3 Things Advertisers Should Know

Walmart is officially even more connected to connected TV.

Today, the retail giant closed its $2.3 billion deal for TV manufacturer Vizio, which was first announced in February. In a press release, Walmart noted that the purchase of Vizio and its SmartCast Operating System, which has more than 18 million active accounts, will enable the company to create more opportunities to help advertisers connect with consumers and further accelerate growth at Walmart Connect, the company’s retail media business in the U.S.

The deal has a particularly important impact on the ad industry, and here are three things marketers should know:

1. The deal is data-driven

Experts previously told ADWEEK that Vizio’s OS is key to the deal, allowing Walmart to collect automatic content recognition data—which can recognize specific content being played on a device—to enhance advertising.

According to Kenneth Suh, chief strategy officer at Nexxen, the “ACR data provides very powerful targeting capabilities—which Amazon doesn’t have at Vizio’s scale,” allowing Walmart Connect to be more competitive in the CTV landscape.

The ACR data will also help Walmart compete better with Amazon as retail media companies look to create their own closed-loop systems.

Of course, Walmart’s hold on Vizio’s data could have an impact on the market overall.

Ashwin Navin, Samba TV co-founder and CEO, previously said that the move would “undoubtedly shake up the space for advertisers currently relying on Vizio’s raw viewership data as part of their advertising or measurement stack.”

2. Walmart is competing for CTV dollars on a global scale

Beyond data, the deal positions Walmart as a bigger player in the retail and CTV space as it takes on the Samsungs and Rokus of the world.

“Walmart’s consumer reach could propel Vizio’s ad business to eventually rival Samsung and Roku,” Ross Benes, senior analyst at eMarketer, previously told ADWEEK. “If that happens, and it’s not clear that it will, then Walmart-Vizio could become a top-five CTV ad seller in the U.S. and, eventually, globally.”