🎙️New Podcast Episode🎙️

Justin Breton, Director of Brand Experiences & Strategic Partnerships, Walmart

Hi, it’s Dana. Writing to let you know about our newest podcast episode, available now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Why does the world’s biggest company launch into the metaverse? What’s their approach? How does it go? And what are they learning?

This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Justin Breton, the Director of Brand Experiences & Strategic Partnerships at Walmart. Justin and his team are responsible for driving meaningful engagement with Walmart customers via a portfolio of brand engagement programs, including shoppable livestream events, augmented reality activations, and now, Walmart’s presence in the metaverse.

Justin was behind the launch of Walmart’s first foray into the metaverse with two immersive experiences on Roblox — Walmart Land and Walmart Universe of Play. Across both spaces, Walmart converted its store “aisles” into virtual “isles” with the ability to explore fashion, style, beauty, entertainment, toys, and more – all in a virtual world shaped like the Walmart logo.

In this episode, Justin gives us a behind-the-scenes view into Walmart’s very first at-scale metaverse launch, sharing everything from what Walmart’s doing, why they are doing it, and what they’ve learned along the way. It’s jam-packed with insights helpful for brands big and small exploring online virtual experiences. And PS: I used to run social media for Walmart, so this show was especially fun.

Here’s a clip from this week's show:

Show Notes:

0:00 Show intro

0:53 Dana shares her experience working for Walmart

1:15 Justin explains his role and his team’s remit for driving brand engagement

1:56 About shoppable livestreams

2:13 About virtual experiences like Roblox

2:42 How the metaverse came into consideration for Walmart

3:27 Why Walmart decided to partner with Roblox

4:49 Former Walmart CMO, Barb Messing, is now the CMO at Roblox

5:34 Justin shares his Web3 journey (he’s a newbie)

6:37 Walmart’s exploration of NFTs, DAOs, and other dimensions of Web3

8:15 An overview of Walmart’s Roblox activations

9:48 Walmart and Roblox’s goals for the launch

10:53 An overview of Walmart Land

12:00 An overview of Walmart Universe of Play

12:31 How Justin’s team tackled merchandising

14:27 Connecting (or not) the virtual world and physical goods via transactions

14:57 How customer acquisition works in the metaverse

16:29 An overview of the quantitative and qualitative performance of Walmart’s Roblox experiences

19:31 Justin explains what drives favorability and unfavorability

20:44 Walmart’s partners for the Roblox activations

21:35 How platforms are attracting brands (or the other way around)

23:41 Walmart’s Decentraland + Sabrina Carpenter partnership

25:12 The insights that drove a partnership with Roblox

26:02 Justin compares his expectations with the outcomes of the activations

27:20 Justin shares advice for other metaverse builders

28:30 The flexibility of the metaverse for brands

29:25 How to access Walmart’s Roblox experiences

29:50 Wrap-up

30:20 Closing

Show Resources:

Walmart Land: https://www.roblox.com/games/10895555747/Walmart-Land

Walmart Universe of Play: https://www.roblox.com/games/10980366634/Walmart-Universe-of-Play

Walmart on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Walmart

Walmart on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walmart

Justin Breton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justinbreton

Justin Breton on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinbreton

Barbara Messing on Twitter: https://twitter.com/barbmessing

Roblox: https://www.roblox.com/

DISCLAIMER: This content is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see disclosures.web2point5.io.