Sam's Club is following parent company Walmart Inc.'s move to bring digital advertising sales in-house by acquiring proprietary technology and most of WPP's Triad team that handles its account.
A joint statement Thursday from the companies did not disclose the terms of the deal. The Triad workers who will be affected come mostly from account management, creative, analytics and information technology.
Triad, a shopper marketing firm, helps businesses with their digital ad campaigns and sells ad space on retailers' e-commerce sites. The Florida-based company also has offices in Rogers, New York and Chicago.
Sherry Smith, Triad's chief executive officer, said in the statement that the company will support Walmart's members-only warehouse division and its advertising clients "with a smooth transition over several months."
That stands in marked contrast to Triad's response when Walmart made the same move in February. Triad temporarily enforced non-compete provisions to keep its Walmart team members from moving to Walmart Media Group, industry news publisher Ad Age reported.
Walmart was one of Triad's first clients, coming on board in 2004, according to Triad's website. Walmart also was Triad's biggest client.
In April, the Bentonville retailer further bolstered its in-house ad business when it bought the technology and assets of San Francisco startup Polymorph Labs. Polymorph's cloud-based technology was to be integrated into Walmart Media Group's proprietary ad targeting and measuring platform, a news release stated, and its product developers and engineers joined Walmart Media Group and Walmart Labs at offices in San Bruno and Sunnyvale, Calif., and Bangalore, India.
Neil Stern, a senior partner at retail consulting firm McMillan-Doolittle, said there's "a constant battle between taking something in-house versus outsourcing," and pros and cons to consider.
On the plus side, Stern said, going in-house gives companies greater control of the work. "The negative is perhaps a loss of creativity and an outside lens," he said.
Since this particular type of work -- digital advertising sales -- is "quite technical," Stern said, Sam's Club's decision "is probably a good overall move."
A report released in January and commissioned by advertising platform Bannerflow, in conjunction with Digiday, found that 91% of brands have moved at least part of their digital marketing operations in-house. Reasons given included cost efficiency, greater control and increased transparency.
British advertising and public relations company WPP bought Triad in 2016 for about $300 million. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Target Corp. was considering buying Triad, though nothing has come from those discussions. Triad's remaining clients include CVS, Kohl's, Staples, Office Depot, Wayfair and Bed Bath and Beyond.
Business on 12/13/2019