Walmart sends musicians home for back-to-school concerts, shoppable livestream

Marketing Dive says that Walmart is hosting a shoppable livestream concert to build excitement for the back-to-school season.

• Musician Kane Brown will perform at a free livestreamed and in-person concert in his hometown of Oglethorpe, Georgia, on Sept. 7. Viewers tuning in from home can unlock special shoppable content and back-to-school deals. The livestream is part of a larger concert series this month called “Homecoming,” in which Imagine Dragons and Chance the Rapper will each perform a free concert in their hometowns of Las Vegas and Chicago to celebrate teachers and their school communities.
• A TikTok challenge rounds out the effort, allowing participants to share why their favorite teachers deserve to be recognized. Together, the initiative is Walmart’s latest to bolster its digital retail presence around back-to-school.

A Kane Brown concert hosted by actors Noah Schnapp and Madison Bailey — held at Brown’s alma mater in Georgia — will offer viewers watching through Walmart’s live commerce site the chance to win prizes and deals. The livestream concert arrives as Walmart works to strengthen its digital retail presence.

Walmart is also hosting two in-person concerts as part of a larger “Homecoming” series to celebrate teachers and schools as classes resume. A TikTok challenge extends the effort to social media, letting participants submit posts via the hashtag #MyTeacherWins and share why their favorite teachers deserve to be recognized. Walmart will select 100 teachers and award them a $5,000 gift card and school supplies.

The ongoing threat of the COVID-19 delta variant could thwart elements of the campaign. In-person concerts may be disrupted given that artists and conferences are again beginning to cancel scheduled tours and events as COVID infections rise, but the series closeout with Kane Brown’s livestream event is likely to continue unaffected.