New Walmart commercial - wow!

I tried to find some answers for you but getting mixed results.

Hopefully someone who has done super high-end spots can contribute although I don't know if anyone like that frequents here (talking super high-end national commercials done for Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Disney, etc from end-to-end).

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If you like car commercials, this article from 2004 says this:

"A production company typically charged $241,000 to make a car commercial, the survey said. The average car commercial included a director's salary of $24,000, although directors who specialize in auto commercials often make much more.

Editing and completing a basic 30-second national commercial cost $49,000, on average.

Auto advertisers routinely produce variations of a basic commercial. The average cost of finishing an alternate version was $33,000."


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More information below...but I am not sure how that would translate today.

Is it more or less? (I would like to know myself.)

https://www.autonews.com/article/20040510/SUB/405100715/marketing-why-tv-commercials-are-so-costly
 
Thanks again NorBro. I appreciate you always being of help. That is an interesting article. And that was dated before the DSLR revolution and the plummet of our field.

Yeah car commercials are still of interest to me I guess since I used to be a car guy. I see lots of CGI vehicle shots these days in car ads.
I'm hoping (as soon as I can get my current job done) to continue working on a promo for my company that uses vehicle stunts such as my production van jumping bridges and crashing though walls.

I suspected the WM ad might top 1 million since it is heavy on FX but I just don't know. Like you said, maybe someone who works on national high end ads for the big companies will chime in and share
 
And honestly, who cares if it helps the consumer understand the pick-up service or even think about using the service. They now have Wal-Mart in their head after watching the commercial. Mission accomplished.

And at the national level, the cost of making the commercial is really a drop in the bucket compared to the actual ad time that has to be bought. I’d love to know how much one of the on-line/multi-campus universities is forking out right now for ad time. They have this catchy song riff they’ve licensed that’s stuck in my head, because I literally hear it at least twice per commercial break during the early evening/evening, now.
 
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Run&Gun said:
And honestly, who cares if it helps the consumer understand the pick-up service or even think about using the service. They now have Wal-Mart in their head after watching the commercial. Mission accomplished.
Click to expand...

That's exactly right (and the point) and anyone who's interested in ordering groceries online for a pick-up is probably tech savvy enough to visit and navigate through their website to learn more about the service.

Look at it as 'production value' for Walmart's brand.
 
At the time of time of this writing, after 9 days the YT video has 17.4 million views- fairly successful viral?
Over the weekend, I saw the spot during the NFL playoffs, where 33.4 million watched LA Rams vs Dallas Cowboys- almost exactly double viewership. Movie cars during a football game probably good demographics...

Very different viewing styles of course, where people possibly want to watch it (or share it) on YT, but it comes up unexpectedly on TV.
And the YT viewers may be likely to watch the whole spot, whereas the TV viewer may be... in the kitchen or bathroom.

OTOH, those who work in broadcast, like Run&Gun and others, certainly know the power of a successful national spot on a program with fairly big numbers... probably a smart buy for Walmart, right?
 
I think it's a clever, fun spot... a nicely produced ad. Makes me smile.
But I am also scratching my head a bit...
I try to avoid shopping at Walmart when I can... mostly because my biggest annoyance is standing in long lines at checkout. There are some 15+ check out lanes at my local but only 3 of them staffed it seems. So, I'm wondering if the experience of ordering online - only to sit in your car forever waiting for an employee to bring your groceries to you - will have that same annoyance quickly. Surely, a company wouldn't spend millions advertising a service that they then understaff? (and I'm being facetious here - since in my opinion great marketing / advertising often only sets up the consumer for better expectations - only to be let down by real experience.)
 
FWIW, we do most of our grocery shopping at our local WalMart Neighborhood (grocery) store. Good prices, a ridiculous amount of staff (it's almost like Bristol Farms, crazy, they have so many staff and they are always asking if we need help finding anything - weird for WalMart, right?). Decent produce and selection. There are no Mom & Pop groceries in our town, the only other choice is Vons and I HATE Vons, their prices aren't a little higher, they are probably 50-60% higher than WalMart. I do think WalMart is kind of the evil empire to a point, but I can't always make the drive 20 miles to go to Winn Co and won't spend $2k a month on groceries to shop at Whole Foods.

Also, there is a WalMart Superstore about 12 miles away and I hate even stepping foot in it because it's in a crappy neighborhood and the parking lot is like the Thunderdome, I've seen cars rammed on purpose, people ran down, people dumping trash out of their car onto the parking lot, it's disgusting. It's always a zoo and you always have to park way, way out in the lot. Ughh. As far as this commercial, nice production values and if it's been successful for them, that's cool.
 
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