Below is a roundup of last week’s notable industry news, with summaries and our opinions. This is the Cannes edition. We start with AppsFlyer and Walmart saying, “YES WE CANNES!”

Walmart buys Vibe.co to woo SMBs to streaming
Source: AdExchanger
June 23rd, 2026

Summary: Walmart is spending $1.4B to acquire Vibe.co, a French self-serve platform that makes it easy for small brands to buy streaming TV ads. Vibe will slot into Walmart Connect alongside Vizio, which Walmart acquired in 2024 for $2.3B. The combination gives Walmart a full CTV stack: Vizio brings viewership data + inventory, Vibe brings the self-serve tooling, and Walmart brings the purchase data to tie it all together.

Small advertisers have largely been priced and complexity-ed out of streaming TV. They also demand proof, since tight budgets mean every dollar needs to be justified. CTV's performance gap is also a real opportunity. Just 25% of streaming campaigns are built around lower-funnel goals, and that figure hasn't budged in years. Walmart is positioning itself to change that.

The deal comes as Walmart consolidates its global ad businesses under one roof. Walmart Connect US, Walmart Connect International, and Sam's Club MAP (which has now rebranded Sam's Club Connect) will operate under a unified global commerce media strategy led by Chief Growth Officer Seth Dallaire.

Opinion: Walmart ended exclusivity with The Trade Desk last year🔒, and has signed partnerships with Yahoo, Magnite, and Google in recent months to make their data available in those platforms. If Walmart is going the ad tech partnerships route to scale its ad business, then how does it make sense to also buy ad tech?

We’ll try to make sense of it.

Each of those platforms serves enterprise advertisers. Enterprise advertisers demand transparency, high service levels, and low rates. Additionally, Walmart Connect serves enterprise advertisers directly and has captured a lot of demand from them already. Buying (or building) enterprise ad tech to grow this business the last extra little bit wouldn’t be worth it. The juice wouldn’t be worth the squeeze. 

However, mid-sized and small advertisers represent pure upside for Walmart. It doesn’t work with these advertisers today. Walmart’s shopper data, combined with Vizio data, could be hugely valuable for them. And in contrast to enterprise advertisers, scaling an ad platform for small advertisers can yield high margins, as there isn’t a lot of pricing pressure and service isn’t needed (since the platform is self-serve). Revenue is diversified. It’s a great business! Just ask Google and Meta. That said, it’s hard to scale this kind of business. Which is why Walmart acquired Vibe!

Add in that Walmart is doubling down on the high-growth CTV sector, and the deal starts to make a lot of sense. 

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