How to make the case for Walmart Connect CTV investment

A Walmart Connected TV (CTV) plan can make strategic sense and still struggle to secure investment. The issue is often not the media recommendation. It is the alignment required across brand media, commerce, creative, and finance teams to fund, activate and measure it.

Brand media teams may manage streaming video budgets and reach goals. Ecommerce and shopper teams may own Walmart sales and retail media performance. Creative teams shape the consumer story, while finance teams need confidence in the investment’s contribution to growth.

CTV touches every function, but many organizations lack a shared process for planning, funding, and measuring it. As a result, a campaign can sit between budgets, briefs, and performance metrics, even when every team sees its potential.

This reflects a broader fragmentation challenge across teams, channels, data, and decision-making. In The Big Shift: From managing to mastering fragmentation, we explore how leading organizations are moving from disconnected planning toward more connected commerce strategies. Closing that gap requires more than a strong media recommendation.

Brands need a shared operating model that gives each team a clear role, connects CTV to a common growth objective, and establishes how the organization will make its next investment decision.

The organizational barrier behind CTV investment

Commerce has become increasingly connected. A consumer may discover a product while streaming content, research it on Walmart, encounter it again through retail media, and purchase in store or online. Yet the teams responsible for these moments often plan independently, with different objectives, and decision criteria.

Brand media may prioritize qualified reach and consideration. Commerce teams are accountable for sales, conversion, and retail growth. Creative teams may receive a brand brief that is separate from the Walmart media strategy, while finance evaluates the investment against a distinct return threshold.

These priorities can coexist. The challenge is connecting them through one plan, with agreement on the consumer and commercial outcome Walmart Connect CTV is intended to influence.

Without that alignment, CTV can be treated as a trade-off between brand media and Walmart performance activity. Teams may debate who should fund it, which outcomes should define success, and whether it belongs in a retailer plan at all.

A clearer approach begins with shared ownership of the plan, rather than assigning ownership of Walmart CTV itself. When teams align on the objective, investment model, and measurement approach, CTV can support both brand and commerce goals.

Start with a shared growth objective

The first step is to define the business objective that CTV will support. This gives the investment a clear job and gives every stakeholder a reason to participate.

For example, a brand may use Walmart CTV to support a new product launch, build demand ahead of a seasonal moment, reach a priority consumer segment, strengthen premium positioning, or create evidence for broader retail expansion.

The objective should be specific enough to guide the full plan:

• Brand media can define the priority audience and reach needed to influence consideration.

• Commerce teams can identify the Walmart activity that will capture consumer demand closer to purchase.

• Creative teams can build a product story around the consumer need, retail moment, and reason to buy.

• Finance teams can assess the investment against a defined growth opportunity and learning agenda.

A shared objective turns CTV from a standalone media tactic into a coordinated growth initiative.

Create a Walmart CTV investment media plan

Before the campaign enters the market, bring the relevant teams together around a concise internal investment plan.

This does not need to be a lengthy planning document. It should create agreement on the decisions that matter before funding, creative development, and activation begin.

1. Business objective: What consumer or commercial outcome will the plan support? For example, build awareness for a launch, reach a new audience, create seasonal demand, or support a retail expansion priority.

2. Consumer and audience strategy: Which consumers matter most, and what Walmart, category or behavioral signals will guide the audience approach?

3. Investment model: How will the brand fund Walmart CTV without reducing productive lower-funnel Walmart media? In many cases, this means reallocating a portion of existing national, reach-focused CTV investment into Walmart Connect. Other sources may include innovation, seasonal activation, new product launch budgets, or a Walmart Joint Business Plan (JBP) test-and-learn commitment.

4. Channel roles: How will CTV, Walmart onsite media, offsite media and other touchpoints work together across the consumer journey? How does the Walmart plan amplify and/or complement the national plan?

5. Creative commerce brief: What product benefit, consumer need, and retail moment should the creative address? How will the story carry through to Walmart product content and onsite media?

6. Measurement and decision rules: What will the organization measure, what does success look like, and which outcomes will lead the team to scale, optimize or adjust the plan?

This plan gives teams a common language before the campaign creates competing interpretations of performance.

Build a clearer CTV funding model

The business case should distinguish between funding Walmart CTV through a reallocation of existing national media and pulling dollars from productive lower-funnel Walmart activity.

Many brands already invest in national CTV to build reach and demand, often without a direct commerce signal, retailer destination, or closed-loop view of outcomes. Walmart CTV can serve a similar demand-generation role while connecting that investment more directly to priority Walmart consumers and downstream commerce activity.

At the same time, brands should protect Walmart search, display, and retargeting activity that efficiently captures demand among consumers who are actively browsing, researching, and shopping. The goal is not to take funding away from productive lower-funnel media. It is to shift the appropriate portion of national, reach-focused investment into a Walmart CTV strategy that is more closely tied to commerce outcomes.

The investment logic should be clear to every stakeholder: shift the appropriate portion of national, reach-focused CTV spend to Walmart Connect to build demand among priority Walmart consumers, while preserving lower-funnel Walmart media to capture it. Creative gives consumers a reason to act, and measurement shows how each component contributes to commerce outcomes.

This model helps teams move beyond budget ownership debates. Each function can see how its investment contributes to the broader outcome.

Agree on shared measurement before launch

CTV will deliver different forms of value to different stakeholders.

Brand media teams may focus on qualified reach, frequency, and engagement. Commerce teams may look at Walmart sales, conversion, new-to-brand behavior, and category growth. Creative teams need insight into message performance. Finance teams require evidence that the investment contributed to incremental growth.

A shared measurement plan brings these perspectives together around the decisions the organization needs to make next. Before launch, agree on the questions the campaign should answer:

• Did the plan reach the priority consumer audience at meaningful scale?

• Which creative messages, benefits or use cases generated the strongest response?

• Did exposed consumers demonstrate stronger engagement or purchase behavior through Walmart?

• How did CTV contribute alongside Walmart onsite media and other demand-capture activity?

• Which results would support scaling, refining or reallocating future investment?

The goal is a shared learning loop. Brand media, commerce, creative and finance teams should review the same evidence, align on what it means and make the next decision together.

Use the JBP to turn alignment into action

The Walmart JBP can provide a practical structure for formalizing this cross-functional plan.

A strong CTV component within the JBP should include the shared growth objective, audience strategy, funding approach, creative commerce requirements, Walmart activation plan, measurement framework, and readout cadence. It should also establish the learning goals that will shape the next JBP cycle.

For some brands, the plan may involve shifting a portion of national, reach-focused CTV investment to Walmart Connect while maintaining lower-funnel Walmart media that captures demand. Launch, innovation, seasonal, or JBP test-and-learn budgets may also support incremental investment when the business objective warrants it.

This creates value on both sides. Brands gain a clearer way to coordinate teams and evaluate the investment. Walmart gains a demand-generation plan with defined accountability and measurable outcomes.

A clearer path to Walmart CTV investment

Walmart CTV can become difficult to fund when it sits between teams with separate budgets, briefs, and metrics. A shared operating model gives the investment a clearer path forward.

Begin with the growth objective. Define how the investment will be funded, whether through a reallocation of national CTV, incremental test funding, or a combination of both. Give CTV, Walmart media, and creative distinct roles across the consumer journey. Then agree on how results will inform the next decision.

This is how brands can move from fragmented planning to a more coordinated approach to demand generation and conversion. Flywheel helps brands bring together the teams and capabilities behind a Walmart CTV strategy, from JBP planning and investment design to audience strategy, creative commerce, activation, and measurement.

If your organization is working through how to align teams around a Walmart Connect CTV investment, let’s connect.