Walmart Connect pitches brands directly as it pushes lift studies ahead of holiday ad deals

October 22, 2026 When it comes to retail media networks, there’s Amazon, Walmart and everyone else. Walmart Connect is taking a direct approach to win over even more advertisers — and they’re bypassing agencies to do it. Ahead of this year’s holiday shopping season, Walmart’s sales team has begun directly approaching brand clients offering on-site brand lift studies. Three agency execs told Digiday they’ve had multiple clients approached, but declined to name which clients. TOP STORY Retail Media Rewritten Walmart Connect pitches brands directly as it pushes lift studies ahead of holiday ad deals Walmart Connect is using lift studies to prove ad performance directly to brands ahead of the holidays, signaling a tighter race with Amazon. OTHER THINGS TO KNOW Tomorrow is your last chance to enter the Digiday Marketing & Advertising Awards Europe at the best rate. Join past winners, including Mountain Dew, Volkswagen, Havas and Epsilon, in earning recognition for your work. Interoperability works best with technology partners that provide secure, transparent foundations while giving agencies the flexibility to choose their workflows, adopt new tools and evolve as the market matures. Partner insights from Nexxen. Advertisers increasingly have to manage one audience across a fragmented media ecosystem, but the technology and data behind those interactions often remain siloed. Partner insights from CMI Media Group. Advertisement MEDIA & PLATFORMS Business of TV Media buyers chart path for brands and sponsors through high NBA demand Brands looking to push more dollars towards NBA audiences must choose between spending on a sponsorship, or funnel budget into TV, streaming and social. Member exclusive Media Briefing: The transatlantic push to rein in stealth bots is gathering pace U.S. and U.K. publishers are pushing for laws to crack down on stealth AI crawlers as bot scraping surges and demands for transparency grow. PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM TRIPLELIFT Webinar: Cint, CMI and iSpot on aligning CTV audience, creative and measurement strategies Join this webinar on Nov. 5 at 1 p.m. as experts from Cint, CMI Media Group, iSpot and TripleLift share practical strategies to bridge audience, creative and measurement gaps and build high-performing CTV audiences.  THE BUSINESS OF AI AI Content Economy Why CNN International is building for agentic ad market that barely exists yet CNN International is still chasing its first agent-sold dollar by Q1. PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM MOLOCO Playbook: What marketers are missing about measuring CTV incrementality To fully understand CTV performance, it must be measured alongside other channels using the same metrics. This allows for meaningful comparisons while recognizing CTV’s indirect impact beyond last-touch attribution.  Advertisement MODERN RETAIL Modern Retail Target’s holiday push stresses affordability, exclusives and an AI assistant Target is also rolling out an AI-powered assistant called Ask Target on Target.com and the Target app. PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM TIKTOK The next phase of performance measurement By allowing advertisers to more closely align the attribution source they trust with the systems responsible for campaign reporting and optimization, TikTok aims to reduce the distance between measurement and action.  ICYMI Zero-click Future The Verge switches up its audience team to prepare for Google Zero The Verge has restructured its audience development team to prioritize loyal readers over traffic and page views. Written by Jim Cooper and Sara Jerde Were you forwarded this email? Sign up to get it daily. Advertise | Digiday+ | Events | Awards Update your email | Unsubscribe | Privacy policy