Walmart and Kroger Expand Ad Businesses

By Stephanie Brooks 29/06/2026 2 min read 8 views

Streaming is becoming an important part of many retail media networks’ growth strategies, as retailers believe that shopper data can help advertisers prove their TV ads lead to sales.

Walmart has agreed to acquire Vibe.co, a self-service connected TV advertising platform for small and mid-sized businesses and mid-market brands, in a deal that surpassed $1 billion, which is expected to close by the end of this fiscal year.

They will combine Vibe’s service with Walmart’s access to shoppers, closed-loop measurement, and media ecosystem that now also includes Vizio, hoping Walmart Connect can be a place where smaller advertisers without large media teams, including Walmart Marketplace sellers, can launch CTV campaigns and measure their success using its commerce data.

EMarketer forecasts U.S. retail media ad spending on off-site channels like CTV will reach $17.05 billion in 2026, up 29.5% from last year.

Martin Kristiseter, CEO of Digital Remedy, said that by creating a simple UI, Vibe made it easier for smaller advertisers without large ad teams to use the platform.

The infusion of retail data into TV advertising brings a new level of reporting and results into a channel that used to be very focused on branding.

Walmart expanded its connected TV advertising capabilities by opening up Vizio inventory in Walmart Connect through Yahoo’s demand-side platform via ad-tech provider Magnite.

Walmart Connect partnered with Google’s Display & Video 360, enabling brands to use Walmart audience data to manage and measure YouTube campaigns.

Kroger Precision Marketing also began offering YouTube advertising integration via Display & Video 360, and Albertsons followed in April.

Kroger additionally announced it would allow advertisers to reach Kroger shoppers within TikTok’s advertising platform.

Social video is where people are starting their shopping journeys and thinking about what they’re going to do next.

Christine Support, group vice president at Kroger Precision Marketing, said these capabilities will be most relevant to CPG brands on the shelves at Kroger, but they also provide audience data for other brands.

Customers aren’t annoyed by ads, necessarily; they’re annoyed by messages that are irrelevant, Support added.

Connected TV delivers the scale advertisers need to build awareness, and by connecting campaigns to retail data, advertisers can target relevant audiences and understand which audiences, placements, and creative drive business outcomes.

Adam Solomon, vp of product solutions at LiveRamp, said retail media is shifting toward flexibility and interoperability with off-site environments like streaming and social media.

It reflects the next stage of retail media’s evolution: from isolated retailer inventory to a broader commerce media model where first-party data can power media activation and measurable outcomes across more channels and touchpoints, Solomon said.

The winners will be those that collaborate and seamlessly bring together scale, data activation, interoperability, and measurable performance, regardless of who owns the underlying technology.