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Walmart’s $2.3 billion acquisition of smart TV manufacturer Vizio underscores the retail giant’s intention to advance its retail media proposition, Walmart Connect, and enhance its advertising capabilities. The coming together of Walmart and Vizio will help bridge the gap between brand and retail advertising, expanding Walmart Connect’s reach and bringing it into additional households.
Vizio possesses data from 23 million opted-in devices, and SmartCast, the company’s smart TV operating system, is present on 18 million of them. This data is beneficial to buyers, and there is potential for Walmart Connect to improve its targeting and measurement credentials via Vizio’s automatic content recognition (ACR) data.
Jennifer Kohl, chief media officer at VML, noted the appeal of integrating Vizio’s and Walmart’s significant data profiles. She highlighted the growth potential around streaming viewership and associated advertising revenue, an area in which rival Amazon has begun making significant strides.
With over 500 direct advertiser relationships, Vizio’s platform is attractive to Walmart as it seeks to accelerate its appeal to more advertisers and access brand advertising dollars. The deal places Walmart in a unique position to combine retail and streaming data amid current privacy concerns.
That said, this acquisition invites potential implications for marketers, agencies, and measurement companies that use Vizio’s ACR data, adding a level of uncertainty as to Walmart’s plans for the future utilization of Vizio’s ACR data.
As Walmart further delves into the streaming world via its collaboration with The Trade Desk, the retail behemoth will need to clarify how the data from Vizio and Walmart will intersect, how measurement and reporting will operate within both companies and ensure their infrastructures are compatible for reporting.
Steven Frey, director of integrated media planning at Media by Mother, emphasized the value of connecting data warehouses for comprehensive measurement, while Amie Owen, head of commerce at UM, consolidated the sentiment by stating, “The value is the data.”