Walmart leveraged Roku for curated celebrity campaign

Walmart offered shopping carts and playlists curated by celebrities in a promotion on a major streaming TV platform.

The discount titan teamed up with Roku to expand a digital-first shopping experience it rolled out in July 2023 that connects consumers with top items and curated shoppable carts from Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and current NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes, pop singer Becky G and the Mattel character Barbie.

The campaign, called “Welcome to your Walmart,” was available to all 70 million-plus active Roku accounts, showcases the personal shopping choices of these figures. To support the campaign, Roku deployed several formats:

• Personalized playlists. Each celebrity offered a personalized playlist on Roku with curated long- and short-form videos corresponding to their Walmart selections.
• Shoppable screensaver. Walmart is the first retailer to appear in Roku’s “Roku City” screensaver. Consumers saw a Walmart storefront showcasing its three celebrity collaborations. According to Roku, 85% of its streamers have watched it scroll by.
• Spotlight ad. Walmart used Roku’s spotlight ad feature to make this content accessible to Roku streamers. This spotlight ad appears as soon as users turn on their Roku devices. These are augmented with tiles on The Roku Channel, placements in mobile, and ads on the Roku search screen.

Other Walmart-Roku joint initiatives include a shoppable ads partnership rolled out in 2022, as well as the availability of premium Roku inventory within the discounter’s connected TV offering, now available on the Walmart demand side platform.

“Our collaboration with Roku allows Walmart customers to discover, share, and shop favorites from three iconic personalities,” said Jill Toscano, VP of media at Walmart. “By combining personal shopping choices with curated Roku playlists and a spectrum of creative experiences, we’re excited to offer a new, innovative way to enhance the customer shopping experience and shorten the distance between inspiration and purchase.”

Walmart pursues digital innovation

Walmart, which said higher-income customers made up nearly half of its sales gains during its most recent fourth quarter, has been actively redesigning its digital shopping experience to feature more next-generation solutions and experiences.

Examples include launching a product-focused home page that features a new “social-inspired scroll” with rich imagery and live video, a text-to-shop option, its TrendGetter tool enables product discovery through digital photos and images, and the expansion of its augmented reality (AR)-based “View in Your Home" feature to over 200 televisions on its iOS app.