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By Nick Pietropinto To successfully scale their brands, direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketers must also scale their reach. That includes not only connecting with more customers inside the boundaries of their native countries, but across wider geographic areas. The first natural step for scaling D2C brands based in the U.S. is expanding into the full North American market. There, you’ll find tremendous untapped potential, particularly in the realm of online sales. There’s no question that D2C in the U.S. continues to gain traction. U.S. retail marketplace e-commerce sales are predicted to reach $428.3 billion in 2024 — a growth that is forecasted to double by 2027. Specifically for U.S.-based D2C companies, e-commerce sales are expected to grow 16.4 percent in 2025 to reach $197.1 billion. Not bad. But this exponential growth in also not limited to the U.S. alone. Canada’s D2C Is on the Rise Looking at the North American D2C market in general, we see a similar high-growth trend. Let’s start with our friendly neighbors to the north. Like much of the globe, Canada has seen a surge in D2C in recent years. In early 2022, online retail sales in Canada totaled around 3 billion Canadian dollars (over $2 billion U.S. dollars), with an estimated 29 million Canadians making online purchase. In a recent survey, many Canadians voiced a preference for shopping online versus in-person, citing cost savings and convenience as the primary reasons. This shift in Canadian consumer behavior is apparent in the growth of e-commerce sales, which experienced a 75 percent increase in 2020 and generated a total of $5.19 billion Canadian dollars in sales. In 2022, Canadians spent $815.5 billion on retailers — $63.7 billion of which came through online sales. Indeed, Canada is now the ninth-largest market for online retail, and revenue from online sales is expected to surpass $100 billion by 2026. Despite the rise in e-commerce, Canadian businesses have been slow to embrace digital sales and build an online presence — leaving the door open to U.S. D2C brands to fill the gap and meet the demand. Interestingly, especially for U.S.-based D2C marketers, 45 percent of Canadians do their online shopping on websites outside of the country — including those in the U.S. — citing lower prices and better product range as the main reasons. Canadian Consumers Make Ideal D2C Customers But who are these shoppers? Let’s dig into that a bit. About 82 percent of Canada’s total population shop retail online. As of 2022, online shoppers in Canada made more than 26 online purchases per year, with 27 percent avoiding malls and 21 percent avoiding in-store shopping. What’s more, about 16 percent of Canadians had online subscriptions to goods and services in 2022 — a number that has certainly grown in recent years. By 2020, 37 percent of Canada’s online shoppers were Baby Boomers (ages 53 to 72), with Gen Xers (ages 38 to 52) and Millennials (ages 24-27) coming in second and third respectively. This last younger demographic is expected to drive even more growth in online sales. Canadian’s burgeoning and digital-savvy Millennial and Gen Z populations, now the dominant generation in the country, made an ideal customer base for U.S. D2C brands. Mexico Ranks Second in Latin America’s Online Retail Sales Canada has some significant competition coming from the south when it comes D2C opportunities. In general, online sales across Latin America are in hypergrowth mode. Latin America boasted the world’s second-largest e-commerce growth in 2019, and is expected to achieve a 30-percent annual increase though 2025. Coming in second place in Latin America for e-commerce sales — with a solid 27-percent year-over-year growth starting in 2021 and $38 billion in online sales — Mexico offers one of the region’s most attractive and compelling markets for D2C brands. For starters, D2C brands who sell their products online in Mexico can take advantage of lower cost-per-clicks for their digital campaigns, which, in turn, drives down customer acquisition costs. What’s more, brands that do business in Mexico typically achieve a 20-plus percent growth in profit per order. This potential for profitability is a key factor driving D2C brands to expand into Mexico. Additional compelling reasons include Mexico’s close proximity to the U.S. along with its sheer market size, which represented MXN 7,779 billion (over $454 billion) in 2022. That market size is predicted to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 6 percent by 2027. Mexico’s online retail market in 2023 grew around 33 percent to $50.7 billion — outpacing the 22-percent growth rate total of U.S. e-commerce revenue. Online retail in Mexico is forecasted to see a CAGR of 13.3 percent by 2026, continuing the momentum. Consumer demographics in Mexico should be attracting more D2C brands as well. Mexico is experiencing economic growth, with an expanding and well-educated middle class, rising disposable incomes, more urbanization, and younger demographics with a median age of 29.6 years who are driving retail sales — particularly of the online and omnichannel varieties. By the end of 2022, Mexico’s online retail market reached 64 million consumers who spent an average of $580 annually per person. And while growing by leaps and bounds, the online retail marketplace in Mexico is still untapped — giving U.S.-based D2C brands a golden opportunity to get in there early and stake out unclaimed territory. Your Checklist for Expanding into Mexico and Canada Clearly, opportunities for U.S.-based D2C brands abound in both Canada and Mexico. In order the fully capitalize on those opportunities, however, D2C marketers will need to have the right resources, expertise, and strategies in place. These include: Bilingual Customer Experiences: While many Canadians speak English as their primary language (around 76 percent), a significant population (22 percent) considers French their mother tongue. In Mexico, over 93 percent of the population speaks Spanish only, with just 5 percent reported to speak English. As such, it’s critical for D2C brands selling in these countries to provide a seamless bi-lingual experience at every customer touchpoint — from websites to digital and traditional ads to social media to call centers — in order to truly connect with these consumers, drive conversions and sales, and build customer loyalty. Omnichannel Approach: As with today’s U.S. consumers, shoppers in Mexico and Canada are using a complex array of platforms to learn about brands and products, and to shop — including websites, social media, linear and streaming TV, radio, outdoor, influencers, email, and more. Embracing an omnichannel approach is just as critical for reaching these audiences as it is with U.S.-based consumers. Data-Driven D2C Campaigns: Just as they speak different languages, consumers in Mexico and Canada have different consumer preferences, values, and behaviors than U.S. audiences. Understanding these new consumers requires having access to data and analytics that reveal insight into where and how to best reach Canadian and Mexican customers across all demographics and segments with the right message and media mix. A data-driven approach will also enable you to see what’s working in these markets, and where to make refinements to improve results. Media and Vendor Management: U.S.-based brands may not be familiar with media outlets in Canada and Mexico. Likewise, they may not know which locally based vendors in these countries they should be working with, and how to effectively manage these vendors across geographic and language barriers. This is where finding a partner with proven expertise in managing media and vendors in Mexico and Canada can save you significant time and money while maximizing results. Once you’ve expanded throughout North America, the next step will be to launch your D2C brand globally. Keep a look out for our next article, featuring best practices for expanding into high-growth English-speaking international markets including the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. At Double Diamond VIP, we bring extensive experience scaling D2C brands internationally. Reach out to our bilingual expert team today to see how we can help you break into these exciting markets. Learn more at www.TryD2C.com. Nick Pietropinto is the founder and CEO of Double Diamond VIP. He can be reached via email at nick@doublediamondvip.com.

Since the launch of the PDMI's Results Magazine in 2019, DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, has provided a quarterly snapshot of the leading short-form and long-form performance marketing campaigns on television. Starting in January 2024, the PDMI and DRMetrix began making that TV rankings snapshot available on a monthly basis, by releasing two months per quarter here, in the association's Web Exclusives area, with the third month continuing to appear in the quarterly edition of Results. To find the latest DRMetrix list of the top 10 brand/lead-gen short-form performance TV campaigns, top 10 traditional short-form DRTV products, and top-10 long-form products (as measured from April 1-28, 2024), please click here. For more information on DRMetrix's services, visit its website here or contact the company via phone at (951) 370-1458 or via email at info@drmetrix.com.

How to challenge your competitors’ advertising while avoiding being targeted. Losing market share to a competitor touting its superiority makes your job harder and is frustrating, particularly when those claims are unsubstantiated or deceptive. You may want to counter your competitor’s claims with comparative advertising of your own or take legal action to make them stop. Before taking action, a company should carefully weigh its options, because the risks may outweigh the benefits, explained Venable LLP partners Shahin Rothermel, Claudia Lewis, and Ari Rothman in a recent webinar. 6 Options for Challenging Competitors Want to challenge your competitors’ claims? Consider these six options — each with its own advantages and disadvantages. 1. Send a Cease-and-Desist Letter A cease-and-desist letter threatens specific action and challenges specific problems with your competitor’s advertising. It is most effective when you have substantial evidence and can tell a story explaining why you are right. Among the advantages to this approach: The legal fees are relatively low, which helps conserve your company’s resources. You may be able to get results from a relatively small investment. Among the disadvantages to this approach: If your target doesn’t change their misconduct, you must be ready to act. If you aren’t, they may conclude you aren’t serious and become emboldened. It may prompt your target to launch a counterattack. 2. Report the Competitor to a Federal or State Regulator On the federal level, this is usually the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Communications Commission (FTC), or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Your company can make the report itself or do so through an outside law firm. But, whatever you do, be careful that your company isn’t also engaging in any of the practices you’re complaining about. Regulators will look at the reporting companies' actions and sometimes will respond to a complaint by making an investigative sweep of all companies in an industry. Among the advantages to this approach: Regulators could take action that levels the playing field in your industry. It’s cost effective because the regulators do all of the work. Among the disadvantages to this approach: If you don’t make the report anonymously, your company will probably receive the same scrutiny as your competitor. You don’t have any control over enforcement measures and won’t know if or when an investigation begins or how it is resolved. 3. File a False Advertising Lawsuit You can file in state or federal court, and there are advantages and disadvantages to each approach, depending on which state or jurisdiction you would be filing in. Most cases settle before trial, but to achieve a favorable settlement or trial outcome, you need to demonstrate that the unsubstantiated or deceptive claims: were made in a commercial advertisement or promotion; were materially false or misleading; were made in ads or promotions that deceived or had the power to deceive customers; and caused your company to suffer real damages. Among the advantages to this approach: It shows your target (and other competitors in the marketplace) you’re serious. It’s most likely to achieve rapid results from competitors who are unwilling or unable to defend a costly lawsuit. You can issue expansive discovery to learn more about the target's bad actions. Among the disadvantages to this approach: It opens your company up to potential counterclaims. Litigation is public, which could help or hurt you. 4. File a Lawsuit Requesting a Preliminary Injunction or a Temporary Restraining Order To succeed in this approach, you must demonstrate all four of these things are true: 1) your claim is likely to succeed on its merits; 2) you are likely to suffer irreparable harm if you don’t receive preliminary relief; 3) the balance of the equities tips in your favor; and 4) an injunction is in the public interest. Among the advantages to this approach: You can bring a rapid end to the unsubstantiated or deceptive claims, as targets are more likely to capitulate when faced with the costs of defending these actions. You will receive expedited discovery. Among the disadvantages to this approach: It’s costly. You also have to provide information quickly, which takes time and money. 5. Engage in Discussion Among Leadership and Business Teams Talking things out with your competitor can lead to a faster and cheaper resolution, as long as you’re careful in your conversations. It can also build goodwill and prompt others to return the favor in the future, instead of taking more drastic steps next time you make a misstep. When doing so, you should avoid disclosing potentially harmful information or over-committing (listen more than you talk), and end the meeting if the conversation becomes counterproductive. 6. Do Nothing — or Wait and See You don’t have to react immediately when a competitor makes unsubstantiated or deceptive statements about your company. You can wait and take action later. You should if one or more of the following is true: Your company is fielding an investigation by a regulator or defending against a lawsuit or demand letter. You aren’t sure you can prove your case. You want to sell your company in the near future. The claim isn’t causing your business substantial harm, and the potential downside of taking action isn't worth the upside. Among the advantages to this approach: You avoid legal fees. You save resources that can be spent elsewhere, such as on your own company’s advertising. Among the disadvantages to this approach: Your targets may escalate their misconduct if they see no one is acting against them. Not acting could be particularly problematic in trademark infringement cases. What About National Advertising Division Claims? Claudia, Shahin, and Ari get this question a lot and encourage companies to use the National Advertising Division (NAD) to challenge a competitor making unsubstantiated or deceptive claims. NAD offers a voluntary, self-regulatory dispute resolution forum. Although it can’t force a company to participate in its process or officially enforce recommendations that come out of that process, companies who refuse to participate in the process or comply with recommendations are referred by NAD to the FTC, FDA, or FCC. Those agencies may open an investigation or even take more drastic action. Among the advantages to this approach: Lower costs Often faster than litigation The burden is on the target to prove their claims truthful, substantiated, and not misleading. Among the disadvantages to this approach: You have limited control. The process increases focus on your advertising as well as your target’s. How to Reduce the Risk of Counterclaims You don’t want your efforts to shut down your competitor’s unsubstantiated or deceptive claims to result in their filing a counterclaim. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk of that happening. Avoid comparing your company with competitors and making claims your company is superior. When you call out a competitor by name, or in a way that makes it clear you’re talking about them, they are more likely to challenge you. Scrupulously substantiate your own advertising claims. Evaluate your marketing channels to confirm you aren’t engaging in high-risk activities that competitors might want to challenge. Check your affiliates’ actions, because affiliate review and ranking sites put you at high risk for a challenge, and social influencers often make disparaging claims. Conduct periodic audits to ensure no high-risk activities have made their way into your marketing and advertising efforts. Important Ethical Considerations As you work to keep your competitors honest, you need to ensure you’re doing everything cleanly so you can avoid legal and reputational risk. Key dos and don’ts include: Do document everything when you use secret shopping tactics to evaluate the competition. That includes capturing full screenshots with date and time stamps, prices, and receipts. Don’t misinterpret yourself, engage in extortion or blackmail, or write demand letters with threats that you will go to law enforcement to settle a civil case. For More Information Click on any of their names to reach out to Claudia, Shahin, or Ari if you have questions about any of this information or a specific situation affecting your company. You also can: Watch a recording of the entire webinar, “Why Can They Say That but I Can’t? How to Challenge Your Competitors’ Advertising While Avoiding Being Targeted.” Visit the All About Advertising Law blog to get more insight from Venable’s Advertising and Marketing Group. Listen to our Ad Law Podcast. And sign up to be among the first to know about upcoming events hosted by the group.

By Nick Pietropinto Ask CEOs to identify their top business goal, and many will answer, “Growing my company.” Clearly, growth is a key metric of business success. But in the world of direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses, there’s a case to be made for placing more emphasis on scaling, rather than simply growing. Before we delve in why that is, let’s clarify what we mean by growth versus scale. For most businesses, growth refers to the amount of revenue a company adds to its coffers — typically measured every quarter. To achieve that growth, however, businesses must often grow their resources as well: for example, hire more people, invest in more technology, expand into new locations, acquire more clients, and/or secure more capital. All of which come with significant costs. As the adage goes, “It takes money to make money.” Scale, on the other hand, focuses on increasing revenues and profit margins without substantially increasing your costs. So, for example, you scale your customer base from 100 to 1,000 clients without having to hire new people or spend substantially more on advertising. More than merely growing your business, scaling requires being more efficient in doing so. D2C Brands Are Growing. But Are They Scaling? There’s no question D2C businesses are experiencing rapid growth. Around 43 percent of American consumers are now familiar with D2C brands, and 69 percent of those have made at least one D2C purchase in the past year. Experts predict that by 2025, the global D2C market will reach an astonishing $1.5 trillion. Just look at Lovevery — the D2C educational toy brand — which has experienced 1,043-percent growth during the past 5 years. And they’re not alone. The challenge is in translating that growth into sustainable revenues and profitability. Data reveals that two-thirds of the fastest-growing startups wind up failing. For instance, e-commerce fashion brand Nasty Gal enjoyed rapid growth, but failed to make a profit due to high overhead costs. And companies that have the fastest revenue growth often have poorer performance than slow-growing businesses. By no means does this mean you should avoid rapid growth. It does mean that as a D2C brand, you should be thinking strategically about how to sustain that growth while also being more efficient. That’s where scaling comes into play. To quote Hendrith Vanlon Smith, Jr., a managing partner at Mayflower-Plymouth, “Every company that intends to grow, should directly address the barriers to scaling.” There are many different ways to scale a business — from improving the supply chain to streamlining operations to adjusting pricing to automated processes. But for now, let’s focus on one of the most impactful strategies: scaling your D2C brand to drive profitability. Growing a successful D2C brand in today’s fragmented, complex, and highly competitive retail landscape while remaining profitable is no easy task. It can take tremendous amounts of time, effort, and capital that eat into revenues. The good news is there are tried-and-tested methods for scaling a D2C brand without significantly increasing your costs. Here are seven best practices we employ with great results for our D2C clients. Solve a Problem. Before you can scale, you’ve got to determine what problems your product solves. Defining your brand’s purpose is an essential first step to scaling its success. American economist and Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt said it best: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole.” So, while bells and whistles are fine and well, having a product that achieves the end-result your customers want is critical to standing out and driving demand. Target Your Audience. Without knowing exactly who your customers are, you might as well be throwing your marketing dollars into the wind. Maximizing the cost-effectiveness and ROI of your media purchases requires identifying your ideal target audience — including their buying behaviors and the media they consume. This targeted approach allows you to spend less money while reaching more prospects, which — in turn — lowers your per-lead and customer-acquisition costs. Broaden Your Media Mix. In today’s fragmented media landscape, investing all your media budget in single channel to reach your customers simply won’t cut it. The most cost-effective way to scale your reach, leads, and conversions is by creating a strategic media mix based on your target audience’s media habits. This mix should ensure that your consumers see and engage with your D2C brand on every channel and platform they use. Embrace an Omnichannel Strategy. The D2C model is no longer limited to online only. Which is why your media mix should adopt an omnichannel approach that juggles digital, social, traditional, print, outdoor, TV, video, radio, in-person, email, influencer, and more — with a highly strategic cadence that you continually fine-tune. An omnichannel approach supports an elevated customer experience, while making your D2C brand seem like it’s everywhere all at once without costing you a fortune in ad spend. Maximize Customer Lifetime Value. According to PwC’s 2023 Global Consumer Insights Pulse Survey, 58 percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from brands they have a direct relationship with. And McKinsey reports that D2C brands have a 50-percent higher customer lifetime value (CLV) than traditional brands. Maximizing CLV, however, requires providing an exceptional customer experience before, during, and after the purchase. That’s where having quality, trained, and well-managed call centers becomes essential to scaling while also driving revenue. Make Data-Driven Decisions. Scaling effectively requires the agility to make fast decisions and pivot on a dime. It’s critical to make sure those decisions are also driven by data. From identifying your target audience, to creating your media mix, to adjusting your omnichannel strategy, data holds the key to maximizing the return on your brand-scaling activities. Data will also show you what’s working and what isn’t, so you can target your spend and stop wasting money. Work With a Media Management Expert. Doing all the above can be a challenge, especially when you’re running a D2C business. Bringing in a media management expert can end up saving you a lot of money while scaling your brand with optimal success. The right partner will have a proven data-driven methodology, strong vendor relationships and management skills, omnichannel expertise, cost-saving strategies for media buys, and call center resources that drive CLV. They’ll help you maximize your media efficiencies, make faster decisions based on experience, do more with less, and boost sales while boosting your D2C brand. The bottom line, without scaling there is no growth. At Double Diamond VIP, we offer demonstrated expertise in scaling D2C brands while simultaneously driving revenue. The two can go hand-in-hand, and our team is ready to show you how. Learn more at www.TryD2C.com. Nick Pietropinto is the founder and CEO of Double Diamond VIP. He can be reached via email at nick@doublediamondvip.com.

Since the launch of the PDMI's Results Magazine in 2019, DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, has provided a quarterly snapshot of the leading short-form and long-form performance marketing campaigns on television. Starting in January 2024, the PDMI and DRMetrix began making that TV rankings snapshot available on a monthly basis, by releasing two months per quarter here, in the association's Web Exclusives area, with the third month continuing to appear in the quarterly edition of Results. To find the latest DRMetrix list of the top 10 brand/lead-gen short-form performance TV campaigns, top 10 traditional short-form DRTV products, and top-10 long-form products (as measured from Feb. 26-March 31, 2024), please click here. For more information on DRMetrix's services, visit its website here or contact the company via phone at (951) 370-1458 or via email at info@drmetrix.com.

By Marcelino Miyares Ten years ago, my partner and I opened the doors of d2H Partners with one burning question: “Are we crazy?” That was when direct response meant DRTV. This is not so much the case anymore, given the growing complexity of marketing in the 2020s. I am talking about CTV, OTT, ROAS, AI, and attribution just to name a few of the advances in the arsenals of account planning these days. Add “Hispanic direct response” to this mix, and you get a feel for how much more poignant our initial question has become. d2H operates as a niche-within-a-niche agency. We not only target the U.S. Hispanic consumer market. We specialize in direct-to-consumer campaigns within this multicultural segment. Looking back on these first 10 years, and despite the evolution of our trade, I can now share what we consider the five keys to our success, which is to say, a quick summary of our approach to our clients’ paths to profit in the U.S. Hispanic consumer market (HCM). Authenticity and Best Practices Let us start with what is at once the most obvious yet most subjective of premises. How do we convince advertisers that authenticity is absolutely not just about language and skin tone? Sound messaging and best media practices have less to do with reach and frequency — in other words, traditional media metrics — than with fluency and comprehension. Reaching a Spanish-dominant, or even Spanish-preferring and bilingual customers, is less about the language of their media than in-cultural insight. By this, we mean insights about the cultural cues required to get them to watch, the inhibitors that get in the way, the motivators that incite them to action, and the cultural values that grant them permission to respond. None of this can be translated — particularly across all of the screens and platforms that we manage in our media mixes today. Parallel Planning Advertisers should focus on reaching all segments across all screens with equal impact, as opposed to trying to reach them all efficiently. If you stay on the total market course, you will literally miss the mark. Account planning for the HCM should start with a blank screen and offer strategic, not convenient, solutions to parallel media plans and platforms. The traditional model defended by the large holding company agencies is to blend consumer segments into “total market” calculations with the most common denominators of messages dumbed down to allow for “representation” of all segments in any given market. We add value by illustrating that the total market approach is not as effective as a whole market approach. Social media platforms, FAST channels, and streaming platforms have pretty much obliterated the total market approach. Closing the “Per Capita” Spending Gap Total market planning comes with short- and long-term opportunity costs. The end result is an unbelievable gap in per-capita spending by segment. How can an advertiser expect the same ROI on any given Hispanic campaign when they spend seven times as much per capita (7X) in the general market as the HCM? Parallel planning requires proportional spending on every step of the customer journey. Truth to Power Spending is one axis of the English/Spanish-language media quadrant. The other is messaging. Speaking truth to power requires that we communicate micro-aggressions, flaws in authenticity, and other obvious cultural faux pas in their current advertising regimen. No doubt, this has cost us business. But it has also earned us the trust of those willing to listen enough to grow their business. Strategic vs. Tactical Decision-Making Effective multicultural planning goes way beyond short-term tactical band-aids. The decision to enter any multicultural segment ought to be a strategic one. It is about planning, not buying. It is more about insights than “profiles.” Focusing on the common denominators between customer segments may sound efficient in the C-suite, but in most cases, it ignores the cultural nuances that make multi-cultural marketing most effective when done right. We at d2H like to say to that we build brands one sale at a time. This translates to winning over one Hispanic customer at a time. Building a successful advertising agency is tough under any circumstances. Add culture to the mix and it feels more like a gauntlet. Yet here we are — 10 years later — continuing to make our point that cultural competency should be reason enough to hire a multicultural advertising partner. The rest is just noise. Marcelino Miyares, Jr. is managing partner at Los Angeles-based d2H Partners. He can be reached via email at marcelino@d2hispanic.com. For more discussion about the U.S. Hispanic Consumer Market, check out the infographics section on our website, www.d2hispanic.com. About d2H Partners d2H Partners is a Los Angeles-based, full-service Hispanic advertising agency focused on D2C and B2B​ Spanish-language campaigns targeting immigrant, first-generation, and “billenial” Hispanics. d2H specializes in creating, adapting, and delivering targeted messages to Latinos to profitably enculturate your message, media, and metrics.

By Maya Mulgaonkar and Ranjit Mulgaonkar Amazon’s Creator Connection program allows brands to connect with social media influencers and content creators through tailored campaigns without complicated contracts and excessive fees. What is the cost? Only a commission on each sale generated by a creator. The program is still in closed Beta mode at the time of writing and has only been rolled out to select sellers. Flatworld Group can participate in this program, and our clients have already seen promising results. What Is the Amazon Creator Connections Program? Creator Connection allows creators to engage with your brand through a tailored campaign. Depending on your product category (beauty, home, outdoors, toys, baby, gardening, fitness, etc.), you can open your campaign up to creators that match your requirements via the Creator Connection platform. Once they join your campaign, they can create content for their Amazon storefronts and other social media channels to help drive traffic, sales, and conversion. The creator is compensated with a predetermined commission from Amazon and/or the brand. Amazon provides the technology platform, the ability for brands and creators to communicate, and payments to creators with reporting. How Does the Brand Set up the Program? Brands approved to be in the program can create a campaign in the Creator Connection portal, which is part of Amazon Advertising. Brands set up information such as campaign start-end date, number of creators needed, product category, and commissions paid to influencers/creators for each sale, and specific products to promote. They also convey their specific campaign goals: drive product sales, build overall brand awareness, product education, etc. Brands have the option to provide the creators with a campaign-related promo code for them to give their subscribers and followers. To communicate with creators, Amazon has provided a messaging feature where you can discuss campaign specifics and determine whether they are the right fit for you. Some brands may opt to provide creators with a sample to help them understand and better demonstrate the products. Brands can monitor the performance of the Creator Connection within the campaign and on the Amazon Seller Central advertising dashboard. How Does a Creator Participate? If you want to be a creator, you can join the Amazon Associate program by providing your photo, name, interest, and links to your social media to Amazon. You will need a YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and/or TikTok account. Once approved, you can access Creator Connections using your Amazon Associate login information. Amazon also enables creators to send and receive direct messages in Creator Connections. For instance, you can chat with brands and ask campaign questions. Once creators generate posts on social media, they can provide the link to the brand. Within Creator Connections, creators can view the performance within each campaign detail page under the Earnings Reports tab, where your specific commission earnings can be seen. Amazon pays the creator once a month on orders that have shipped. How Much Can a Creator Make? Amazon gives a commission of anywhere between 1 percent and 10 percent to the creators – the commission rate depends on the product category and product price, with higher price products getting more commission. In addition, the brand can also specify an additional commission that they would offer to the creators. The creator will get the total of these two commissions. For example, if Amazon offers 4 percent and the brand offers 8 percent, the creator will get 12 percent of the sale price for each order the influencer generates. Is It Worth a Try? If you are a registered brand looking to increase brand awareness and sales, this is a program you should try. There is no upfront investment besides setup and program management, and you only pay the commission you pre-determine on a sale generated by the creator. This can be seen as a set advertising cost of sale (ACoS). Depending on your product and the creator, there can be a huge upside for the brand. Even if the campaign does not generate the expected sales, the creator will have produced positive content. Vetting the creators and communicating with them is time-consuming, and you will need a semi-dedicated resource to drive the program or outsource to an agency that can help. Note that your conversion will be impacted by your listing quality (headline, bullets, description, images, videos, A+ page, Storefront). The better the listing quality, the better the conversion. Maya Mulgaonkar is vice president of client services and Ranjit Mulgaonkar is founder and CEO at Flatworld Group, a full-service Amazon agency that helps brands to be successful on Amazon. They can be reached, respectively, via email at maya@flatworldgroup.com and ranjit@flatworldgroup.com. For more on Flatworld Group, click here.

Since the launch of the PDMI's Results Magazine in 2019, DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, has provided a quarterly snapshot of the leading short-form and long-form performance marketing campaigns on television. Starting in January 2024, the PDMI and DRMetrix began making that TV rankings snapshot available on a monthly basis, by releasing two months per quarter here, in the association's Web Exclusives area, with the third month continuing to appear in the quarterly edition of Results. To find the latest DRMetrix list of the top 10 brand/lead-gen short-form performance TV campaigns, top 10 traditional short-form DRTV products, and top-10 long-form products (as measured from Jan. 1-28, 2024), please click here. For more information on DRMetrix's services, visit its website here or contact the company via phone at (951) 370-1458 or via email at info@drmetrix.com.

By Nick Pietropinto To quote Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changin’” — particularly for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. Rapid changes on the D2C landscape can lead to challenges and uncertainty when it comes to making key strategic decisions that impact growth. Let’s take a quick look at some of major sources of this uncertainty, starting with the economy. While predictions of a recession may be waning, D2C brands are still wary of inflation and fluctuating interest rates. JP Morgan data shows that around 79 percent of business leaders said business costs are still on the rise, and interest rates rank as a top concern for 25 percent of them. Rising global conflict and geopolitical tensions only add to economic woes — disrupting stability, supply chains, and consumer confidence. Rapid changes in media and technology, including the emergence of AI and the demise of third-party data, are further contributing to uncertainty. Consumers’ media habits have undergone major shifts in recent years and will continue to do so. Smart phone ownership has increased 41 percent globally since 2019; a record 4.9 billion people are now on social media; linear TV is in decline while streaming is expected to see 13.8-percent growth in 2024; YouTube and Twitch are gaining major traction; retail media continues to make a surge; and young consumers are spending more time on their gaming consoles than ever before. The result is a fragmented, complex, and ever-evolving media landscape that makes D2C marketers’ heads spin. The common instinct for D2C brands during uncertain times is to wait it out and hope for a return to stability. This can lead to a state of paralysis, when — in reality — it’s more important than ever to keep moving forward when confronted with challenges and change. It’s also important that those moves be directed by strategy. In times of uncertainty, hiring a media consultant may be one of the smartest strategic decisions a D2C brand can make. Here are six reasons why. 1. Control Costs According to a recent World Federation of Advertisers survey, 73 percent of businesses say they’re heavily scrutinizing their budgets in fear of an economic downturn, and 30 percent of advertisers cut their budgets in 2023. Working with a media consultant will save you the cost of hiring a permanent full-time marketing manager. A savvy media consultant will also bring the experience, connections, and strategies to help lower your customer acquisition costs and make your media budget go further. 2. Drive Revenue Change can bring challenges, but also opportunities. The right media consultant will help you: confidently navigate today and tomorrow’s complex, fragmented, and ever-shifting media landscape; find your target customers wherever they are; and drive conversions, which — in turn — drives your sales and growth. Your media consultant should also offer strategies for increasing lifetime customer value which helps offset those customer acquisition costs. 3. Fill Labor Gaps Data shows that 56 percent of businesses cite labor shortages, recruiting, and hiring among their biggest business obstacles for 2024. Research also reveals it can take up to 44 days on average to hire a new employee, and up to a year to fully onboard them. And there’s always the risk that your new hire turns out to be the wrong fit. If you’re struggling to find the right executive talent, then an experienced media consultant offers a cost-effective solution for quickly filling that gap and expanding your team’s knowledge. Media consultants aren’t as expensive as you might think, either — and surely less costly than an annual executive salary. 4. Find More Time The best D2C media consultants will bring years (if not decades) of experience and specialized expertise, as well as value-added resources and relationships they can leverage to your advantage. Entrusting a media consultant to lead and drive strategies will additionally free you and your leadership to focus on other business-critical activities and goals. A good media consultant can help unite your teams and keep their eyes on the prize. You’ll spend less time managing vendors, supervising media activities, and wondering if your marketing staff is doing what they need to get done. Considering that the average marketer works with 28 different vendors, having a media consultant manage these providers will save you significant time, headache, and costs. 5. See Continual Results and Improvement The right media consultant will be able to demonstrate ROI for your media investments and marketing efforts. To that end, look for a media expert who employs a data-driven methodology that incorporates analytics to measure results, see what’s working, and identify opportunities for improved performance across your media placement and marketing. Leveraging this data, your media consultant will be able to continually refine and recalibrate media mixes and marketing programs to generated sustained returns. 6. Be Agile and Innovative Uncertain times call for innovation and agility, not paralysis. An outside media consultant with a fresh, unbiased perspective can help you help you tackle challenges and think differently about your D2C media and marketing strategies (or help you develop one). A seasoned media pro will call on years of experience and best practices to show you smarter, more effective ways to grow your brand with a smaller budget and fewer resources. They can also help complete projects faster, avoid costly mistakes, and fast-track results without sacrificing quality. Rather than a replacement for a CMO or other marketing executives, a media consultant should be a collaborative partner who works closely with your current team to help them think and act more strategically, creatively, and efficiently. With a focus on media management, your consultant can also help you quickly adapt to and anticipate an ever-changing media landscape to optimize your mix, message, and reach. At Double Diamond VIP, that’s exactly how we approach our media consultancy — as collaborators and partners who serve as an extension of our clients’ teams. With more than two decades of D2C leadership experience, we’re ready to hit the ground running, keep our clients’ businesses moving forward, have an immediate impact, and turn times of uncertainty into catalysts for opportunity. Learn more at www.TryD2C.com. Nick Pietropinto is the founder and CEO of Double Diamond VIP. He can be reached via email at nick@doublediamondvip.com.

By Ranjit Mulgaonkar and Maya Mulgaonkar In November, Amazon announced another ground-breaking partnership with Meta (Facebook’s parent company) and SNAP to revolutionize social commerce. Social commerce, the fusion of social media and e-commerce marketing, is being chased by Meta with Instagram and Facebook, as well as by Tagshop, Snapchat, Google (YouTube), Pinterest, TikTok, Bazaarvoice, and many more companies. Social commerce is driving an increasing portion of marketing-driven revenue for e-commerce businesses. According to McKinsey, retail social commerce sales in the U.S. amounted to $45.7 billion in revenue in 2022. Experts predict that number will hit close to $80 billion by 2025. With the seamless integration between Meta/Snap and Amazon, customers can now buy Amazon products on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram and Snap without leaving the apps. By partnering with Amazon, Meta can make it easier to allow shops to sell goods on Facebook and Instagram without creating custom storefronts on those apps. Amazon extends their reach and helps merchants selling on Amazon find new customers that maybe haven’t searched for them. As explained by Amazon: “For the first time, customers will be able to shop Amazon’s Facebook and Instagram ads and check out with Amazon without leaving the social media apps. Customers in the U.S. will see real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, delivery estimates, and product details on select Amazon product ads in Facebook and Instagram as part of the new experience. For the first time, customers will be able to shop Amazon’s Facebook and Instagram ads and check out with Amazon without leaving the social media apps. Customers in the U.S. will see real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, delivery estimates, and product details on select Amazon product ads in Facebook and Instagram as part of the new experience.” Why Now? These partnerships allow Meta and Snap to compete directly with TikTok, which is introducing shoppable videos and live shopping through TikTok Shop. It allows Amazon to compete against Chinese e-commerce rivals like Temu and Shein as they increasingly try to break into the U.S. and global markets. Both Meta and Amazon stand to benefit from the partnership in terms of revenue. Meta can get better ad signals and more attributable conversions. Amazon can secure more transactions from a large discovery platform. User Experience Clicking on an Amazon ad on Facebook or Instagram now reveals a stripped-down version of the Amazon product page, complete with a prominent “Buy with Amazon” button. That means less friction for shoppers and more conversions for sellers. For shoppers, however, linking their Amazon and Meta accounts is an optional process. They can choose whether to connect their Meta and Amazon accounts together to experience a more unified shopping experience. The ads on Meta/Snap will display the up-to-date pricing information from Amazon. Amazon will share limited activity data with Meta but will not share a consumer's specific shopping actions "like purchases, product views, or searches" on Amazon. Benefits for Shoppers There is a seamless shopping experience directly within the social media apps they are already using to browse products. Shoppers can get real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, accurate delivery estimates, and product details without leaving Facebook or Instagram. With fewer clicks, the checkout process is also streamlined. Benefits for Sellers Sellers can create data-driven marketing campaigns by measuring external traffic, clicks, add-to-cart metrics, sales, and more using the Amazon Attribution tool. Final Thoughts This partnership between Amazon and Meta marks a pivotal moment in social commerce. By merging e-commerce and social media, the partnership aims to provide users with a more integrated and efficient shopping experience and sellers new channels and new customers to sell their products to. Both Meta and Snap announced partnerships with Amazon to introduce shopping features to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. The collaborations are a competitive step against TikTok that encourages users to shop spontaneously while they use the site. Ranjit Mulgaonkar is founder and CEO and Maya Mulgaonkar is vice president of client services at Flatworld Group, a full-service Amazon agency that helps brands to be successful on Amazon. They can be reached, respectively, via email at ranjit@flatworldgroup.com and maya@flatworldgroup.com. For more on Flatworld Group, click here.

Since the launch of the PDMI's Results Magazine in 2019, DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, has provided a quarterly snapshot of the leading short-form and long-form performance marketing campaigns on television. Starting in January 2024, the PDMI and DRMetrix are proud to make that snapshot available on a monthly basis, by releasing two months per quarter here, in the association's Web Exclusives area, with the third month continuing to appear in the quarterly edition of Results. To find the latest DRMetrix snapshot of the top 10 brand/lead-gen short-form performance TV campaigns, top 10 traditional short-form DRTV products, and top-10 long-form products (as measured from Nov. 27-Dec. 31, 2023), please click here. For more information on DRMetrix's services, visit its website here or contact the company via phone at (951) 370-1458 or via email at info@drmetrix.com.

By Nick Pietropinto As we bid farewell to 2023, now is the time for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands to ready their strategies for 2024. D2C is ending the year on a high note, riding a wave of growth that shows no sign of slowing. According to eMarketer research, D2C sales are expected to exceed $160 billion by the end of 2024. With rapid D2C growth, however, comes added complexities. Let’s look at some of the 2024 D2C opportunities (and challenges) marketers should prepare for in the year ahead. First, the challenges … Cord-Cutting Continues Around the world, TV ad revenue decreased to 17.9 percent of total ad revenue in 2023. Linear TV, in particular, shows a steady downward trend, with viewership set to decline 8.6 percent in the U.S. by the end of 2023 and 10.7 percent in 2024. Data shows that media networks lost more than 1 million subscribers in Q3 alone, with the major players posting a 12-percent decline in revenue from linear ads. Across the board, cable TV has seen the repercussions of cord-cutting as more viewers abandon it for streaming platforms and premium content. Increased Competition D2C brands should brace for fierce competition in 2024, especially as more traditional retailers make a move into the D2C space. New competition additionally comes from a former D2C marketing ally: the influencer. Once seen as an effective strategy for lowering customer acquisition costs (CAC), influencer marketing is expected to become more expensive in 2024, as influencers become increasingly selective in who they sponsor and pay-to-play increases. A growing number of influencers are also choosing to launch their own D2C brands, which means D2C marketers must work harder in 2024 to build relationships with niche influencers who are genuinely passionate about their products. Higher Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) CAC was already on the rise: between 2015 and 2020, CAC increased an astounding 60 percent and is expected to continue rising in 2024. As such, D2C brands must focus on strategies that have been proven to lower CAC in 2024, such as retargeting and re-marketing, and offset those costs by improving customer retention and lifetime customer value. Election-Year Clutter 2024 heralds an election year, which wreaks havoc on consumer attention spans, as well as the advertising landscape. Digital, social, broadcast, out of home, and print marketing channels will be inundated with political ads — driving up CPMs by between 15 percent and 50 percent. D2C brands will need to budget accordingly. The Demise of Third-Party Data D2C brands have long relied on targeted Facebook and Instagram ads to reach their ideal customers. With its iOS 14 update, however, Apple is making it easier for consumers to limit what data is shared by third-party apps, and harder for D2C marketers to leverage consumer data to find and target their customers. In 2024, many experts predict that third-party cookies that capture this data will be phased out entirely. Which means D2C brands must find creative ways to capture and leverage first-party and zero-party data — information that customers willingly hand over directly to brands to use for ad targeting. 2024 Opens Big Opportunities for D2C It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Now that we’ve addressed some of the key challenges, let’s turn to the emerging and exciting opportunities that D2C brands should be capturing in the year ahead. 1. CTV and OTT In 2023, we saw non-linear TV ad sales on video-on-demand (VOD) platforms, connected TV, and free ad-supported services (FAST) increase by 7 percent. When all is said and done, experts predict that CTV will experience 10.9-percent growth in 2023 and 13.8-percent growth in 2024. Over-the-top (OTT) platforms (think Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube) are growing like gangbusters, as well, with revenue expected to exceed $476 billion by 2027. Driving this growth, more major players are adding advertising tier options to their services in an effort to push consumers to ad-supported plans and drive up revenues. It’s working. By 2025, experts expect streaming ad spending to account for 68 percent of all television ad spend. What’s more, exciting new features like voice-activated purchases will make it possible for consumers to make direct purchases from CTV ads. 2. Retail Media Networks More D2C brands will likely take greater advantage of retail media networks (RMNs) in 2024, as well. Owned and operated by retailers like Costco or Amazon, RMNs allow D2C brands to run ads on that retailer’s website, mobile apps, streaming services, email channels, social networks, digital billboards, and in stores — and more. RMNs also equip D2C marketers with that coveted first-party data they need to target their customers. By 2028, research indicates that retail media revenue will surpass the combined revenue of linear TV and CTV. 3. AI in D2C Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on everyone’s radar, including D2C marketers. While we’re still in uncertain and ever-evolving territory here, in 2024, we anticipate the AI will play an increasingly influential role in D2C marketing. With its ability to analyze massive amounts of data, AI offers tremendous potential for customer segmentation and hyper-personalization. In 2024, this will become increasingly valuable for creating customized customer experiences, content, and campaigns that breakthrough the clutter. AI can also leverage consumer data to identify the best mix of advertising channels to drive leads and conversions. D2C marketers will additionally be looking to AI to automate time-consuming tasks and drive efficiencies — including creating copious content (key for SEO). Or take AI-driven chatbots that provide 24/7 customer support, answer common customer questions, and guide customers through the shopping funnel — leaving companies free to direct those human resources elsewhere. For more about AI in marketing, please read my AI article here. 4. Social Shopping Then there’s the growing opportunity presented by social shopping — popular with Gen Z and Millennial consumers. With Instagram’s Shoppable Posts, Facebook Shop, and TikTok Shopping, consumers can now buy D2C products directly from a social media post without having to go through the typical e-commerce checkout experience. Experts expect social commerce, also known as livestream shopping, to account for more than $30 billion in sales in 2024, and $2.9 trillion by 2026. 5. YouTube While much attention has be focused on TikTok for D2C marketing, we believe that YouTube offers more exciting potential for D2C brands in 2024. This is especially true given that TikTok is still an immature platform with looming uncertainties; consider the recent shut-down of the $1 billion TikTok creator fund that was supposed to pay video creators with large followings for posting content. YouTube, on the other hand, has shown sustained growth and stability as a platform, amassing 2.5 billion global users in 2023. Data shows that 90 percent of consumers say that they learn about new brands on YouTube, making this a highly influential channel for D2C marketers. YouTube’s Shorts video feature, launched in 2021, continues to gain traction as well, reaching more than 50 billion daily views in early 2023. Interestingly, according to Pew research, Gen Z now spends more time on YouTube than TikTok. 6. In-App Advertising In-app advertising is another area D2C brands should be exploring in 2024. Apple, for instance, plans to launch a host of ad products for native apps, as well as home/lock screen ads. Amazon is also actively growing its ad business with an aggressive goal to reach 13 percent market share by 2024, introducing new opportunities such as ad placements on Prime Video as well as at its Whole Foods stores. 7. Click & Brick Strategy Many online D2C brands are now adding a brick-and-mortar retail component ­— either opening their own physical stores or getting their products on the shelves of major retailers like Walmart and Target. Expect to see more of this hybrid click-and-brick strategy in 2024. How D2C Brands Will Thrive in 2024 One key lesson to take into 2024 is this: D2C brands must adopt a flexible, innovative, sophisticated omnichannel approach to their marketing strategies — encompassing not only traditional channels like linear TV and social media, but emerging opportunities like livestream shopping, RMNs, CTV, in-app advertising, niche influencer marketing, AI tools for targeting and data-mining, and more. This is an incredibly exciting time for D2C brands and marketers — filed with possibilities, as well as changes. As we confront the complexities of D2C in 2024, I’m reminded of this Noura quote: “With the right mindset, we can’t lose. We either practice what we’ve learned, or we learn what we need to practice.” At Double Diamond VIP, we take every challenge as an opportunity to learn and improve our D2C methodology. We remain optimistic and enthusiastic about what’s to come for our industry as well as our clients. Learn more at www.TryD2C.com. Nick Pietropinto is the founder and CEO of Double Diamond VIP. He can be reached via email at nick@doublediamondvip.com.