Walmart is going to play a crucial role in NBCUniversal’s game plan for live sports. Today at Cannes Lions, during the NBCU takeover of FreeWheel Beach with Vive le Live, NBCU and Walmart announced a partnership that uses Walmart’s scale and shopper data to enable advanced audience targeting and cross-platform attribution in NBCU’s live sports advertising. This includes inventory for the Winter Olympics, football coverage, the Premier League, the NBA, and more. Starting in Q4 2025, select advertisers will be able to reach targeted, strategic audiences and measure the impact of their streaming and linear media campaigns within NBCUniversal’s live sports moments. NBCU and Walmart completed a test last fall, with Walmart’s own campaigns resulting in a 4-times return on ad spend, according to the companies. Additionally, the retailer reported a 10% increase in ad recall and a 5-times higher QR code scan rate generated by commerce activations compared to its retail benchmark. “Using Walmart as a marketer was a great way to test. The challenge for marketers is getting the reach in the timeframe you need. Live sports delivers that instantaneous reach,” Mark Marshall, chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, said at the event. Marshall added, “To be able to look at live sports across linear and digital and demonstrate what it delivers for you—actual sales and impact data—that’s exciting.” The announcement builds on Walmart and NBCU’s existing relationship, which includes partnerships such as the launch of Must ShopTV with Below Deck Mediterranean. The Walmart news adds to NBCU’s Cannes announcements, which included Today’s Savannah Guthrie revealing an inaugural Today Show fan fest launching in the fall. “[Today Fan Fest] is going to be a series of live events that bring our viewers closer to our Today family and community,” Guthrie said during NBCUniversal’s takeover. “We’re going to get this party started in October. It’s going to be Fan Fest week on our show, some of our favorite interviews, stories, shopping, music, plus special giveaways and access to Today.”