Walmart Rolls back the curtain with Smart Network Rollout
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BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS (September 3rd, 2008) Walmart rolls out Smart Vision to their major brand partners in simulcast event.
Opening with the statement that the Walmart brand is its most valuable asset, this global brand is now changing the landscape to create a better world for itself and the brands it makes relevant to shoppers every day. This emerging landscape will be driven by a new platform of communication labeled as “Smart Network” and will lead to change in Walmart’s environmental branding experience.
This shopper-marketing network is comprised of three key components: Welcome Screens, Category Screens, and End Cap screens. Positioned strategically, these screens enhance the fast-moving shopper’s experience by informing her of key points of relevant communication based on her immediate needs. This system, capable of connecting on a dayparting and geotargeting level, combines shopper-relevant data, such as time, temperature, calendar, and regional sports of interest, with brand-labeled promotional vignettes akin to micro-infomercials. This gives major labels a way to connect with their customers from the grass roots all the way to tree-top level, providing immediately relevant brand experiences not yet seen en mass.
Distilled from earlier iterations over the years on the Walmart Network, Smart Network is more accurately described by the term intelligent media. One of the notable feature benefits of this media platform is providing the brand promoter with near immediate results of their current Smartnet promotions running through this network’s nervous system. While not yet reaching a real-time level of telemetry, it certainly will provide enough backside analytics to allow the brand to view rich analysis for fine-tuning of their future communications. Future versions will gain ground in approaching real, real-time analytics — clearly it changes the landscape literally and figuratively.
This couldn’t come at a better time as Walmart is currently rebranding their own image. As these two worlds collide into a new community brand, this digital experience will help them to become more relevant to their market base. This also should have a positive and measurable effect on de-cluttering the store and moving forward the Walmart brand experience.
At C3 Brandworks, we have a proven history of successful experiences in reaching into en mass brand promotion. If you are interested in utilizing this media or need any other strategic brand-centric content, contact us for further details: C3 Brandworks
