Walmart is putting a nostalgic pop culture spin on its holiday marketing strategy this season, leaning into a unified creative platform that features actor Walton Goggins alongside classic characters from "The Muppet Christmas Carol." The initiative, designed to span the entire holiday shopping window rather than segmented promotional blocks, anchors the retailer’s ongoing "Who Knew?" brand platform as it looks to capture the attention of a multigenerational audience.
In previous holiday seasons, the retail giant frequently rolled out disparate campaigns targeting different milestones, ranging from early-season promotions to the frantic ramp-up toward Black Friday. This year, however, Walmart’s chief marketing officer, William White, noted that the company has streamlined its storytelling under a single, overarching theme. The "Who Knew?" platform, which originally debuted last year, was specifically crafted to challenge public perceptions of the brand and reposition Walmart as a style- and trend-forward destination, particularly as the retailer successfully attracts higher-income shoppers.
"The holidays are an incredibly cluttered period of time from an advertising standpoint, and so the ability to break through is really important," White said in an interview with sister publication Marketing Dive. "Having one theme, one campaign throughout the season allows a really quick read for customers to know it’s Walmart."
The campaign’s creative vehicle, titled "A Who Knew Carol," places Goggins into the Victorian attire of Ebenezer Scrooge, the legendary miser from Charles Dickens’s "A Christmas Carol." Goggins, who famously transformed into the Grinch for Walmart’s holiday commercials last year, is joined on screen by a celebrated cast of Muppets, including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. Meanwhile, actor Stephanie Beatriz—another familiar face from the "Who Knew?" campaign—plays Scrooge’s niece and will helm the Spanish-language television spots.
The traditional narrative arc of Dickens’s story has been thoughtfully adapted to highlight Walmart’s diverse holiday offerings. The three specters haunting Scrooge are uniquely themed around essential seasonal shopping milestones. One ghost showcases curated gift ideas, another underscores the deep savings available during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and a third promotes last-minute convenience services, such as Walmart Express Delivery, which promises items in 30 minutes or less. As the campaign progresses, Goggins’s Scrooge transitions from a cynical "humbug" attitude to a warm appreciation for Walmart, a character arc that directly mirrors the broader "Who Knew?" brand reappraisal concept.
"We love ‘A Christmas Carol’ as a story because it’s a reappraisal story, and the ‘Who Knew?’ campaign is a reappraisal story for us as well," White explained.
Walmart Meets the Muppets
The ambitious campaign was developed in collaboration with Publicis Groupe agencies Fallon, Leo New York, The Community, Digitas, and Zenith. White views the Muppets as an ideal creative choice due to their enduring, broad consumer appeal and newly revitalized relevance, pointing to a recent television special featuring Sabrina Carpenter and their memorable cameo at the World Cup final halftime show.
Walmart initially teased the high-profile collaboration through a social media video released earlier, showing Goggins meeting Kermit on a busy studio lot. The broader stage for "A Who Knew Carol" officially opened with a long-form video that meticulously recreates "Scrooge," the iconic opening song from the beloved 1992 film adaptation, "The Muppet Christmas Carol."
Physical production sets were carefully designed to mirror the aesthetic of the 1992 film, while the script incorporates subtle winks and nods to the retail brand. In one moment, Rizzo the Rat humorously complains that Walmart did not even exist during the Victorian era. Furthermore, fan-favorite Muppets who were absent from the original movie, notably Pepe the King Prawn, have been woven into the campaign to tap into modern meme culture, according to Fallon CEO Nikki Baker. A comprehensive series of additional videos and complementary social media content is slated to roll out throughout the fourth quarter.
The extensive media plan encompasses broadcast television, streaming services, online video, social media, out-of-home displays, audio platforms, podcasts, digital spaces, and creator networks. The narrative concept will also be integrated into Walmart’s National Football League (NFL) broadcasts, with on-air personalities actively referencing the campaign elements. As part of a broader, sustained push to market itself as a legitimate fashion destination, Walmart will deploy Miss Piggy across its style-focused holiday marketing materials, though executives have kept specific details under wraps.
"[Creators] are helping to drive reappraisal, they’re helping to drive awareness and they’re driving conversion all within one moment, and so it’s an important part of our media mix," White noted.
Navigating the Holidays
Retailers are entering the thick of the fourth-quarter shopping period against a backdrop of mixed consumer sentiment regarding the broader economy, though the retail sector itself could remain insulated from some macroeconomic headwinds. Holiday spending on retail goods is projected to climb 10% year over year, according to recent surveys conducted by Deloitte. Walmart enters this critical sales window coming off a robust fiscal second quarter, during which total revenue rose 5.9% to reach $187.9 billion. Notably, e-commerce surged 24% year over year and now accounts for nearly one-quarter of the company’s total U.S. sales, representing double its market share from five years ago.
Meanwhile, competition remains fierce. Target, Walmart’s primary brick-and-mortar rival, has also ramped up its holiday marketing efforts, rolling out a high-concept campaign centered on a fictional academy where specialized departments and faculty members focus on various forms of expert gift-giving.
The timeless source material of "A Christmas Carol" is frequently revisited around the holidays, but the classic tale is poised to receive heightened public attention this year beyond commercial advertising. A separate cinematic take on the story, titled "Ebenezer," stars Johnny Depp as Scrooge and is being marketed as a significant comeback moment for the actor following years of legal challenges and public scrutiny.
"I think it’ll be a great momentum to the campaign, and people will be engaged in the IP," White said regarding the cultural timing. "That’s a nice add-on."