Why Membership Changes Retail Media: Sam’s Club Connect’s Harvey Ma
CANNES, France — Retail media companies spend a lot of time talking about transactions. Harvey Ma would rather talk about relationships.
The vice president and general manager of Sam’s Club Connect used his appearance at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to explain why Sam’s Club’s retail media business recently rebranded from Sam’s Club MAP to Sam’s Club Connect. The change, he said, reflects a broader ambition than simply selling ads next to shopping carts.
“Connect really unifies that whole experience and that whole journey together,” Ma told Beet.TV Editorial Director Lisa Granatstein. “Connecting members with valuable experiences, and we call them breakthrough experiences, that provide clear proof of measurement.”
The name change also signals something bigger inside Walmart’s growing advertising empire. According to Ma, the company is building what he described as a global advertising ecosystem designed to simplify things for advertisers, technology partners and consumers alike.
“It’ll be easier for tech suppliers, it’ll be easier for advertisers, it’ll be better for our members and customers to have a unified ads experience,” he said, adding that Walmart aims to become “a mega power in the ads industry.”
Not many executives arrive at Cannes and casually announce aspirations for mega-power status. Then again, not many companies have parking lots large enough to qualify for regional airports.
Why membership changes everything
Unlike traditional retailers, Sam’s Club starts with a paying relationship. Members hand over money before they ever fill a shopping cart, creating what Ma described as a fundamentally different dynamic.
“Membership is everything,” he said.
That distinction matters because retail media has traditionally focused on transactions. Sam’s Club believes its membership model gives it a longer and richer view of consumer behavior.
“A member is paying us for the privilege to shop at a Sam’s Club,” Ma said. “What that means is that the obligation back to create that breakthrough experience is absolutely profound for us.”
The result is a data set that follows members across products, services and shopping journeys over time. For advertisers, that means fewer snapshots and more movies.
From soccer player to soccer mom
Retail media executives love talking about customer journeys. Ma offered one of the more memorable examples heard on the Croisette this year.
“We know when you’re a soccer player and you’ve transitioned to a soccer mom,” he said.
Behind the joke lies a serious point about longitudinal measurement. Sam’s Club says it can track how consumer behavior evolves over time because membership creates a persistent identity.
In perhaps the interview’s most colorful illustration of deterministic data, Ma added: “You could come into our clubs, you could transact with a jar full of pennies, and we still know exactly who you are.”
Privacy advocates may have just spilled their rosé. Advertisers probably nodded enthusiastically.
According to Ma, that ability to connect transactions to a known member over time allows marketers to measure performance far beyond a single campaign.
Taking the club to the race track
Retail media networks have spent years expanding beyond search ads and sponsored product listings. Sam’s Club wants to push even further into experiential marketing.
Ma pointed to the company’s “Race to the Club” initiative, which includes sponsorship of Andretti Global’s No. 27 Honda IndyCar driven by Kyle Kirkwood.
When people ask why a warehouse club is sponsoring a race car, Ma says they’re asking the wrong question.
“It’s less about the sponsorship, it’s less about the race car, it’s more about bringing Sam’s Club to the track,” he said.
The idea is to let consumers experience products in real-world settings rather than simply seeing digital ads. Need a portable air compressor? Why not test one next to an IndyCar driver?
The approach extends to parking lot activations, music festivals and other events that place the Sam’s Club brand far beyond the walls of its warehouses.
The next retail media battleground
Looking ahead, Ma believes the winners in retail media will separate themselves in three ways: audience quality, experiential engagement and proof of performance.
The first is having a high-quality audience with what he called “one-to-one fidelity” and deterministic measurement. The second is creating sensory experiences that go beyond clicks and impressions.
“It’s not just search and display, but the taste, the touch, the emotion, the smell that you feel when you’re shopping,” he said.
The final differentiator is proving that advertising actually works. In an industry where every presentation deck seems legally required to contain the words transparency, incrementality and lifetime value, Ma argued that the real challenge is confidence.
“How do you know, deterministically and confidently, that that is actually happening?” he asked.
It is a question that continues to haunt retail media executives from Cannes to Bentonville. Sam’s Club Connect is betting that if advertisers can answer it, they’ll keep coming back. Membership, after all, has its privileges.
CANNES, France — Retail media companies spend a lot of time talking about transactions. Harvey Ma would rather talk about relationships.
The vice president and general manager of Sam’s Club Connect used his appearance at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to explain why Sam’s Club’s retail media business recently rebranded from Sam’s Club MAP to Sam’s Club Connect. The change, he said, reflects a broader ambition than simply selling ads next to shopping carts.
“Connect really unifies that whole experience and that whole journey together,” Ma told Beet.TV Editorial Director Lisa Granatstein. “Connecting members with valuable experiences, and we call them breakthrough experiences, that provide clear proof of measurement.”
The name change also signals something bigger inside Walmart’s growing advertising empire. According to Ma, the company is building what he described as a global advertising ecosystem designed to simplify things for advertisers, technology partners and consumers alike.
“It’ll be easier for tech suppliers, it’ll be easier for advertisers, it’ll be better for our members and customers to have a unified ads experience,” he said, adding that Walmart aims to become “a mega power in the ads industry.”
Not many executives arrive at Cannes and casually announce aspirations for mega-power status. Then again, not many companies have parking lots large enough to qualify for regional airports.
Why membership changes everything
Unlike traditional retailers, Sam’s Club starts with a paying relationship. Members hand over money before they ever fill a shopping cart, creating what Ma described as a fundamentally different dynamic.
“Membership is everything,” he said.
That distinction matters because retail media has traditionally focused on transactions. Sam’s Club believes its membership model gives it a longer and richer view of consumer behavior.
“A member is paying us for the privilege to shop at a Sam’s Club,” Ma said. “What that means is that the obligation back to create that breakthrough experience is absolutely profound for us.”
The result is a data set that follows members across products, services and shopping journeys over time. For advertisers, that means fewer snapshots and more movies.
From soccer player to soccer mom
Retail media executives love talking about customer journeys. Ma offered one of the more memorable examples heard on the Croisette this year.
“We know when you’re a soccer player and you’ve transitioned to a soccer mom,” he said.
Behind the joke lies a serious point about longitudinal measurement. Sam’s Club says it can track how consumer behavior evolves over time because membership creates a persistent identity.
In perhaps the interview’s most colorful illustration of deterministic data, Ma added: “You could come into our clubs, you could transact with a jar full of pennies, and we still know exactly who you are.”
Privacy advocates may have just spilled their rosé. Advertisers probably nodded enthusiastically.
According to Ma, that ability to connect transactions to a known member over time allows marketers to measure performance far beyond a single campaign.
Taking the club to the race track
Retail media networks have spent years expanding beyond search ads and sponsored product listings. Sam’s Club wants to push even further into experiential marketing.
Ma pointed to the company’s “Race to the Club” initiative, which includes sponsorship of Andretti Global’s No. 27 Honda IndyCar driven by Kyle Kirkwood.
When people ask why a warehouse club is sponsoring a race car, Ma says they’re asking the wrong question.
“It’s less about the sponsorship, it’s less about the race car, it’s more about bringing Sam’s Club to the track,” he said.
The idea is to let consumers experience products in real-world settings rather than simply seeing digital ads. Need a portable air compressor? Why not test one next to an IndyCar driver?
The approach extends to parking lot activations, music festivals and other events that place the Sam’s Club brand far beyond the walls of its warehouses.
The next retail media battleground
Looking ahead, Ma believes the winners in retail media will separate themselves in three ways: audience quality, experiential engagement and proof of performance.
The first is having a high-quality audience with what he called “one-to-one fidelity” and deterministic measurement. The second is creating sensory experiences that go beyond clicks and impressions.
“It’s not just search and display, but the taste, the touch, the emotion, the smell that you feel when you’re shopping,” he said.
The final differentiator is proving that advertising actually works. In an industry where every presentation deck seems legally required to contain the words transparency, incrementality and lifetime value, Ma argued that the real challenge is confidence.
“How do you know, deterministically and confidently, that that is actually happening?” he asked.
It is a question that continues to haunt retail media executives from Cannes to Bentonville. Sam’s Club Connect is betting that if advertisers can answer it, they’ll keep coming back. Membership, after all, has its privileges.
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