The largest retailer in America has decided that knowing what you buy is only the beginning. It would also like to know what you watch, and then sell that knowledge to advertisers who may never have set foot in a Walmart.

This is the logical conclusion of a two-year shopping spree that has seen Walmart acquire Vizio, the television manufacturer, for $2.3 billion in 2023, and Vibe.co, an advertising technology firm, for a reported $1.4 billion last August. The purchases have transformed Walmart Connect, the company's advertising division, from a business that sold shelf space and search placement to suppliers into something considerably more ambitious: a streaming advertising platform that can, in theory, connect a diaper purchase in Topeka to a insurance commercial in a living room.

"You'll see those advertisers benefit more and more from our partnerships and from the solutions that we bring forward to solve fragmented customer attention," Ryan Mayward, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart Connect, told advertisers at an event in New York on Tuesday.

Mr. Mayward's presentation was heavy on the word "fragmentation," which in advertising parlance means that consumers are watching too many different things on too many different screens for any single advertiser to reach them efficiently. (It is a problem that the advertising industry has been solving, and re-solving, since the advent of cable television.)

The pitch to so-called non-endemic advertisers — brands that do not actually sell products at Walmart — is that the retailer's purchase data can identify consumers going through life changes like having a baby or retiring, and then reach them with streaming advertisements. An insurance company, for instance, might find this useful.

Walmart has also struck partnerships with Skydance, Spotify, and Yahoo's demand-side platform to extend its reach beyond Vizio hardware.

"We're creating the 'Walmart welcome' in your home," said Courtney Naudo, senior vice president and general manager for Vizio, in a formulation that some viewers may find warmer than others.

Walmart's advertising business grew 38 percent year-over-year in the second quarter. Whether the living room will prove as hospitable as the checkout line remains to be seen.

Original story published in Adweek: "Walmart Lays Out Its Plan to Take Over TV Advertising"