Walmart wants to jump-start Black Friday shopping with a couple of ads in NBC’s Thanksgiving football broadcast that will let viewers visit a virtual store.
Viewers will be able to scan QR codes that appear during commercial breaks that will take them to Walmart.com shopping pages. Walmart will also run a two-minute segment from its current Black Friday ad campaign.
“By teaming up with the powerhouse of Walmart and Walmart Connect, we’re differentiating the viewer experience with a first-of-its-kind shoppable activation, while also amplifying real, cross-platform accountability for marketers on one of our biggest stages,” said Alison Levin, president, advertising & partnerships, NBCUniversal, in a prepared statement. “This is the next era of advertising — the most compelling content, an innovative viewer experience and real, cross-platform reach and attribution.”
Walmart and NBCU have worked together in the past to promote interactive shopping. Walmart helped launch “Must Shop TV,” an interactive program that has been tied to Bravo. One of the findings from past activity is that advertising in live sports programs generated new impact for commercials compared with standard ads for connected TV
“Walmart customers love professional football — 86% of surveyed customers told us they watch the games,” said Rich Lehrfeld, general manager and and senior vice president of Walmart Connect, in a statement. “The new advertising opportunities we’re introducing, powered by Walmart’s scale and reach, will be a game-changer in helping to solve the linear equation by tying our in-store purchase data to linear audiences.”
Walmart and NBCU said they expected the partnership “to extend beyond Thanksgiving.”
