WALMART CONNECT – INTEGRATED CREATIVE TEAM helpED transform the organization from a manual creative agency into a scalable, self-serve platform.
Role: Creative Director, Integrated Creative Lead | Focus: Brand Strategy, Design Systems, & GenAI Operations
LONG STORY SHORT
Led the Integrated Creative Team, a cross-functional team responsible of creating Cross-Category omnichannel campaigns.
Key Achievements
Created strategic opportunities for advertisers to leverage Walmart brand’s equity to drive visibility, relevance, & results.
Matrix Manager
Partnered with a complex matrix of stakeholders across Legal & Policy, Enterprise Brand (Walmart+ and Corporate), and Go-to-Market / Marketing Strategy to ensure seamless execution.
Pioneered the integration of Generative AI to build automated, self-serve creative tools and achieved an impressive YoY increase in incremental revenue by redefining how advertisers engage with the Walmart brand & ecosystem.
OTHER Accomplishments
Beyond successful campaign executions, my team (ICT) served as a central hub for creative governance and future-facing strategy.
We established the WMC Ad Policy Visual Resource, ensuring advertisers could safely leverage Walmart’s equity, including sub-brands like Walmart+ and seasonal events, with precision and compliance.
Led the operational global expansion of the creative department, developing training assets to integrate the WMC India team, production partners in China, the Philippines and Uruguay, effectively scaling our global creative talent.
Spearheaded the integration of Generative AI, training models to build automated ad-creation tools that allow advertisers to generate high-quality assets at scale.
I also identified a critical gap in our market approach and established Spanish-language ad support capabilities, providing the creative strategy, translation services, and research needed to authentically engage Hispanic audiences.
Deep Dive
ROLE Creative LEAD. Storyteller. Opportunity Creator.
As a Creative Lead, I led a cross-functional in-house crew specialized in blending the massive power of the Walmart brand with the unique goals of our advertisers.
By turning the Walmart ecosystem into a premium canvas, we moved the needle from "buying ad space" to "building creative partnerships.”
Created campaigns that provided opportunities for advertisers to authentically show up across Walmart platforms, strategically allowing advertisers to leverage Walmart brand’s equity to drive visibility, relevance, and results
Partnered with cross-functional stakeholders to translate complex strategy into scalable visual systems across the entire brand ecosystem. That’s huge.
Strategy
Bridged the gap between enterprise branding, performance marketing, and omni-channel storytelling by focusing the team on these main areas:
-
Focused on Marketing campaigns, ICT created real opportunities for brands to show up organically, in ways that didn’t feel like ads but felt like they belonged, and brands noticed— big time.
-
This allowed Advertisers to thoughtfully and intentionally incorporate & leverage Walmart's powerful brand identity, values, & messaging into various aspects of marketing campaigns & customer experiences.
-
Focusing primarily on the Future, where strategy, execution, and communication achieve the ultimate goal of all marketing campaigns: Positive disruption.
CREATIVE INTEGRATION
Marketing Campaigns
ICT created real opportunities for brands to show up organically, in ways that didn’t feel like ads but felt like they belonged, and brands noticed— big time.
Design INTEGRATION
BRAND guidance
This allowed brands to thoughtfully and intentionally incorporate & leverage Walmart's powerful brand identity, values, & messaging into various aspects of marketing campaigns & customer experiences.
-
In collaboration with Walmart Studio and Walmart Connect Marketing, I led creative solutions for major retail moments like Black Friday and Fall, Summer & Holiday Deals. Our goal was to help advertisers move beyond standard "ads" and integrate seamlessly into the Walmart ecosystem. By balancing strict enterprise design guidelines with advertiser goals, we delivered sponsored content that felt organic to the customer journey rather than intrusive.
-
My team served as the strategic bridge between Walmart Enterprise and Walmart Connect, tasked with translating core retail programs—such as Walmart Rollback, Walmart Livestream, Walmart Cash, and Express Delivery—into advertising opportunities.
We developed comprehensive design systems and style guides that allowed advertisers to leverage these high-value programs while maintaining strict brand integrity. This involved navigating complex stakeholder approvals across Legal, Marketing, and Enterprise Design to create scalable asset kits used by the broader creative organization.
-
In partnership with Walmart Creative Studio, I led the "translation" of Walmart’s massive seasonal visual identities for the advertising ecosystem. We took the high-level Enterprise design language—for moments like Holiday or Back to School—and adapted it into advertiser-ready frameworks. This allowed suppliers to align their creative with Walmart’s macro campaigns, leveraging the retailer's brand equity while maintaining their own unique presence.
-
I acted as the creative lead for maximizing the value of unallocated inventory. Rather than leaving ad space unused, I developed a creative strategy to utilize this inventory for high-priority internal initiatives.
Private Brand Growth: Directed creative execution for major private labels & Walmart Exclusive Collabs including Levis Strauss jeans, Lee Jeans, Wrangler, Paris Hilton, Great Value, No Boundaries, Wonder Nation, Bettergoods, Equate, and Special Kitty, giving them premium visibility.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Leveraged inventory to amplify Walmart’s values-driven campaigns such as Build For Better, Black & Unlimited, and Pride.
Impact: Transformed unsold media into a powerful storytelling channel for Enterprise goals.
Global Management: Oversaw design execution through a mix of offshore teams (WMC India) and agency partners, managing strict quality control via WorkFront for all campaigns.
Process: I established the design standards and operational workflows, directing global production partners. I ensured that high-volume requests for brands like One Finance and Wonder Nation maintained a high creative bar while moving efficiently through the production funnel.
Innovation Integration
Skill Up-leveling & Innovation
Focusing primarily on the Future, where strategy, execution, and communication achieve the ultimate goal of all marketing campaigns: Positive disruption.
-
Championed a culture of continuous innovation, tasked with identifying disruptive solutions for evolving creative challenges and integrating emerging resources to future-proof the team’s capabilities.
-
Directed the strategic training of Generative AI models to develop automated ad creation tools, empowering advertisers with self-service creative solutions at scale.
-
Developed and implemented the WMC Ad Policy Visual Resource, providing critical guidance for advertisers to leverage the Walmart brand and sub-brands (e.g., Walmart+, Rollback, Express Delivery) compliantly and effectively.
-
Collaborated with the Enterprise Creative Team to ensure all advertiser campaigns aligned with evolving brand guidelines, including major seasonal beats like Annual Events and Walmart Deals.
-
Directed the expansion of creative capabilities by establishing processes and training assets for all production partners worldwide and the creation of the Walmart Connect India team, successfully integrating them into the broader creative workflow to increase bandwidth and output.
-
I spearheaded the initiative for Spanish-language ad support, building a comprehensive ecosystem of creative strategy, translations, and market research to drive relevance and results within the Hispanic market.
Meet the team
Integrated Creative Team
Creative Lead: Orlando Bogado | Art Direction: Ben Fong, Praise Burnham | Copy: Elijah Bates | Design: Brian Smith Smith, Brandon Cayaban, Michael Agdeppa, Desiree Rohlf, Wei-en Yang | Motion Design: Krzysztof Pac, Yani Qu | Operations: Matt Baetz, Nasim Eghlima, Sheila Jordan.
