whoknewville
A WHOLE WHO‑NIVERSE OF CONTENT
Every year, Walmart’s annual holiday campaign is the brand’s biggest investment and creative push. And for the first time, every part of this multi-million dollar campaign was united under a single idea and partnership: Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
When you’ve worked with Dr. Seuss,
a page like this calls for something a little different:
*AHEM*
Our campaign that year got everyone talking,
with surprises from Walmart that sent shoppers flocking…
The app has all sorts of things made just for you!
The buzz, it was buzzing, & the biz, it boomed, too.
People all started remarking, “Who knew?”
But could we get them to shop for the holidays, too?
We have top brand gifts! And the Deals of the season!
And 1-hour delivery, no matter the reason!
So we took on the Grinchiest Grinch we could find.
And pulled out all the stops in changing his mind.
There was TV! And headlines! Billboards in Time Square!
And some social-first content beyond all compare.
The Grinch’s heart grew by the time we were done,
The internet was loving all of the fun.
All of this work… we’re excited to share!
With Walmart’s best gifts to show loved ones you care.
And now, without any further ado…
Welcome to WhoKnewVille, thrilled to have you.
When you’ve worked with
Dr. Seuss, a page like this calls
for something a little different:
*AHEM*
Our campaign that year
got everyone talking,
with surprises from Walmart
that sent shoppers flocking…
The app has all sorts of things
made just for you!
The buzz, it was buzzing,
& the biz, it boomed, too.
People all started
remarking, “Who knew?”
But could we get them to shop
for the holidays, too?
We have top brand gifts!
And the Deals of the season!
And 1-hour delivery,
no matter the reason!
So we took on
the Grinchiest Grinch
we could find.
And pulled out all the stops
in changing his mind.
There was TV! And headlines!
Billboards in Time Square!
And some social-first content
beyond all compare.
The Grinch’s heart grew
by the time we were done,
The internet was loving
all of the fun.
All of this work…
we’re excited to share!
With Walmart’s best gifts
to show loved ones you care.
And now, without
any further ado…
Welcome to WhoKnewVille,
thrilled to have you.
WhoKnewVille created a new standard for Walmart integrated campaign storytelling, incorporating beloved IP into content from top to bottom and delivering Walmart’s best holiday results to-date:
Clio Entertainment Awards Shortlist 🏆 Influencer & Talent Storytelling
It took a small army of Whos to bring this world to life. We worked hand-in-hand with our larger inter-agency creative team at Publicis to create this multi-layered 360 campaign, with the TV storytelling led by Sarby (Sara Cummings & Abby Gross) and OOH by Caitlin Fitzgibbons. Across three chapters, the story unfolded across TV, OOH, and social. That’s where we came in.
PICK UP THAT WHO-PHONE!
As leads of the social campaign, our charge was to bring WhoKnewVille to life in distinctly social-first ways, complementing & building on the story of the season.
Our campaign began with the Whos in WhoKnewVille discovering Walmart’s great gifts. For Black Friday Week, we revealed Walmart spokesman Walton Goggins as our very own Grinch — Walton Goggins himself — a role inspired by internet meme culture & fan-casting. Then we invited a few internet darlings to give our storybook world a bit of social cred from the masters of the medium.
To welcome even more people into our campaign, we invited a few influencers to move to WhoKnewVille and bring their signature styles to our holiday Who-neverse… affectionately known as InWhoencers.
Stephanie Beatriz @stephaniebeatriz
Star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Encanto, & Walmart Hispanic audience spokeswoman
Connor Wood @fibula
Podcast star, social media darling & stand-up comedian with 800k followers
La La Anthony @lala
Multi-hyphenate cultural icon with 15.7M followers
Maritere @madres.en.cuarentena
Self-made momfluencer with 1.7M followers, across English & Spanish-speaking audiences
They shared gift inspiration throughout the season in their own distinctive ways, adding a little relatability to WhoKnewVille.
GRINCH SPOTTED !!!
GRINCH SPOTTED !!!
FAN-CASTING STRAIGHT
FROM YOUR FEED
The internet
saw a certain resemblance.
So did we.
Green makeup
helped, too.
FIRST WE TEASED the return of the iconic character…
Social-first doesn’t always mean hand-held, iPhone influencer content. It can also look like moments of comedy caught on a doorbell camera.
We took inspiration from viral found footage to catch glimpses of The Grinch before we were ready to reveal our casting. We encouraged viewers to #GuessOurGrinch as they followed along with his antics, learning the details about Walmart’s Black Friday Deals events along the way.
…THEN, the big reveal
At long last, we revealed our very own version of the Grinch, front & center in the spotlight, with a dramatic reveal on Walmart's social channels. It was Walton Goggins all along. And this Goggrinch was here to help spread the word about Walmart's Black Friday Deals.
Content featuring Walton as the Grinch far exceeded our brand benchmarks for engagement & importantly, Walmart Black Friday Deals dates awareness.
GIFTS INCOMING !!!
GIFTS INCOMING !!!
last-minute gifting conundrums? there’s express delivery for that.
In the final stretch, Walmart’s Express Delivery took center stage, promising gift delivery in an our. All our characters came together to solve all sorts of last-minute stressors, from surprise white elephants to plus ones bringing plus ones. The Grinch & Max kept their gift-slinging going, by answering calls for help from each of our InWhoencers.
TWO UNITS? MAKE IT THREE!
Not only did we have one unit on TV and one leading social… we had a third capturing behind-the-scenes and all sorts of organic content fodder that helped us turn Walmart’s feed into a near-constant stream of WhoKnewVille inspiration all season long.
…and Our hearts grew three sizes
This production was a herculean effort coordinating many teams across three sound stages and three units all to produce one, unified story that cemented the cultural place of Walmart’s “Who knew?” campaign, and led to the brand’s best-performing holiday advertising of all time.
SOCIAL CREDITS
Creative Oversight:
Molly Crawford
Creative Direction:
Danny Weilandt, Christina Swan,
Jamie Fox, Yuri Kim
Director:
Paul Briganti
Production:
Radical
———
TV CREDITS
Creative Oversight:
Travis Parr, Paulo Junger
Creative Direction:
Abby Gross, Sara Cummings
Creatives:
Leah Jarem, Meredith Niles,
Pete Prendergast, Alisha Branch,
Erin Dorney, Ella Price,
Rachel Williams
Director:
Marc Webb
Production:
Radical