Haworth Marketing and Media will help Wal-Mart Stores Inc. choose how it spends its advertising dollars, a big win eight months after the Minneapolis advertising firm lost one of its biggest clients — Target Corp., a major competitor to Wal-Mart.
"Haworth will play a number of roles for the Wal-Mart U.S. marketing team, well beyond those of a traditional media agency," Tony Rogers, Wal-Mart's chief marketer in the U.S., said this week.
Haworth will oversee the retailer's media planning and placement, strategy for brand integrations as well as help Wal-Mart form strategic marketing partnerships.
Wal-Mart, the nation's biggest company with about $480 billion in annual revenue, spent nearly $2.1 billion on advertising in the U.S. in 2015, including $621 million in measured media, according to Advertising Age.
"Haworth's expertise in delivering compelling media solutions, combined with their positioning in the media and entertainment industry, will make them a tremendous resource for us going forward," Rogers said.
Haworth, which employs about 200 people in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, has done work for an array clients such as Dick's Sporting Goods, Beats by Dre headphones, and Caribou Coffee.
"We look forward to the ways we'll tell Wal-Mart's story to the world," Haworth chief executive Gary Tobey said in a statement. "Wal-Mart has tremendous momentum; our team is ready to push to new heights, connecting with customers in relevant and innovative ways."
Last spring, Target decided to end its long-standing relationship with Haworth and consolidate its media buying and planning business under advertising giant GroupM, which had recently taken a 49 percent stake in Haworth.
