At the ANA Masters of Marketing, Walmart Connect, Omnicom and Vizio made their case that retail media has outgrown search, now stretching across CTV, social and the store aisle.
Walmart is pushing retail media full-funnel
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: “We own the biggest screen in the home. With Walmart data on the Vizio home screen and WatchFree+, brands can reach the right households and actually measure it.”
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Omnicom’s Pagliuca pushed for a mindset change inside marketing teams: “Stop treating retail media as only lower-funnel. Those data sets should inform the entire plan – CTV, video, even influencer. We’re planning national and retail together.”
Three takeaways from the session:
Retail media can power holistic media strategies.
Uneven adoption means early movers are grabbing share.
Measurement – especially incrementality and cross-screen CTV – is finally catching up.
Mayward showed how stacking touchpoints compounds results: start with search, add display/video in the Walmart app, layer on off-site via the Trade Desk-powered Walmart DSP and CTV, then light up in-store screens. “Across categories, every layer adds sales lift,” he said.
To prove its potential, Mayward and Townsend cited a Vizio campaign with Celsius energy drinks: a one-month push delivered roughly 85% incremental reach versus linear TV, opening the door to brands that want audience expansion, not just closed-loop sales. “That’s how we broaden who can use retail media,” Mayward said.
Influencer is getting the commerce-data treatment, too. Pagliuca said: “We’re using Walmart purchase data to find creators who actually index with buyers – not just big followings. Early results show higher engagement at lower cost.”
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Measurement is the make-or-break. “TV dollars were slow to follow streaming because of scale and trust in the data,” Townsend said. “Full-funnel attribution is the unlock.”
Pagliuca added that agencies are stitching Walmart data into cross-screen stacks (think VideoAmp and iSpot) while media-mix models evolve to reflect CTV’s higher CPMs and brand impact.
What’s next? More shoppable CTV, live sports experiments and branded content that actually sells. “Imagine a cooking show where you can cart the whole recipe to Walmart in a click,” said Townsend. Mayward’s closer: “Retail media isn’t a silo any more. It’s awareness, consideration and conversion tied together.”
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