Campaign Imminent: Sam's Club taps new creative, media AORs (Score 22)

Sales Lead: Sam's Club recently selected Havas's Arnold and Horizon Next as its new creative and media agency partners, respectively.

• As Sam's creative AOR, Arnold will focus on authentic storytelling that connects directly with the company's core member base.
  • The agency will specifically work to drive bend affinity, build unaided awareness, and successfully communicate membership benefits.
  • Arnold has already launched a campaign for Sam's; it rolled out across connected TV (CTV), online video, social, and owned channels.
• On the other hand, Horizon Next's media AOR position will allow it to utilize personalization to connect Sam's with its members.
• This shift concluded a review and replaced incumbent shops VMLY&R (creative since 2021) and Haworth (media).
• We predicted agency reviews would follow last year's leadership shifts.
• Sam's is also pursuing brick-and-mortar expansion.
  • Its leaders plan to open 30 new clubs, along with new fulfillment and distribution centers, over the next several years.
  • This expansion is fueled by a recent uptick in sales; both membership and revenue ($84b in fiscal year 2023) have spiked to record levels over the last three years.
• The company will likely:
  • Launch additional new work
  • Shift strategy
  • Return to higher spend
  • Seek additional new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • ​​​​​​​Gen-X with a skew toward women, especially moms

Recent leadership shifts:

• This announcement follows several hires such as e-Commerce and digital marketing director Erica Minnich (February) and senior membership and marketing intelligence director Hemant Adhav (March 2023).

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Sam's hasn't utilized national TV since spending around $7m in 2022.
  • Last year: In 2022, the company spent around $7m on this channel; it did not utilize this channel in 2021.
  • 2022 ad programming: Sam's 2022 commercials targeted viewers of NFL Football, Today, and Today With Hoda & Jenna.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, the retail chain has spent approximately $9.3m on digital ads, 24% less than the approximately $12.2m spent within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • YTD data: Sam's has earned ~1.3b digital impressions YTD via Facebook (76%), Instagram (16%), desktop display (4%), YouTube (2%), desktop video (1%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
  • Last year: In 2022, the company spent roughly $46.3m on this channel, down only slightly (not even 1%) from the roughly $46.5m spent in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • Sam's invests in OOH, local broadcast, search, digital, radio, Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and online video (primarily via Youtube.com) ads.
  • The company also utilizes short-form DRTV.
    • Sam's has very highly concentrated network TV coverage and will not likely launch a new campaign soon. 

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Additional agency reviews may follow these two, so get in touch soon to offer PR, digital analytics, experiential, influencer, and/or multicultural services
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​Arnold: Creative AOR (May 2023)
  • Horizon Next: Media AOR (May 2023)
  • Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc.: Digital, social, and multicultural agency partner

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; DRTV insights by Media Analytics.