- Walmart will launch a 10-part “advertainment” series as a part of its Black Friday marketing, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- “Deals of Desire” features familiar actors in vignettes that parody fan-favorite TV shows. A trailer guarantees “dramatic” deals on toys, tech, fashion, home and other categories.
- The ads will run on TV, TikTok, YouTube and out-of-home, and follow similar efforts from Walmart that bring together content and commerce.
Walmart’s latest advertainment play unites familiar faces from TV and film in a series of ads described in a teaser trailer as a “shocking, supernatural, action-packed, historical, Western drama.” By fusing Black Friday deals with nods to popular shows, the retailer hopes to raise the connection between culture and commerce, said U.S. CMO William White.
“Everyone loves a little bit of drama, and with ‘Deals of Desire,’ we’ve captured the exhilaration and ‘major character energy’ customers feel as they embark on their epic quests for probably the most sought-after savings during Walmart’s legendary ‘Black Friday Deals’ events,” White said in an announcement.
“Deals of Desire” seems to parody such hits as “Bridgerton,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Yellowstone” and “The Vampire Diaries.” It features actors Walton Goggins (“Justified”), Taye Diggs (“All-American”), Lisa Rinna (“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”), Ian Somerhalder (“The Vampire Diaries”), Anthony Ramos (“Hamilton”) and Chad Michael Murray (“One Tree Hill”), in addition to TikTok star Jake Shane.
Along with running on TV, the ads will appear on TikTok, YouTube and out of home in places like bus shelters and bus wrappers that resemble those for brand spanking new TV shows, a spokesperson confirmed to Marketing Dive. The effort promotes Walmart’s Black Friday events on Nov. 11 and Nov. 25 for paid Walmart+ members (Nov. 16 and Nov. 25 for all customers) and Cyber Monday deals that may appear Dec. 1 at 5 p.m. ET for members and at 8 p.m. ET for all customers.
The advertainment series comes on the heels of the launch of Walmart’s larger 2024 holiday campaign. That effort contains a industrial pairing scenes of gift giving with clips from pop cultural touchstones like “The Simpsons” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
“We’re all the time searching for ways to catch up with to the client and bridge the gap between content and commerce,” Walmart Vice President of Creative David Hartman recently told Marketing Dive.
The retailer’s holiday marketing push comes on the heels of strong quarterly earnings for the chain, which continues to appeal to consumers searching for value.
The 2024 campaigns follow similar concepts that attempt to collapse the purchasing funnel, including a 2023 Black Friday ad push that reunited forged members of “Mean Girls” and a 23-part “RomCommerce” social series last holiday season.
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