Walmart Is Bringing Digital Ads To An Aisle Near You 46
According to CNBC, Walmart shoppers "will soon see more third-party ads on screens in Walmart self-checkout lanes and TV aisles; hear spots over the store's radio; and be able to sample items at demo stations." From the report: For Walmart, selling ad space to its wealth of existing partners is another way to capitalize on the company's huge reach and to expand into higher-margin businesses. The discounter has nearly 4,700 stores across the U.S., with roughly 90% of Americans living within 10 miles of a Walmart store. In the U.S., about 139 million customers visit Walmart stores and its website or app each week.
The company plans to ramp up in-store ads using its approximately 170,000 digital screens across its locations as well as 30-second radio spots that will be available to suppliers later this year and can target a specific store or region. And it's hoping at least one of the new advertising initiatives will be easy to digest: free samples in stores on the weekends. It tried out the new in-house approach of selling sampling stations in Dallas-Fort Worth and plans to offer the option in more than 1,000 stores across the country by the end of January.
Advertising still drives a small sliver of Walmart's overall revenue. Its global advertising business hit $2.7 billion in the most recent fiscal year, which ended in late January. That's less than 1% of Walmart's total annual revenue. Yet it is becoming a more meaningful growth engine for Walmart. CEO Doug McMillon said earlier this year that he expects company profits to grow faster than sales over the next five years, driven in part by higher-margin businesses, including advertising. In the most recent fiscal year, Walmart's global ads business grew nearly 30% and its U.S. ads business, Walmart Connect, rose about 40%. That's a sharper gain than the approximately 7% increase in Walmart's total revenue and Walmart U.S. net sales during the period.
The company plans to ramp up in-store ads using its approximately 170,000 digital screens across its locations as well as 30-second radio spots that will be available to suppliers later this year and can target a specific store or region. And it's hoping at least one of the new advertising initiatives will be easy to digest: free samples in stores on the weekends. It tried out the new in-house approach of selling sampling stations in Dallas-Fort Worth and plans to offer the option in more than 1,000 stores across the country by the end of January.
Advertising still drives a small sliver of Walmart's overall revenue. Its global advertising business hit $2.7 billion in the most recent fiscal year, which ended in late January. That's less than 1% of Walmart's total annual revenue. Yet it is becoming a more meaningful growth engine for Walmart. CEO Doug McMillon said earlier this year that he expects company profits to grow faster than sales over the next five years, driven in part by higher-margin businesses, including advertising. In the most recent fiscal year, Walmart's global ads business grew nearly 30% and its U.S. ads business, Walmart Connect, rose about 40%. That's a sharper gain than the approximately 7% increase in Walmart's total revenue and Walmart U.S. net sales during the period.
I woke up think "I want to see more ads..." (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I woke up think "I want to see more ads..." (Score:5, Insightful)
People complain about the young 'uns wearing their noise cancelling headphones and being oblivious to their surroundings, but honestly that sounds quite nice.
What we really need now are some AR goggles with an ad-blocker app.
Re:I woke up think "I want to see more ads..." (Score:5, Insightful)
What we really need now are some AR goggles with an ad-blocker app.
No, what we really need now is for our entire society to draw a line in the sand, say NO to corporate dominance of our culture and our psyches, and start clawing back our rights as autonomous human beings. "The first thing we do, let’s kill all the advertisers".
Re: I woke up think "I want to see more ads..." (Score:2)
You have to get the lawyers first, because a lot of their revenue comes from the advertisers.
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And because the advertisers will fight back using lawyers.
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Re:I woke up think "I want to see more ads..." (Score:5, Insightful)
Shakespeare famously hated lawyers... but he was wrong. Lawyers don't do evil, people use lawyers to do evil. They're tools, and they are required to have anything like justice in our justice system.
Ad people though... they are fucking scum. Their job is to manipulate you into spending your money on things you didn't want prior to their manipulations. They do not care if you can afford it, they don't care what buttons they're pushing and the ethics of doing so... they just want to convert your attention into money for their clients by whatever means they can get away with.
They are evil.
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Shakespeare famously hated lawyers...
I always thought so too, until I looked up the quote [lithub.com] to make sure I had it right. It turns out that in context it was a PRO lawyer sentiment - who knew?
Ad people though... they are fucking scum. Their job is to manipulate you into spending your money on things you didn't want prior to their manipulations. They do not care if you can afford it, they don't care what buttons they're pushing and the ethics of doing so... they just want to convert your attention into money for their clients by whatever means they can get away with.
They are evil.
I totally agree, and if I held the button that relegated them all to hard labour I'd keep pushing it until my muscles cramped up, then I'd switch hands. That said, they can be charming fuckers - check out this long-running podcast by a former advertising guy who analyzes past ad campaigns: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/under... [www.cbc.ca] . It's entertaining, and a totally
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"The first thing we do, let’s kill all the advertisers".
Reminds me of the great Bill Hicks set "Rid the world of your evil fucking machinations" [youtube.com]. Amen, Bill. Saying what we're all thinking.
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No, what we really need now is for our entire society to draw a line in the sand, say NO to corporate dominance of our culture and our psyches.
That's a nice thought, but with so many people turning to places like Patreon, SubscribeStar, GoFundMe, and so on... it's not really the corporations that are the problem. These days, every person and their grandma is just as likely to shove spam in your face if they feel if can make a buck. Almost all of my favorite web sites are now just spam machines, but it's the community members behind it all, not professional advertising companies.
As long as it works, I'll take the AR goggles and ad-blockers (and b
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Sampling stations are fin because you can actually try a product and see if you like it; but being bombarded with video ads and ins tore radio ones is annoying. It's bad enough getting "Gas station TV" when filling up, I do not want yet another distraction. I already avoid War Mart when possible, this is one more reason too so do but no doubt many don't have that luxury.
I'd be more worried about store cards and targeted ads.
As you pass the cereal aisle, the telescreen pops up as it detects your RFID Sprawlmart card and tells you, "Winston, would you not like some Acme brand porridge? It's not mandatory, but it should be".
If some son of a bitch hasn't patented this already I should.
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As a defensive patent. I.e. "so you can't use it".
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As a defensive patent. I.e. "so you can't use it".
Sure... I'm sure it won't be profitable...
/avoids direct eye contact.
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Seems like an attack on people with poor working-memory space; at a minimum it will have a disparate impact on a protected class.
They should get an ADA consult before generating the e-waste.
It can also be shown that overhead speaker ads will drive people to earbuds and increase the risk of collision and injury. This is obvious and predictable.
Ambulance chasers will have a field day.
Home delivery/pickup to the rescue (Score:2)
At this point I don't even have to walk in the door, and that's a good thing.
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"Gas station TV"
Oh, yeah, they can fuck all the way off with this garbage. I've quit filling at Holiday (Circle-K now) because of the ear-rape they are subjecting their customers to at the pumps. (And yes, I've tried pushing the buttons next to the screen. There's no way to shut it off.)
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Jab a screwdriver into the speaker next time.
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On each side of the screen are four buttons. Second one from the top on the right side silences the thing. I haven't found on that turns the screen off but if anyone knows that trick please share.
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ARCO has put in new pumps with that function disabled.
I no longer buy gas at ARCOf, and see not stepping inside a Walmart in my near future . . .
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Advertising is taking over literally every aspect of our lives. Our HR department recently took on some new ability to access the pay you haven't received in a check yet thing and we are getting smeared with ads for it. Three emails yesterday, plus four text messages. I'm even getting text messages in the middle of the night encouraging me to sign up for this bullshit "give me my money now" nonsense. The only thing I can think is that the company must be getting some form of kickback for the ads. It's reall
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>Sampling stations are fin because you can actually try a product and see if you like it;
sure, the modern variety.
But in the 70s and 80s, entering a department store from the mall entrance meant running the gauntlet of perfume-puffing sales girls.
It didn't matter that you were a guy, or with other guys; they figured you'd buy some for a girl.
It wasn't merely annoying; the smell was often overpowering.
hawk, survivor of those days
p.s. I've seen them coming back in the last couple of years! Beware!
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>Sampling stations are fin because you can actually try a product and see if you like it;
sure, the modern variety.
But in the 70s and 80s, entering a department store from the mall entrance meant running the gauntlet of perfume-puffing sales girls.
The trick was to say NO and if they still sprayed some start convulsing and drop to the floor.
Making It Worse (Score:2)
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> [AI ads] might be mildly entertaining
I don't know about that, the experiment where somebody's face merged into the gooey melted cheese of the pizza still haunts me. Think Raiders-face-melt scene merges with gooey cheese pizza. I haven't had cheese pizza since.
Just. No.
Demon farts (Score:4, Funny)
This post is just to inform the /. community that I now mentally replace the word "ads" with the phrase "demon farts."
That is all.
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TV-B-Gone (Score:2)
get a TV-B-Gone
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get a TV-B-Gone
I saw an ad for that recently.
Everytime I go into a bar (Not often) there always seems to be sports on a TV within my field of view. I have less than zero interest in sportsball, but it has lots of motion, so is hugely distracting. I occasionally think about grabbing a TV-B-Gone, and solving the problem. But since I would prefer not to die at the hands of a rabbid sportsball fan I have held off... So far.
They used to do this in Tescos (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm in the UK where we have "Tesco" who have a large superstore about 5 miles from me. As it's a little out of the way I don't go there often but I do remember going at some point last year and being annoyed to find the aisles featured lots of little monitors displaying crap. I immediately filtered the "noise" out, ignored them, and simply went round ticking things off my shopping list.
Following this I hadn't been back there until about a month ago and when I started going round the aisles I did notice that all the displays were gone. So I don't know if they were removed after complaints or for cost cutting reasons. But they were gone (unless I happened to go in at a point they'd been taken out in readiness for an upgrade ?)
The sad fact is that this sort of crap problably does work in getting a small minority of people to buy stuff they don't really want/need. But for anyone with a decent attention span and any sort of mental focus they're just simply annoying and make it less likely you'll go back to that store.
Bill Hicks offered the best adive for anyone involved in advertising: "By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. It’s just a little thought; I’m just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day they’ll take root – I don’t know. You try, you do what you can."
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The whole bit is funnier. Shamelessly stolen from [genius.com]
By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketingkill yourself. It’s just a little thought; I’m just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day they’ll take root – I don’t know. You try, you do what you can.
(Kill yourself.)
Seriously though, if you are, do.
Aaah, no really. There’s no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan’s little helpers. Okay – kill yourself.
Seriously. You are the ruiner of all
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Walgreen started this (Score:2)
So I quit going.
This is helping me not go to WalMart any more. They have already closed the stores early.
targeted twice (Score:2)
Reason #28... (Score:2)
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no matter (Score:2)
Makes no difference to me. I never go into the store. Order online, pick up outside, no extra charge.
Give me a break (Score:2)
Free displays? (Score:1)
It Is About Time (Score:1)
Remember: If you pay... (Score:2)
... you can _still_ be the product in today's shameless capitalism.