Walmart Rebrands Sam’s Club Ad Program Amid Wider Advertising Shift

Walmart is integrating its advertising operations into one framework amid growing ad revenue.

The retail giant on Monday (June 22) announced plans to align tools, tech and platforms across its U.S. and international Walmart Connect operations, as well as Sam’s Club.

As part of this shift, Walmart is rebranding the Sam’s Club Member Access Platform (MAP) to Sam’s Club Connect, the company announced at a gathering of advertising and media executives in Cannes, France.

According to the company’s announcement, the three advertising units will operate separately to serve their individual markets, but will be increasingly “aligned around a shared vision to create greater value through connectivity and innovation.”

“The future of commerce media isn’t about advertising in a single channel but understanding and serving customers and members wherever and however they choose to shop,” said Seth Dallaire, chief growth officer of Walmart.

“Walmart has a unique advantage because we interact with customers everywhere: in stores and clubs, online, through membership, across marketplaces and increasingly through connected media experiences. Few companies can connect those touchpoints at our scale.”

The company notes that in its most recent quarter, global advertising revenue grew 37%. Growth was even higher in the U.S, where Walmart Connect U.S. revenue rose 44%, minus the impact of the VIZIO acquisition.

The U.S. advertising division reaches more than 150 million weekly customers, while the international arm operates in markets such as Mexico, Canada and Chile.

In other Walmart news, PYMNTS wrote last week about a new direction for the company and its chief rival Amazon, as they pursue a vision of retail which depends “less on who sells products and more on who controls the systems that influence how products are discovered, marketed and purchased.”

For Amazon, the report said, those opportunities come from cloud computing, advertising and subscriptions, while Walmart sees them in advertising, marketplace services, memberships and data monetization.

“The retail business, which historically generated profits primarily through merchandise sales, is becoming an acquisition engine for higher-margin businesses,” PYMNTS added. “Retail still matters. But increasingly it serves as the mechanism through which retailers acquire participants for larger ecosystems.”

Those acquisitions are becoming more essential as economic pressure slows retail spending, the report added, citing PYMNTS Intelligence research showing that retail is claiming a smaller share of total consumer spending as households focus more on housing, healthcare and financial services costs.