Sam's Club MAP Launches Full Funnel Video Capabilities With Advanced Member Measurement

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Dec. 12, 2023 — Sam's Club®, a division of Walmart Inc. and a leading membership warehouse club, announces Sam’s Club Member Access Platform (MAP) has launched full-funnel video advertising onsite, in-app and offsite. Research shows that ​​66% of consumers prefer watching a video to learn about an item, and MAP’s new innovative capabilities ensure that wherever a member is in their buying and inspiration journey, video creates a more engaging experience.

“At Sam’s Club MAP, we are always looking for new ways to bring more value to our members, and building an additive ads experience across video ad formats enables us to do that in a brand-safe and high-engagement environment,” said Lex Josephs, vice president and general manager of Sam's Club MAP. “We know our members stay engaged longer and show stronger click-through rates when we serve them up videos, and our new capabilities will help advertisers engage our members with video advertising.”

Advertisers can layer Connected TV (CTV) ads, Sponsored Videos and Interactive Videos with deep first-party member data to unlock sophisticated targeting to reach new-to-brand and lapsed members, drive awareness for new item launches and create a synergistic video experience:

CTV ads: If members are watching content on a streaming device, they will see relevant MAP CTV advertisements through a partnership with The Trade Desk (TTD) that enables advertisers to engage members across brand-safe third-party premium inventory.

Sponsored Videos: While members are searching for their favorite items in the Sam’s Club app, MAP serves them Sponsored Product Ads (SPA) that drive awareness and consideration by visually telling a brand and item’s story within the search grid on search results pages.

Interactive Videos: eko’s interactive PDP videos let members engage with the item, offering a “hands-on” way to explore how it works, key features, dimensions and more.

“Combining the power of video with Sam’s Club’s first-party data is a major milestone for PepsiCo,” said Mic Zavarella, Vice President, Marketing, PepsiCo. “MAP’s new video solutions will allow us to reach members at pivotal moments throughout their shopping journey, with highly engaging and relevant product information that will help drive purchase decisions – all with measurable results.”

Advertisers gain access to the performance metrics they need to optimize campaigns while they are still in flight and drive stronger business outcomes. CTV ads and Sponsored Videos will be measurable through the Sam’s Club Media and Sales Performance Dashboard, an innovative, integrated dashboard that serves as a central source of truth for campaign performance with Sam's Club MAP. Additionally, Interactive Videos are compliant with Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) tagging standards to ensure they support effective video delivery, tracking and measurement and provide members a smooth, additive experience.

Capitalizing on CTV’s rapid growth

CTV ad spending is projected to exceed $30 billion in the U.S. next year, making it one of the fastest-growing ad formats. Its effectiveness in influencing user behavior makes it crucial for advertisers to leverage across their campaigns.

Sam’s Club MAP CTV ads are a vital component of a full-funnel strategy, along with offsite display and retargeting, that enable advertisers to reach Sam’s Club members at every step of the shopping journey and build custom member audiences and campaigns. They leverage AI to optimize conversions and return on ad spend (ROAS) based on viewership, behavior and frequency. Advertisers can reach incremental cord-cutting audiences with precise targeting complemented by advanced campaign performance measurement and attributed omnichannel sales results.

Place sponsored videos in search grids

Sponsored Videos stands apart from competitive offerings in its ability to place video in search grids —critical to reaching an ever-growing segment of Sam’s Club members.

With Sam’s Club MAP’s distinctive capabilities, advertisers can use Sponsored Videos to launch new items and promote basket building. Additionally, clicking on the video directs members to the related item page, and they can add an item to their carts directly from the ad. Advertisers will have access to Sponsored Product Ads campaign and omnichannel closed-loop sales performance in a single self-service dashboard.

A view from all sides

The partnership between Sam’s Club and eko offers an unrivaled digital shopping experience directly from Sam’s Club product detail pages. Advertisers can create an “in-club experience,” allowing members to dynamically explore every aspect of an item to help drive brand awareness and engagement in unique and captivating ways.

For more information about Sam’s Club MAP’s new CTV ads, Sponsored Videos and Interactive Videos, contact Sam’s Club MAP here.

About Sam’s Club

Sam’s Club®, a division of Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT), is a leading membership warehouse club offering superior products, savings and services to millions of members in nearly 600 clubs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Now in its 40th year, Sam’s Club continues to redefine warehouse shopping with its highly curated assortment of high-quality fresh food and Member’s Mark® items, in addition to market leading technologies and services like Scan & Go™️, Curbside Pickup and home delivery service in select markets. To learn more about Sam's Club, visit the Sam's Club Newsroom, shop at SamsClub.com and interact with Sam's Club on LinkedIn, X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest. 

About Sam’s Club Member Access Platform

At Sam’s Club, we are member obsessed. We lead with this obsession by offering a curated assortment of high-quality items at an incredible value. We lead with this obsession by providing our members with a multi-touchpoint experience, whether they are shopping our Clubs, on SamsClub.com, in-app or with Curbside Pickup and Delivery. We lead with this obsession every day.

We know our members want a shopping experience that is easy, convenient and personalized. And we know that our agencies, ad tech platforms, suppliers and advertisers want to reach our members efficiently and effectively. With MAP [Member Access Platform], our journey starts with our members. Next, we create and give partners experiences, tools and opportunities that help members discover new products at the time they need and want them. 

MAP’s mission is to provide the most valuable and additive ads experience to our members. It's our member-first approach that differentiates us, along with the combination of our platform, our products, our people, our processes and our first-party data.