Walmart's Oscars campaign gets social support hopes of going viral
Walmart is backing up its Oscars film challenge in which is challenged award winning directors to make a commercial based on a single receipt with an onslaught of social tools including GIFs and YouTube.
The retail giant is hoping to support its unique commercial idea in going viral by sharing clips and GIFs on social media. Walmart took a robust marketing strategy for the Academy Awards and is continuing to reap the benefits via organic social media content.
Social media support
Viewers of the Oscars witnessed the release of three films created by famous directors based on only a receipt. Walmart recruited directors Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, Marc Forster and Antoine Fuqua for its Oscars marketing.
The three directing teams were given one receipt of which they were to base a commercial off of. The receipt included items such as bananas, batteries, paper towels, a scooter, wrapping paper and a video baby monitor.
Mr. Rogen and Mr. Goldberg?s ?Bananas Town? piece featured a young girl daydreaming in school in which she makes up various songs for the different items on the receipt, each with a different singer and setting.
?The Gift? by Mr. Fuqua shows the story of a young boy rushing home on his scooter and then frantically grabbing things from around the house. He compiles paper towels, batteries, bananas, a baby monitor and wrapping paper, which he places together in a bowl attached with balloons in a field.
As he?s doing this, an alien spaceship appears and accepts the gift. The ship returns the favor with real life silly face emojis that rain down on the boy.
Mr. Forster's ?Lost & Found? shows the narrative of a boy living in a dystopian future who finds a baby monitor but it dies. His friend finds batteries for the device and they enjoy watching the baby smile and laugh.
Walmart?s ?The Receipt? campaign sponsored a variety of Red Carpet interviews, which it shared on its social media accounts directly after to drum up excitement for the spot releases. For instance, interviews with supporting actor nominee Dev Patel, presenter Felicity Jones and actor Matt Damon were all shared on Walmart?s Facebook and Twitter.
Once each film aired during the Academy Awards? commercial breaks, Walmart shared supporting content online. For instance, one GIF features dancers in a clip from ?Bananas Town,? with the caption reading, ?When you can?t help but dance along.?
The retailer also shared a variety of GIFs of moving Walmart receipts with moving images such as a sun with musical notes circling it, along with the caption, ?Sunshine in pockets > rain on the Red Carpet.?
Walmart has also made the commercials available on YouTube for social media users to view.
Walmart strategy
The retailer also built a social analytics command center in its headquarters last summer as it looks to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to leveraging data insights.
Walmart started from scratch to build a social analytics insights and advocacy program to span across multiple disciplines and departments, according to a new case study from Brandwatch. Walmart is using the data analytics to spot emerging trends in public affairs and competitive intelligence, among other things (see more).