UPDATE: Dec. 3, 2024: Walmart is expanding its “Gifts That Show You Get Them” holiday campaign with four new spots that build on the effort’s pop culture theme. The original ads featured clips from classic movies and TV shows with a seasonal backdrop while the latest commercials reunite cast members from those same media properties, including “Gilmore Girls” and “SpongeBob SquarePants,” as they share gifts with their loved ones, courtesy of Walmart.

Walmart on Sunday debuted its latest holiday marketing campaign, highlighting moments when people find the perfect gift for their loved ones and spark a sense of warmth and recognition, or “feeling seen.”

A 60-second anthem spot, directed by “The Holdovers” and “Sideways” filmmaker Alexander Payne, pairs moments of gift-giving between Walmart customers with iconic scenes of seasonal sentiment from film and television series. Clips from “Gilmore Girls,” “The Simpsons,” “SpongeBob Squarepants” and “National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation,” among other touchstones, are featured in the nostalgic ad.  

“We’re always looking for some emotional connection, building emotional connection between our brand and the customer,” said Walmart Vice President of Creative David Hartman.

The big-box store debuted a 30-second cut of the commercial during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” while 15 videos depicting different customers and iconic characters will air across the effort. “Gifts That Show You Get Them” was developed by a number of Publicis Groupe agencies, including Fallon, Publicis New York, The Community, Contender and Digitas.

Walmart continues to inject Hollywood energy into its holiday marketing as it looks to put “the brand in culture and the culture in the brand,” explained Hartman. Around Black Friday last year, Walmart reenacted an iconic scene from the movie “Mean Girls” with members of the original cast. That’s the type of concept the brand is vying to iterate on — and top — to differentiate its ads in a retail category that tends to lean on samey seasonal tropes.

“We want to create something that feels like it’s in the culture for the holiday season but also feels like it’s helping to stand out in a very crowded ecosystem of advertising,” said Hartman. “From a creative standpoint, it’s always about: How can you beat what you did last year?”

Bridging the gap

While holiday campaigns can feel like they are landing earlier on the calendar, Walmart is launching its 2024 program around the same time as last year. The brand cited Bankrate data that show roughly half of consumers start their shopping as early as August and September (Walmart’s toy catalog went live Sept. 9). The trend is potentially reflective of enduring price consciousness as consumers try to maximize their holiday budgets. 

“Price is always important,” said Hartman. “At least in the creative work that we’ve produced so far, I would say you’re going to see … the importance of ensuring the customer understands: We have the gifts they’re looking for and they’re at the price that they’re looking for as well.”

To get that message out, Walmart is running a “truly omnichannel campaign” that will span social, online video and in-store integrations, according to Hartman. While the executive kept mum on details for future plans, he pointed to two through lines the retailer is carrying over from 2023: A focus on “anthemic, memorable” stories around critical shopping windows, in line with the Black Friday “Mean Girls” execution, and linking commerce and content closer together. 

Walmart last year released a 23-part social series called “Add to Heart” that was styled on the cozy romantic comedies that are popular to watch around this time of year. The “RomCommerce,” which appeared on TikTok, Roku, YouTube and Walmart’s owned social channels, showcased an assortment of 330 products that could be purchased through shoppable video formats available on select platforms. “Add to Heart” proved “tremendously popular,” per Hartman, and provided lessons that will inform elements of Walmart’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year.  

“We’re always looking for ways to get closer to the customer and bridge the gap between content and commerce,” said Hartman. “[There’s] this notion that we, as a brand, can create content that is both entertaining — that people want to watch, that they look forward to watching — but is also shoppable.”