When a D2C-success like, hydration brand Liquid I.V., quickly moves into tens of thousands of retail outlets nationwide, the marketing plan moves predictably to big brand efforts that drive awareness. But that does not mean leaving behind the performance-based D2C tactics, brand integrity and intentionality that got it there. As Vice President of Marketing Stacey Andrade-Wells explains, even big investments on Twitch, OTT, OOH and linear TV require intentional buys, deliberate uses of different creative messaging for distinct segments, contexts, and content. We explore how D2Cs can maintain their performance-media discipline as they go big with branding that loops back to mid- and bottom-funnel efforts.

As more digitally native product brands migrate to traditional shelves, D2Cs will need to reshuffle the marketing deck for an e-comm path-to-purchase. Where should your media target consumers - to higher margin direct channels/partners or brick and mortar? What are the synergies between the two channels? We ask several brands how they are rethinking their marketing and media planning for a more complex omnichannel customer journey. How have branding allocations and messaging changed? How can they best leverage the brand lift of real-world shelf exposure? What data are retailers sharing with them? And ultimately, how does B&M presence reshape brand strategy?

Digital native brands are famously data-driven. But when it comes to developing new products and services, what is the process for using customer insights to imagine new products, test, learn, rinse and repeat? The MeUndies model relies on variety and fresh fashion and leans heavily on analytics and insights. Casey explores how they have learned to apply different kinds of insight at specific phases of development – to map development lifecycle against research lifecycle.

A year ago, Visible Wireless built its own social sandbox apart from the usual platforms. It was a forum for prospects to discuss what they liked. As a class of “SuperUsers” emerged, Visible started seeing a strategy for a self-run community that could have solid KPIs, drive SEO, customer support and even beta testers. David shares the learnings and benefits from DIY social.

Shuttles leave from the hotel at 6:15pm sharp! (a 5 minute ride)

As Grove Collaborative moved from a pure play D2C into broader retail presence, it had to test and learn its way into a more evolved omnichannel approach. Samantha shares key learnings about the weaknesses of siloed D2C/retail teams and goals and how the brand built a fully integrated “internal agency” model. What did they learn about assigning different messaging and allocations, even choice of influencers, for different aims? What did they learn about useful testing, internal briefs and measuring success. And how does this emerging model point towards a different idea of what a CPG company is in a channel agnostic future?

Facebook and Instagram have been the fossil fuel of D2C growth. But many DTCs are breaking the addiction to pursue more efficient and measurable channels - from affiliates to emerging channels, even to direct mail. Two D2C founders interview one another on their best practices and discoveries in pursuing a growth path outside of mainstream social channels.

Prebiotic soda poppi became one of the fastest growing non-alcoholic beverages in the U.S. in part from mastering emerging social channels.  But how did poppi go viral on TikTok with over 48.5M views from a single post, rank #1 on Amazon search for “soda”, and sell over half a million dollars of online purchases in just one day? Allison Ellsworth shares how leveraging TikTok became a main awareness and growth driver and how poppi’s cultural cachet was built through organic social, influencers and content creators. We will explore how D2C brands can benefit from these tactics, maneuver limited media budgets, and ultimately create a brand consumers love.

As customer acquisition costs soar, many DTC brands are seeking greater efficiency by increasing the lifetime value of their existing customer base. Winc CMO Jai Dolwani demonstrates how his brand takes the same performance and data-driven approach to increasing LTV as it does driving conversions. Everything from purchase and cancellation reasons to competitive analysis and Net Promotor Score are data points that drive core insights around how customers value your brand and respond to promotion. Jai walks through what Winc has learned from activating those insights in campaigns that worked.

We close the D2C Brand Insider Summit with Show and Tell. We ask several of our D2C brands to share examples of creative ads that have broken through and tell us how and why it worked.