Streaming is becoming an important part of many retail media networks\u2019 growth strategies, as retailers believe that shopper data can help advertisers prove their TV ads lead to sales.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Walmart said it has agreed to acquire Vibe.co, a self-service connected TV advertising platform for small and mid-sized businesses and mid-market brands. The deal surpassed $1 billion,\u00a0sources told Digiday<\/a>, and is expected to close by the end of this fiscal year.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first play by Walmart to build out its streaming advertising capabilities, having\u00a0acquired Vizio in 2024<\/a>. Walmart and other retailers have also recently invested in the ability to integrate their shopping data into video platforms like YouTube and TikTok, pitching brands on the ability to plan full-funnel campaigns.<\/p>\n EMarketer\u00a0forecasts<\/a>\u00a0U.S. retail media ad spending on off-site channels like CTV will reach $17.05 billion in 2026, up 29.5% from last year.<\/p>\n Walmart is combining Vibe\u2019s service with its access to shoppers, closed-loop measurement and media ecosystem that now also includes Vizio. Walmart hopes\u00a0Walmart Connect can be a place where smaller advertisers without large media teams, including Walmart Marketplace sellers, can launch CTV campaigns and measure their success using its commerce data.<\/p>\n \u201cVibe has done a great job democratizing access for the small guys to get into CTV or TV advertising,\u201d said Martin Kristiseter, CEO of Digital Remedy, a performance marketing company for brands and agencies. He said that by creating a simple UI, Vibe made it easier for smaller advertisers without large ad teams to use the platform.<\/p>\n The infusion of retail data into TV advertising brings \u201cthe level of reporting and results into a channel that used to be very branding-focused in the past,\u201d Kristiseter said. \u201cIt truly turns TV from upper-funnel into a real performance lower-funnel channel.\u201d<\/p>\n In June, Walmart expanded its connected TV advertising capabilities by\u00a0opening up Vizio inventory<\/a>\u00a0in Walmart Connect through Yahoo\u2019s demand-side platform via ad-tech provider Magnite. That came as Walmart began expanding its off-site capabilities after the\u00a0end of its four-year exclusivity deal<\/a>\u00a0with The Trade Desk last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWalmart is relying less on third parties to activate its data and taking more control of its data, the activation, the downstream impact and its measurement capabilities, as well,\u201d said Jesse Math, vp of strategic partnerships at Keen Decision Systems, a marketing measurement platform. \u201cThis is a democratized offering now within Walmart that\u2019s going to be available to more brands without the complexity of the expense of [The Trade Desk].\u201d<\/p>\n Walmart\u2019s deterministic shopper data will further strengthen Vibe\u2019s offering, Math said. \u201cBrands need a way of strategically allocating finite budgets across numerous retail partners who are all asking for more,\u201d Math said. \u201cPart of how advertisers will make that decision is based off of who has the tools, technology, the data and the services to make their dollars work harder.\u201d<\/p>\n Also in June, Walmart Connect partnered with Google\u2019s Display & Video 360, enabling brands to use Walmart audience data to manage and measure YouTube campaigns. In March, Kroger Precision Marketing also\u00a0began offering YouTube advertising integration<\/a>\u00a0via Display & Video 360, and\u00a0Albertsons followed in April<\/a>. Just this week, Kroger additionally\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0it would allow advertisers to reach Kroger shoppers within TikTok\u2019s advertising platform.<\/p>\n \u201cThe recent wave of streaming partnerships signals that retail media is evolving beyond retailers\u2019 owned-and-operated properties into a much broader media ecosystem,\u201d Sean Crawford, managing director for North America at retail media consultancy SMG, said in an email.<\/p>\n Social video \u201cis where people are starting their shopping journeys and thinking about what they\u2019re going to do next,\u201d Christine Foster, group vice president at Kroger Precision Marketing, told Modern Retail. \u201cThis is where a lot of the meal inspiration gets planned, and a lot of health and beauty decisions get made, and we need to be in those spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n Foster said these capabilities will be most relevant to CPG brands on the shelves at Kroger, but they also provide audience data for other brands. \u201cJust think about the opportunities that exist for the wider brand set to use verified purchase data and purchase signals that tell us a lot about where customers are, or where their potential customers are in their life stage,\u201d Foster said.<\/p>\n \u201cCustomers aren\u2019t annoyed by ads, necessarily; they\u2019re annoyed by messages that are irrelevant,\u201d Foster added. \u201cIf we can be part of connecting better customer experiences to a brand, then we want to.\u201d<\/p>\n Connected TV delivers the scale advertisers need to build awareness, Crawford said, adding that by connecting campaigns to retail data, advertisers can target relevant audiences and understand which audiences, placements and creative drive business outcomes. Still, he only expects the largest retailers to build fully integrated media ecosystems through major acquisitions.<\/p>\n \u201cMost retailers will continue to rely on partnerships that combine retailer data with established CTV platforms and media infrastructure, while also working more closely with one another through shared technology and networks that enable advertisers to access scaled audiences and inventory across multiple retail environments,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cThe winners will be those that collaborate and seamlessly bring together scale, data activation, interoperability and measurable performance, regardless of who owns the underlying technology.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam Solomon, vp of product solutions at LiveRamp \u2014\u00a0the marketing platform behind Kroger and Albertsons\u2019 YouTube integrations \u2014 said retail media is shifting toward flexibility and interoperability with off-site environments like streaming and social media.<\/p>\n \u201cIt reflects the next stage of retail media\u2019s evolution: from isolated retailer inventory to a broader commerce media model where first-party data can power media activation and measurable outcomes across more channels and touchpoints,\u201d Solomon said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n