Walmart Canada is evolving its messaging to emphasize everyday low prices, rather than sales.
It even says as much with its “Don’t call it a sale” hero spot by longtime agency partner Cossette, wherein a Walmart staffer chastises a mom for using the wrong term.
“It’s easy to get people excited about short-term promotions and sales, but what makes this campaign different is that we’re building awareness and excitement around Walmart’s core purpose, to help Canadians save money and live better, which comes to life through our everyday low prices,” says Julie Unsworth, vice president of customer marketing.
At a time when affordability is top of mind for Canadians, the campaign aims to reinforce the retail brand’s commitment to value.
According to Unsworth, everyday low prices are what customers can expect when they shop at Walmart without having to wait for a promotion or a sale.
“We typically run 360 campaigns for key events and brand messaging – and in this case, we wanted to reach as many Canadians as possible through this multi-channel 360 campaign,” she notes.
In its latest Q2 earnings call, CFO John Rainey said the company has “invested in marketing to improve awareness of Walmart’s value, convenience and assortment, and saw growth in active customers and frequency.”
Rainey also noted that in the current economic environment, “we would play offence to keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can.”
The campaign features English and French TV and OLV spots and cutdowns and English and French spots across broadcast and streaming audio.
Walmart Canada also partnered with Canadian stand-up comedian Debra DiGiovanni on the five-part “Guess the Basket Price” TikTok series, which secured real reactions from Canadians on the price for a basket of goods shared through social media and supported by Apex PR.
A social-media rollout has been activated with national Meta and TikTok ads delivering video and image assets highlighting affordability.
Additional customer touchpoints included CRM pushes, such as emails and notifications along with flyers and in-store signage in French and English.
Starcom, Walmart’s media AOR for five years, handled the buy.
