I’ve always dreamed that one day I’d get to make a movie, but I didn’t think that would happen while I was still working in advertising. Then we pitched this idea to Walmart. A holiday romcom, starring a big city girl heading back to her small town for Christmas, where she bumps in to an old flame. In a Walmart. They were totally game. And what we made together changed the game.
Because everything in Add To Heart – from the wardrobe, to the set decor, to the very lipgloss Jessica swipes on before getting that magical first kiss – was totally shoppable. In a time where almost nothing is NBDB, a shoppable romcom was truly the first of its kind. Or as we called it: RomCommerce.
Trailer
Shoppable Episodes
To be mindful of the ongoing SAG strike, we broke up the “movie” into bingeable episodes, and released the whole series on TikTok, YouTube, and Roku. In partnership with TikTok, priority products appeared in shoppable tiles throughout each episode.
Premiere & Press
We gave our launch the full Hollywood treatment – trailers, movie posters, an official soundtrack, and even a blue carpet premiere.
In the campaign’s first week, we passed 1 billion impressions (paid & organic), with nearly 2 billion total to date. Walmart’s Add To Heart site had more than 4.5 million visits – 414% above campaign projections.
“An important milestone in the history of retail”
“The studio behind this new series isn’t Universal or Paramount – it’s Walmart.”
“The ‘RomCommerce’ era is here”
Credits:
Production Company: Merman
Director: Erica Dunton
Global Managing Partner/EP: Kira Carstensen, Sharon Horgan
Executive Producer: Jessica Miller
Creative Executive: Jack Taylor Cox
Line Producer: Amantha Clark Altham
Branded Episodic Producer: Sabrina Spiantzi Ballard
DP: Peter Kowalski
Production Designer: Curtis Beech
Casting Director: Tamara-Lee Notcutt
Costume Designer: Heidi Higginbotham
Makeup: Melissa Rogers
Hair: Elizabeth Cho
Editorial: Harbor Picture Company
Producers: Chris Detoy, Eva Pipa, Ben Latimer
CCOs: Nikki Baker, Leslie Shaffer
ECD: Travis Parr
Creative Directors: Caitlin Fitzgibbons, Sara Cummings, Abby Gross
Creatives: Kayla Hall, Grace Geary, Paige Goeser, Jameson Miller
Creatives @ Contender: Robert Clifton Jr., Samra Seifu
Creatives @ The Community: Silvio Caielli, Gabriela Diaz, Ricky Vior
Account: Lauren Pulwer, Courtney Jones, Andrea Mosk, Deirdre Maher, Julia Frayne
Strategy: Melissa Panasci, Celeste Yee, Cole Nixon, Ileza Dantzig
Social Strategy Director: Missy Young
PMs: Kaitlin Counihan, AJ Tomiak, Martin Connolly
Design: Lydia Bickal
PR: Kara Stockton
BA: Yenia Paez