chief Customer Officer, Walmart
Last week was exciting for our media business, now named Walmart Connect. We know we have a big opportunity to serve clients in a way no one else can – as a closed-loop omnichannel media company. We’re focused on expanding our offerings to create measurable value for our partners and customers alike in our stores, on our digital properties and across the internet. To do that, we have to offer an easy to use platform to enhance connections between brands and customers at scale.
Today, we’re taking a big step to make that happen and announcing the creation of a display self-serve platform.
Imagine this: You’re a new supplier to Walmart. You make the strategic decision to connect with customers through media on Walmart’s digital properties. Now you can have your advertising creative produced using the assets you want and automatically generate the right sizes and specifications for your campaigns. Your ad quickly goes live. What’s more, you can see how the look and feel of different ads perform and make edits accordingly. Then, watch your sales go up as you reach interested customers. Sounds pretty good, right?
Coming later this year, our display self-serve platform will enable partners to activate and manage their display campaigns with the help of automation. This platform will deliver the same omnichannel impact but with more speed, control and convenience than before. It also makes Walmart Connect an option for more and more suppliers. While we expect our largest suppliers to adopt automation technology fastest, we are building this new platform to scale for Marketplace sellers and suppliers of all sizes.
An important piece of this puzzle is coming into place with our acquisition of the IP and technology behind Thunder, a creative automation ad-tech company. Thunder’s technology and team will reduce the time between the idea for an ad and the ad going live for suppliers. The Thunder technology will be integrated with our display self-serve platform to help brands automate their creative. Thunder will also increase ad effectiveness over time with creative versioning, testing and optimization – unlocking advertiser-specific insights for higher return on ad spend.
Over the last two years, we’ve been on a journey to help advertisers run their campaigns more efficiently using self-serve and automation capabilities. With the launch of Walmart Advertising Partners Program, Self-Serve Sponsored Product Interface and our Performance Reporting Dashboards, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made on this journey. Today is another big step forward, and we’re thrilled to have the talented team at Thunder join Walmart.
