Walmart on Sunday debuted its latest holiday marketing campaign, highlighting moments when people find the right gift for his or her family members and spark a way of heat and recognition, or “feeling seen.”
A 60-second anthem spot, directed by “The Holdovers” and “Sideways” filmmaker Alexander Payne, pairs moments of gift-giving between Walmart customers with iconic scenes of seasonal sentiment from film and tv series. Clips from “Gilmore Girls,” “The Simpsons,” “SpongeBob Squarepants” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” amongst other touchstones, are featured within the nostalgic ad.
“We’re all the time on the lookout for some emotional connection, constructing emotional connection between our brand and the shopper,” said Walmart Vice President of Creative David Hartman.
The big-box store debuted a 30-second cut of the business during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” while 15 videos depicting different customers and iconic characters will air across the trouble. “Gifts That Show You Get Them” was developed by quite a lot of Publicis Groupe agencies, including Fallon, Publicis New York, The Community, Contender and Digitas.
Walmart continues to inject Hollywood energy into its holiday marketing because it looks to place “the brand in culture and the culture within the brand,” explained Hartman. Around Black Friday last yr, Walmart reenacted an iconic scene from the movie “Mean Girls” with members of the unique forged. That’s the kind of concept the brand is vying to iterate on — and top — to distinguish its ads in a retail category that tends to lean on samey seasonal tropes.
“We wish to create something that looks like it’s within the culture for the holiday season but in addition looks like it’s helping to face out in a really crowded ecosystem of promoting,” said Hartman. “From a creative standpoint, it’s all the time about: How are you able to beat what you probably did last yr?”
Bridging the gap
While holiday campaigns can feel like they’re landing earlier on the calendar, Walmart is launching its 2024 program around the identical time as last yr. The brand cited Bankrate data that show roughly half of consumers start their shopping as early as August and September (Walmart’s toy catalog went live Sept. 9). The trend is potentially reflective of putting up with price consciousness as consumers try to maximise their holiday budgets.
“Price is all the time necessary,” said Hartman. “At least within the creative work that we’ve produced to this point, I might say you’re going to see … the importance of ensuring the shopper understands: We have the gifts they’re on the lookout for they usually’re at the value that they’re on the lookout for as well.”
To get that message out, Walmart is running a “truly omnichannel campaign” that can span social, online video and in-store integrations, based on Hartman. While the chief kept mum on details for future plans, he pointed to 2 through lines the retailer is carrying over from 2023: A concentrate on “anthemic, memorable” stories around critical shopping windows, in keeping with the Black Friday “Mean Girls” execution, and linking commerce and content closer together.
Walmart last yr released a 23-part social series called “Add to Heart” that was styled on the comfortable romantic comedies which might be popular to observe around this time of yr. The “RomCommerce,” which appeared on TikTok, Roku, YouTube and Walmart’s owned social channels, showcased an assortment of 330 products that may very well be purchased through shoppable video formats available on select platforms. “Add to Heart” proved “tremendously popular,” per Hartman, and provided lessons that can inform elements of Walmart’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday this yr.
“We’re all the time on the lookout for ways to catch up with to the shopper and bridge the gap between content and commerce,” said Hartman. “[There’s] this notion that we, as a brand, can create content that’s each entertaining — that folks want to observe, that they give the impression of being forward to watching — but can also be shoppable.”
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