‘I want there to be conflict’: How DTCs manage tension between their performance and brand marketing teams

As digitally-native brands are spending more on brand marketing, they find they may have to manage tension between different members of their marketing team, as what's best for the brand may not always be deemed best by performance marketing standards.

Explainer: What retailers need to know about building multi-touch attribution models

Multi-touch attribution has become the attribution method of choice for brands, especially direct-to-consumer ones,  once they start advertising on more channels than just Facebook and Google. But switching to a multi-touch attribution model isn't as simple of a switch as transitioning from one software vendor to another. It is often a months-long project, that requires close communication between a brand's marketing and data science teams.

The most important new role at DTCs: Retention specialists

As direct-to-consumer brands expand into new categories, they're starting to hire more marketers with a special focus on retention, whose goal is to win over more business from repeat customers. Brands that currently have openings for retention marketers at various levels include Brooklinen, Care/Of, Peloton and Prose.

How fast food became the new Supreme

Supreme has long been an arbiter of all what's cool, thanks to its drop model strategy. The brand keeps customers waiting and then drops new items at a moment's notice. Now, fast food restaurants are taking to this ploy.

Explainer: How retail brands are building fractional attribution models

Attribution has been a sore spot for brands, especially those that are diversifying their marketing mixes, for years. There are many different methods to figuring out attribution. One that's increasingly popular is "fractional attribution." And for so-called DTC brands, who are now diversifying their ad spend beyond Facebook and Google, they're more likely to allocate their marketing dollars based on a fractional attribution model instead of last-click or click-based attribution model.

As brand purpose becomes mainstream, some brands choose to go the other away

Younger brands that built social responsibility into their businesses from the beginning are establishing new brand-purpose playbooks that demonstrate how a cause or mission can penetrate a company – in spite of its inherent capitalist nature – beyond a marketing campaign, demonstrating instead a dedication to social responsibility.

How Pinterest is pitching DTC companies through a new ‘disruptor brands’ sales team

In January, Pinterest created a new sales team that was tasked with figuring out how they can get younger startups, particularly direct-to-consumer brands, to spend more money on the platform.

How DTC brands are navigating multi-touch attribution, explained

As direct-to-consumer brands grow up and spend more money on traditional marketing channels, figuring out how effective each of these marketing channels are becomes a much more challenging process. When brands start spending on channels like direct mail or television, they can no longer just count on the number of clicks to determine what's working.  And that's where multi-touch attribution comes in.

Faced with rising online costs, DTC brands are now spending more money on traditional marketing channels

Brands transitioning their marketing strategies to account for broad awareness-raising channels – which yield little to no insight into attribution or customer data – have to navigate an awkward growing-up phase that requires a reallocation of resources, navigating partnerships, new methods for tracking results and back-end preparation to meet a new level of customer response.

Mattress brand Eight Sleep used a new product launch to reduce its dependence on Facebook

When five-year-old startup Eight Sleep released a new product in February, a $1,995 smart mattress that offers dynamic temperature adjustment, the company used the launch to kick off a "pretty intense testing phase" of new marketing channels, according to senior vice president of growth Ori Klein.

Nearly a billion-dollar brand, Athleta is ramping up its marketing spending

Billion-dollar growth requires a relentless marketing strategy, and CMO Sheila Shekar Pollak said that Athleta’s seen the most success in investing in both traditional marketing methods, particularly catalogs, as well as paid social media marketing, where the company has considerably increased its spending this year.

How DTC pioneer Thinx uses technology to deliver a shopping experience that turns customers into advocates