Battle Of The Giant Retailer Reviews

With a $570 million media spend, Wal-Mart is the biggest account review of the year so far—more than twice the size of $250 million competitor Safeway, which put its business up for grabs earlier this month. But that doesn’t mean the former is likely to attract more interest than the latter.

For one, agency executives say Wal-Mart’s plethora of goods—the Bentonville, Ark., retailer sells everything from groceries to clothes, electronics and furniture—makes it a giant category-buster that would prevent the winner from pursuing accounts in numerous other categories.

Creative issues factor in as well.