Sam's Club's retail media network names tech and agency partners
Walmart sibling starts with group of five, including CommerceIQ, Pacvue, Skai, Flywheel and Stackline.
KickT
Sam’s Club named an initial group of five technology and agency partners to help in planning, buying and optimizing campaigns on its retail media network.
The Members Access Platform Partners Club launches with three tech partners: CommerceIQ, Pacvue and Skai (with the Pacvue relationship having previously been announced in September), and two managed-service partners, Flywheel and Stackline. More partners are likely to come soon, said Austin Leonard, head of sales with Sam’s Club MAP.
Also read: Inside retail media's measurement problem
Sam’s Club is a unit of leading U.S. retailer Walmart, but, with $84 billion in fiscal 2023 sales, is a top 10 U.S. retailer in its own right.
“One of our big priorities was to make the platform really easy to buy,” Leonard said. The short list of partners came from advertiser recommendations, he said, and at least one additional player is likely to be added soon.
“We wanted to make sure that we had a good variety that can solve most of the requests that were coming,” Leonard said.
Some of the partners already have been working with MAP for nearly a year, so they’re ready to work with the platform now, Leonard said. Sam’s will also field requests, particularly from an existing advertiser that already has a joint business plan with the club store retailer, to look at adding others.
“Just like in the club, with our curated assortment, we’re going to be very intentional and curated on our Partner Club as well,” he said.
The move comes shortly after MAP rolled out upgraded targeting and third-party performance measurement from IRI for placing ads on the open web anywhere that Sam’s partner The Trade Desk buys programmatically. Targeting options include focusing digital or connected TV ads based on members’ club purchase history, so people aren’t getting ads for big-screen TVs right after they just bought one. They might also be targeted with ads for buying complementary products to what they’re scheduled to pick up curbside at a store.
