Walmart pushes retail media full-funnel with CTV, influencers and in-store screens

"If you still think retail media begins and ends with sponsored search, Walmart would like a word. On stage at ANA Masters of Marketing 2025, Walmart Connect's Ryan Mayward lined up Omnicom Media Group's Megan Pagliuca and Vizio's Adam Townsend to make the case that commerce media has gone properly full-funnel - stretching from the Walmart app and store screens to CTV, the open web and even influencer programs."

""Search is still the workhorse," said Mayward, SVP of retail media sales at Walmart Connect. "But over the last five years, we've added off-site, a DSP, CTV, social and influencer. That lets us prove retail media can be a full-funnel channel." The newsy bit: Walmart's CTV footprint is now the fastest-growing part of its portfolio, supercharged by its Vizio tie-up. Townsend, VP at Vizio, spelled out why that matters:"

Retail media has expanded beyond sponsored search into a full-funnel channel that includes app and in-store screens, CTV, DSP-powered off-site placements, social and influencer programs. Walmart Connect emphasizes layering touchpoints—starting with search, adding display/video in-app, extending off-site via a Trade Desk-powered DSP and CTV, and activating in-store screens—to compound results across categories. Walmart's CTV footprint, accelerated by a Vizio partnership, is the fastest-growing area and enables household-level targeting and measurement. Omnicom urges marketers to integrate retail data across national and retail plans rather than treating retail media as solely lower-funnel. Measurement improvements, including incrementality and cross-screen CTV, are catching up.

Read at The Drum