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In the previous decades, if you had a business idea and dreamt of turning your product into a household name, you didn’t have a lot of options if you didn’t have connections in the industry. Due to this, the most viable option was to collaborate with the prominent resellers in your industry. If you have a product that revolutionized the home, you’d have to reach out to retail giants like Home Depot or Lowes. These resellers played the role of gatekeepers, crushing the aspirations of numerous emerging businesses. Moreover, even after receiving purchase orders from buyers, brands had limited authority over the sales process and seldom gained access to valuable customer data. The good news - my how things have changed! The emergence of ecommerce and digital marketing platforms has revolutionized the way businesses connect with their customers. By bypassing resellers, companies can now establish direct relationships with their target audience. This shift has given rise to a new form of marketing known as Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) marketing, enabling brands to effectively engage and interact with their customer base. We’ve discussed direct response marketing in-depth on the website, today we’re going to give you the full rundown on DTC marketing - let’s get going. What Is DTC Marketing? DTC marketing, short for "direct-to-consumer marketing," encompasses the strategies employed by businesses to sell products directly to customers, bypassing middlemen such as department stores and third-party online retailers. This approach includes leveraging social media, email marketing, influencer collaborations, and establishing a retail presence. By adopting these tactics, businesses can establish a direct connection with their target audience, fostering brand loyalty and maximizing sales potential. Drawing a comparison between DTC marketing and a more traditional approach like B2C marketing can provide valuable insights. B2C marketing, short for "business-to-consumer marketing," involves resellers promoting products from their vendors directly to customers. In a B2C business model, brands sell their products through third-party resellers, who are also responsible for promoting these products. Conversely, in DTC marketing, brands directly engage with customers and have access to valuable customer data. This direct approach allows brands to optimize their marketing strategies and enhance customer relationships. DTC Marketing Strategies The most successful direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands adopt an omnichannel marketing approach: one that is implemented across multiple channels, encompassing offline marketing, social media, mobile, and more. It is advisable to incorporate as many of these marketing tactics as possible to maximize effectiveness and reach. Retail Stores Many direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands begin their journey by selling their products online. Once they have established a dedicated customer base, it becomes a natural progression to consider opening a retail store. This step allows them to forge deeper connections with their customers and attract new enthusiasts. Retail stores serve as a powerful DTC strategy, exposing the brand to potential customers who may not have encountered it otherwise. By strategically positioning your brand, you can capture the attention of passersby and create opportunities for growth. To determine the ideal location for your inaugural store, analyze the customer concentration data on your ecommerce platform. Once you've identified the areas with the highest customer base, explore the availability of commercial spaces there. For more insights, you can refer to this informative article on choosing the right retail space. Social Media Consistently posting on social media is a top strategy to keep your brand at the forefront of customers' minds. There's a lot of popular social platforms you can use, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and others. Social media is a great tool for engaging with customers. From Facebook groups to Instagram Stories’ polls and Q&A features, social media can give you the tools and audience access to see success. For the majority of you reading this, you can find your target audience via social media. If not, no worry, there's several DTC marketing strategies in this list you can use instead. When we broke down mobile marketing, we discussed that over 4 out 5 consumers now have a mobile phone. We carry our smartphone everywhere we go, when you can reach your target audience via social media on mobile, the results can be life changing. Email Marketing We're big fans of email marketing. While some influencers continue to claim email is dead, we know email is going to be big in 2024 and beyond. While social media has a place in DTC marketing, email marketing will likely be your most important DTC strategy. This is because email doesn’t rely on algorithms that limit who and when messages are seen. With email marketing, you have full control when users receive content, that's a powerful difference maker. It allows you to send regular updates to your general audience and send targeted messages to specific segments of your email list. For instance, if you offer 30-day provisions of pet food, consider sending timely reorder reminders to customers who are about to run out within a week. Many email marketing platforms can automate this reminder process for your convenience. Advertising In addition to implementing organic direct-to-consumer marketing strategies, it is also beneficial to allocate resources towards paid advertising. Utilize data from your point of sale (POS) and ecommerce platform to gain insights into your customers' media preferences. This information will enable you to identify suitable advertising opportunities and tailor your approach accordingly. For instance, suppose your customers dedicate two hours daily to scrolling through Instagram. In that case, it would be wise to allocate resources towards social media ads using Facebook's Ads Manager (which conveniently allows you to set up ads for both Facebook and Instagram). Alternatively, if your target audience tunes into political radio programs, you might consider producing audio commercials and sponsoring relevant podcasts or live shows. Challenges of DTC marketing Promoting a direct-to-consumer brand can be a fulfilling pursuit, yet it is not without its fair share of challenges. Before delving into the realm of DTC marketing, it is crucial to carefully contemplate and address these obstacles. Investment Problem: When promoting a DTC brand, it's crucial to establish brand awareness from the ground up, as you don't have the advantage of being associated with a well-known department store or retailer to begin with. This is one of the biggest challenges you’re going to face. Solutions: To overcome this, there are several effective strategies you should consider using here. One option is to explore crowdfunding and collaborate with investors to secure the necessary funds for marketing investments. Alternatively, you can unleash your creativity and tap into low-cost guerrilla marketing ideas. By adopting these approaches, you can navigate the obstacle with ingenuity and resourcefulness while achieving your desired outcomes. Branding Problem: Since you don't have resellers to depend on, the responsibility of spreading the word about your brand falls on your internal team and resources. It is crucial to educate customers about your products and effectively communicate their value to ensure customer loyalty. Solution: To effectively address the risk associated with DTC marketing, it is crucial to adopt an omnichannel approach. Embrace and implement all available DTC strategies, and then optimize your approach based on the ROI observed from each channel. By doing so, you can ensure a comprehensive and efficient marketing strategy while retaining the original meaning. Vulnerable to imitation Problem: If a well-established reseller becomes aware of the success of your products, it can be alarmingly simple for them to imitate and ultimately push you out of the market. After all, they already possess brand recognition and financial resources to replicate your efforts. Solutions: To outshine the competition, strive to surpass their standards. Focus on enhancing the quality of your products and cultivating a brand that fosters unwavering customer loyalty. Additionally, safeguard your business against imitation by securing patents. The Future of Direct-to-Consumer Marketing Thanks to the advancements in ecommerce technology and digital marketing platforms, businesses now have the opportunity to directly target customers, eliminating the need for intermediaries. This direct connection empowers brands to gather valuable customer data and provide them with more personalized experiences. As a result, direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing will continue to prioritize a customer-centric approach, ensuring long-term success in the ever-evolving marketplace. It is predicted that direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, already having independent reputations apart from third-party retailers, will incorporate resellers into their marketing strategies. A notable example is the partnership between DTC sustainable fashion brand Reformation and Anthropologie. Reformation's clothing will now be available in Anthropologie's stores and on their website. DTC brands are entering the traditional retail landscape on their own terms, having already established themselves as household names. How To Build Success Direct-To-Consumer Marketing Campaigns Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands heavily rely on the power of marketing, more so than traditional brands. In particular, establishing a strong presence at the top-of-the-funnel is vital for launching their products successfully. Once they achieve this, they can sustain continuous growth. In this section, we explore (5) proven tactics employed by leading DTC brands to maximize the impact of their marketing efforts. 1. Collecting And Analyzing Market Data If you want to consistently improve your DTC and marketing campaigns, you need the ability to collect and analyze data. For direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, understanding their customers is vital to your success. Unlike other consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, DTC brands need to establish intimate connections with their customers. To achieve this, it is imperative to gather and analyze high-quality customer data whenever feasible. By doing so, DTC brands can enhance their understanding of their customers and optimize their strategies accordingly. As the ability to use cookies continues to disappear, DTC brands must be willing to establish meaningful connections with digital marketing platforms and media vendors to collect as much data as possible from their marketing efforts. Although this data may be aggregated and lack specific consumer information, certain marketing performance measurement solutions can transform this generalized data into more precise insights. By doing so, you can gain a deeper understanding of your customers while utilizing less data. Make sure you give your customers an opportunity to share their experiences, creating these feedback loops is essential to the growth of your company. This data is just as valuable as data collected via cookies. In fact, they’re more personal and the data is often more accurate. A simple Facebook group would give customers a stage to voice. 2. Building The Identity Of Your Brand Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands cannot rely solely on enticing prices at retail stores to introduce customers to their products. After all, that goes against the very essence of being a true DTC brand! Likewise, simply listing items for sale online and relying solely on pricing strategies is not enough to attract customers. In an era where countless online sellers come and go, consumers are skeptical of products that can only be found on the internet. To earn their trust, a strong brand presence is crucial. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a robust identity that enables customers to immediately connect your products with positivity. Additionally, ensure that this strong brand identity permeates across all channels where you maintain a presence. By doing so, customers will be able to easily recognize and trust your products at a mere glance. 3. Leverage The Power Of Social Media Social media is an incredibly potent tool, particularly for expanding and amplifying awareness of your brand. Your social media page serves as a curated space, allowing you to share captivating information about your products and reach a vast audience simultaneously. It also offers an opportunity for direct interaction with consumers, which is especially crucial for DTC brands that rarely, if ever, have face-to-face encounters with their customers. This direct engagement can provide valuable suggestions for improving existing products or inspiring compelling ideas for new ones. Moreover, when a customer shares one of your brand's posts, it serves as an implicit endorsement, further strengthening your brand's reputation. 4. Follow-Up And Email Marketing Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands often heavily depend on digital channels. However, it's important to note that many of these channels operate as "walled gardens." This implies that you don't have the ability to independently verify the accuracy of your data, there's limited granularity, and ultimately, you're at the platform's mercy when it comes to distributing your message. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketers have the advantage of full control when it comes to email marketing. By having a customer's email address, you can establish direct communication and gather detailed insights into their engagement with your outreach efforts. This valuable data can then be utilized in your marketing performance measurement platform to drive future campaigns, regardless of the channels your customers prefer. 5. Personal Shopping Experiences Matter Personalization plays a crucial role in enabling DTC brands to establish stronger connections with customers. By finely curating products and messaging to meet individual customer needs, DTC brands can thrive in the digital-first landscape. In an online environment where competition is fierce, personalization is not just an option but a necessity. It empowers brands to stand out, making their products the obvious choice for customers. DTC brands must have accurate data and analytics in order to achieve their goals. However, the impending cookieless future poses a challenge as granular and precise data becomes scarce. This obstacle hampers the potential for personalized marketing. Fortunately, with a robust marketing performance measurement solution that offers disaggregation capabilities, you can ensure that relevant messaging reaches everyone, even in the absence of precise data. Successful DTC Marketing Companies During the period from early 2000 to 2010, a wave of emerging companies began harnessing the vast potential of the Internet. Pioneering brands such as Warby Parker, Bonobos, and Everlane embraced this opportunity by establishing their digital e-commerce stores. Through strategic promotion on social media platforms, they successfully acquired customers and directly engaged in selling their products. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are often synonymous with millennial shoppers. These consumers prioritize their experience and gravitate towards brands they perceive as dependable and trustworthy. Modern DTC practices include sending personalized emails, utilizing distinctive Instagrammable packaging, and delivering exceptional customer service. By embracing these strategies, DTC brands can effectively connect with their target audience and cultivate lasting relationships. If you're eager to discover the direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands that are poised to make waves this year, then look no further. Here is a carefully curated selection of DTC brands that deserve your attention. Keep these brands on your radar and stay ahead of the game! 1. Smile Club Direct Year founded: 2014 Location: Nashville, Tennessee Smile Direct Club is a direct-to-consumer brand that offers teeth aligners and whiteners. The process entails customers either requesting a kit or visiting their SmileShops to have their teeth scanned. Expert orthodontists and dentists carefully assess if the client qualifies for aligners. Those who are eligible receive a personalized treatment plan that includes regular check-ins, aligners, and assessments throughout the duration of their treatment. 2. Allbirds Year founded: 2014 Location: San Francisco, California Allbirds has gained recognition for its exquisite line of Merino wool products. It all began with groundbreaking Merino wool footwear, and the brand has since diversified its offerings. By prioritizing eco-friendly products, the company not only produces distinctive items but also provides a sustainable solution that aligns perfectly with its core values. 3. Stitchfix Year founded: 2011 Location: San Francisco, California Stitch Fix has revolutionized the clothing shopping industry by offering consumers a convenient alternative to the traditional shopping experience. With their curated sets of clothing, known as "fixes," customers no longer have to endure the hassle of browsing through numerous items. By taking a style quiz and providing feedback on their preferences, clients receive a personalized clothing box filled with garments that are both stylish and practical. This innovative approach ensures that customers receive a tailored selection of clothing that perfectly suits their needs and preferences. Want to Join a Thriving Community of E-commerce Entrepreneurs? If you want to learn more about being successful in e-commerce and want to rub shoulders with some of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet, make sure to join PDMI. You can become a member here.

Leaders from 10 PDMI member companies look ahead at the key things performance marketers should think about as we head into the new year. By Thomas Haire Performance and direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketing have always been home to an alphabet soup of abbreviated buzzwords. As we wrap up 2023, it’s no different. Just think: what were two of the biggest stories in marketing and technology this year? That’s right: AI (artificial intelligence) and CTV (connected TV). As marketers and publishers work to contain their excitement about AI and how it could smooth the path to more effective (and profitable) performance marketing campaigns, consumers are veering wildly between thrilled and wary about what the technology can do. With CTV, it’s consumers who are leading the charge, continuing to slip away from traditional linear television viewing into the (increasingly ad-supported) streaming universe — all while marketers and outlets are working diligently to figure out just how this new ad ecosystem will work best for D2C marketers. But these aren’t the only topics that executives from 10 PDMI member companies touched on when asked to make fearless predictions for the next 12 months. What else are they calling for in 2024? A fluctuating economy? Yes. Thoughtful maximization of the growing trove of data available to each brand? Sure. Ad budgets seeking out media opportunities that provide the best (and most attributable) bang for the buck? Absolutely. We urge you to read on for more from these leaders who chose to stand out from their fellow 120 PDMI member companies by putting their expertise on the line. We also ask you to mark your calendars (or click on the linked text below) — on Tuesday, Jan. 16, leaders who serve on the PDMI’s councils will get together to share their own predictions for 2024 as part of our Winter Seminar Series. Allegro Response AI everywhere! Twenty-twenty-four is going to be a year when generative artificial intelligence (AI) continues to touch many areas of marketing, branding, and content creation. But it will start to take off as smaller companies get opportunities to take advantage where, before, mostly enterprise organizations could afford access. In the direct-to-consumer space, watch AI being used in voice bots, content for commercials, websites, emails, consumer analytics, and so much more. The sky is the limit. — Greg Sarnow, founder and CEO Bautista Direct Marketing Inflation will continue, and the economy will fluctuate and be unsteady, causing consumers to hold tight to their dollars. Marketers with creative, well-executed value propositions will thrive. Tell your target how you save them money — even if it’s for a "want" and not a "need!" Video will continue to grow. Consumers will not take the time to read. Be sure you have video that addresses their questions and is organically discoverable. Consumers know that paid search results are paid for while organic results are earned. — Mary Ann Bautista, president Blockboard CTV will become a "selling" media execution. As advertisers continue to grow their investment in CTV, they will test new formats and confirm with trusted technology partners to realize that CTV exposures can be top funnel and mid-and-down-funnel for driving behavior and sales. Business results will take center stage over media metric results. Advertisers will continue to face a soft economy in 2024, requiring them to be more critical of their media investment. They will demand more accountability in their spend and push for measurement to help understand the investment tied to their business. — Roxanne Geyer, senior vice president, customer experience Cannella Media We will see widespread integration of immersive technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) into mainstream media. These technologies will transcend their current niche applications and become integral components of storytelling and content delivery. Audiences can expect to immerse themselves in news stories, documentaries, and entertainment experiences like never before. Advertisers will leverage these technologies to create interactive and memorable brand experiences, blurring the lines between reality and the virtual realm. We will see mainstream applications in product visualization that allow consumers to virtually experience products before making purchase decisions. As technology continues to advance, advertisers will navigate uncharted waters, seeking to captivate consumers though experiences that transcend traditional advertising formats. — Chris Brombach, senior vice president, integrated media We will see a greater emphasis on collaboration and data sharing between DTC clients and their media buying agencies as marketers increasingly recognize the common benefits of transparent and comprehensive data sharing. Further, continued advancements in marketing technology will make it easier for marketers to share KPI data seamlessly with their media buying agencies: integration of data sources, analytics tools, and reporting platforms will allow for real-time collaboration and decision-making. This will not only enhance campaign performance but also will help build a more strategic and accountable partnership between the two parties in an ever-evolving marketing landscape. — Bill Raymond, executive vice president and managing partner Envision Response In 2024, we’ll witness a resurgence of "old gold" brands that have sustainability at their core. These brands will adapt to the omnichannel digital marketplace, leveraging social media, TV, Amazon, and the power of nostalgia to reinvent their narratives. They’ll re-establish their brands by capitalizing on their rich histories and the emotional connections they’ve built over the years, while adapting to today with updated graphics and a demonstrable pitch geared at younger audiences. The D2C winners of 2024 will be those who can skillfully choreograph a multi-platform strategy, integrating Amazon, e-commerce, TV, social/influencer marketing, and retail. This dance will require strong performance marketers who can navigate the complexities of each platform and orchestrate a seamless customer journey. In a time of economic uncertainty, the path to success will be about being brilliant at the basics. Big brands will double down on strategies that are proven and reliable, focusing on media with measurable results. Experimentation will take a backseat as brands prioritize execution and efficiency. — Sean Fay, founder and CEO, and Debbie Kelly, chief client officer LeadsRx, an Unbounce Company First, precision in broadcast attribution. With the rise of digital TV inventory and the demand for better measurement, LeadsRx predicts a sharpening of broadcast attribution precision. Our solutions are designed to navigate the shift from linear to digital, ensuring that advertisers can track their spends effectively in this burgeoning domain. Second, championing first-party data. As the reliance on third-party cookies wanes, LeadsRx’s commitment to first-party data places us at an advantage. Our secure tracking technology is perfectly positioned to meet the industry’s call for privacy-compliant, first-party data solutions, making us a valuable partner for businesses adapting to this shift. — Larry Todd, general manager Maramba Insights Inc. First-party data, from opt-in newsletters or subscription and loyalty programs, will be a key focus for advertisers that have already invested and incorporated these mechanisms into their marketing strategies. With the demise of the previously ubiquitous cookie-based data collection, advertisers with access to first-party data will have a huge advantage on gauging their customers and streamlining their media targeting and offers. Quick and accurate aggregation and analysis of this data will be vital for determining campaign success and the ever-elusive lifetime value of a customer. I also expect to see more linear TV media budgets shifted to platforms like TikTok and Twitch, as advertisers chase the Gen-Z market. With around 40 percent of young adults spending their time on gaming and video-focused social media, I believe we will see massive budget shifts from linear TV to these platforms embraced by Gen-Z. Marketers will have to evolve their content to meet this social media-savvy audience where they live, but with authenticity in mind. — Lucio Maramba, CEO and owner NuSpark Consulting It’s 2024. The depreciation of third-party cookies is reshaping the online advertising and digital media industry. With cookies being phased out, the industry is moving toward more privacy-centric solutions. This shift is pushing advertisers and platforms to explore alternative tracking and targeting technologies, such as Unified ID solutions, contextual targeting, and privacy-compliant data sharing frameworks. As a result, the industry is likely to see a rise in collaboration among advertisers, publishers, and tech providers to develop new standards and solutions that address the challenges posed by cookie deprecation while still enabling effective advertising practices. Also, the ascension of AI in advertising is set to continue, fundamentally altering the way campaigns are crafted, managed, and analyzed. The integration of AI can significantly enhance predictive analytics, real-time decision-making, and automation in advertising operations, allowing for more efficient media buying, personalized ad targeting, and improved ROI measurement. — Paul Mosenson, founder and president Samsung Ads New opportunities and increased adoption in streaming TV. Television will continue to change — and while streaming is technically eclipsing linear, the shift is no longer black-and-white. Marketers planning their strategies into 2024 should meet the consumer where they choose to consume content, and we expect a significant increase in the adoption of connected TV (CTV), specifically with increased smart TV use. Advertisers will double down on tapping into CTV’s potential for reaching audiences to create exciting and bespoke experiences, all while delivering measurable results. Consumers will continue to gravitate to their smart TV as their main streaming device for shows, movies, games, music, and more. Advanced targeting will continue to get smarter. Targeting has evolved significantly over the last several years, fueled by the growth of CTV and convergence of digital signals. We expect this evolution to ramp up through 2024 as advertisers continue to harness the power that comes with combining unique data points and machine learning. By leveraging a diverse set of signals and data sources, advertisers can refine targeting strategies for reaching the right viewers with the right message — paving the way for precise, personalized, and impactful CTV advertising campaigns. At Samsung Ads, we’ve already seen success with this through our Smart Audiences product, powered by AI and machine learning to optimize audience targeting and strengthen audience segments based on higher performing attributes. — Patrick Burney, performance sales lead THOR Associates Artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to be instructive and constructive in developing new creative assets. For example, think about pick-up lines in a flubbed finished creative, or using graphics and voiceovers that are programmatically delivered through AI with personalization of messaging. Second, Google’s Pmax and Meta’s AdvantagePlus will be retail megastores and continue to drive successful marketing efforts. Paid social is also going to see shifts in delivery of retargeting efforts. Retargeting will be the "it" strategy. — Fern Lee, CEO

By Nick Pietropinto In 1997, marking his return to Apple after a 12-year hiatus, Steve Jobs shared these motivating words with the struggling company’s staff: “Apple is not about making boxes for people to get their jobs done … We believe that people with passion can change the world for better.” Under his leadership, that’s exactly what Apple did. Jobs reiterated his pursuit of passion in 2005, during his famous commencement speech at Stanford. “You’ve got to find what you love,” he told his audience. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Jobs’ passion for creating products that transform lives was the driving force behind Apple’s phenomenal comeback. For any entrepreneur, passion is absolutely essential. Indeed, research shows that the more passion an entrepreneur has, the more likely he or she is to succeed. Aspiring business innovators understand this. In a survey published by the Harvard Business Review, 90 percent of Columbia Business School MBA students said they believed that pursuing their passion was important. As Jobs pointed out, it’s not just about having passion for the product you’re producing, but the mission you’re striving toward: the why behind the what. Finding that passion in your purpose is ultimately what gets you out of bed every morning, energized and excited to make a difference in the lives of your employees and clients. Your mission is a vital pillar in your marketing strategy. As the founder of Double Diamond VIP and an entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in management, I’ve discovered that passion is critical to entrepreneurial success in four important ways. Passion powers creativity: When you’re passionate about what you do, you see limitless possibilities, the “what-ifs”that others can’t. You’re driven to try new things, ask questions, takes risks, and shake up the status quo — all of which leads to innovation. Passion keeps you productive: When the entrepreneurial journey gets hard — and it inevitably will — passion is what keeps you going. With passion, you have more positivity, resilience, and grit to overcome setbacks and turn challenges into opportunities. Passion is contagious: Passion comes from the people around you, as well as from within. A passionate business leader inspires and motivates others to take on new challenges and engage in a shared mission. A recent survey of 800 companies found that employees who work for highly passionate entrepreneurs were more likely to have a high level of passion themselves, as well as a deeper sense of commitment to their company. Passion builds stronger relationships: When you’re genuinely passionate about what you do and the impact you have, customers are more likely to trust your motivations, get on board, and share your enthusiasm. Passionate business leaders are often the most effective communicators, as well (case in point: Jobs’ commencement speech). At Double Diamond VIP, our shared passion is the foundation on which we’ve built our company and our core values: hard work, client-centric service, data-driven and methodical consistency, and unwavering integrity. Passion also needs light and air to grow and thrive; as such, every member of our team is encouraged to pursue their passions not only in their work but in their lives outside the office walls. Our passion comes through in our mission, as well. Nothing brings us greater joy and fulfillment than helping marketers grow their brands and unlock their full potential. And while passion may be an intangible quality, the results it generates are very much quantifiable. Through passion, we help clients overcome their own limitations, think creatively, and innovate. Once those limits are no longer holding them back, we help brands achieve stability — like an engine running smoothly and seamlessly. That’s the point when we’re able to build their momentum and accelerate their growth to maximum capacity. And it all starts with passion. Our D2C clients recognize how passionate we are as well, as evidenced in their own words: “Nick brings an unrivaled passion and enthusiasm for seeing businesses exceed their goals,” and “Nick’s passion for his work is inspiring and those who have the opportunity to work with him are fortunate.” That’s where the passion really pays off: in seeing our clients exceed their goals, seeing their brands achieve astronomical growth, and seeing their products reach more customers and improve more lives. Learn about Double Diamond VIP’s passion for D2C marketing 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 Amazon recently announced the relaunch of its Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) program, which allows sellers to ship products directly to domestic Amazon Prime customers from their own warehouses. The program, initially launched in 2015 and discontinued in 2021, has been reintroduced to meet growing demand, provide consumers with additional Prime product selection, and provide sellers with more flexibility and control over their operations. By participating in the SFP program, sellers must fulfill orders with one-day and two-day delivery at no additional charge for Prime customers. This enables them to display the Prime branding on their offers, earn the Prime badge, and benefit from Buy Box preference. Additionally, sellers gain access to the millions of Prime members and are now eligible for Prime Exclusive Discounts and Prime Promotion. This can be a powerful vehicle in your marketing strategy as this can increases visibility and is known to drive sales. Is SFP Right for You? Consider that SFP is a commitment to fulfill orders under strict parameters. Can your warehouse meet these demands, considering that weekends and holidays are not exempt from the one-to-two-day shipping promise? While you will no longer pay Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) fees, consider that the fees associated with FBA are now the responsibility of the sellers. These include shipping fees (nationwide), storage fees, and increased manpower to manage these shipments. Interested sellers can find more details on Amazon Seller Central, and the program is currently available in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The relaunched Seller Fulfilled Prime program aims to provide sellers with the opportunity to tap into the Prime customer base while maintaining more control over their fulfillment processes. Here are some high-level benefits and challenges. Benefits: Access to 150 million Prime members without participating in FBA Ship directly from your warehouse from your unified inventory Access to Prime Customers and Prime Exclusive promotions such as Prime Day Higher Buy Box preference and Prime Badge on listing Challenges: Strict fulfillment parameters to qualify and maintain program eligibility On-time one-to-two-day delivery rate Maintain a valid tracking rate Seller-initiated cancellation rate Strict late shipment rate Considering the Challenges To participate in the SFP program, sellers need to pre-qualify for the trial by meeting certain criteria, including: Must have a domestic U.S. address as the default shipping address Must have an Amazon Professional selling account Must meet specific performance metrics over the preceding 90 days: o Self-fulfilling at least 100 packages o Maintaining a cancellation rate of less than 2.5 percent o Maintaining a valid tracking rate greater than 95 percent o Maintaining a late shipment rate of less than 4 percent o Offering free nationwide shipping and free returns for products over 50 pounds Once prequalified, sellers can participate in the 30-day trial period, during which they need to meet additional requirements to pass the trial and become enrolled SFP sellers, including: Shipping 100 or more packages from Prime trial orders Maintaining an on-time delivery rate of at least 93.5 percent Maintaining a valid tracking rate of at least 99 percent Maintaining a seller-initiated cancellation rate of less than 0.5 percent It's important to note that as part of the SFP program, sellers must handle all post-order customer service — including returns, refunds, and adjustments — through Amazon Customer Service, except for product-related customer service inquiries. This policy compliance is mandatory to participate in Seller Fulfilled Prime. Ranjit Mulgaonkar is founder & CEO and Maya Mulgaonkar is vice president of account management at Flatworld Group. He can be reached via email at ranjit@flatworldgroup.com; she can be reached at maya@flatworldgroup.com. For more on Flatworld Group, click here.

While you may not think monitoring e-commerce trends is a necessity, it truly is. For e-commerce business owners, keeping on top of industry trends is extremely important for you to stay competitive and identify new business opportunities. You want to grow your e-commerce business, so paying attention to these hot e-commerce trends can make a huge impact on your future growth. 2024 is here and we’re seeing some interesting e-commerce trends we want to share with you. This article highlights (5) e-commerce trends to watch in 2024, while also discussing challenges ahead and how to overcome them. Let's get started. Trend 1: Competition Increasing Across the Board A new recent industry report found on Statista shows that e-commerce will account for 20.4 percent of global retail sales by the end of 2024, up from only 10 percent a few years ago. In short, the e-commerce space is a little more crowded these days. There are a number of different reasons why we’re seeing rapid growth in e-commerce; Inflation Ukraine war Covid-19 Government policies Consumer behavior Think about the Covid-19 pandemic for a moment: it changed e-commerce and the world; working from home became the new normal. The Obstacles It Creates With increased competition, you’re going to have higher costs. New e-commerce companies are racing to gain consumers' attention. The result is increased costs for advertising and reduced return on ad spend (ROAS). Advertising on Facebook, for example, already costs 47% more than the year before. That’s a huge spike in ad costs — that can be a problem. Paid ads are not as effective as they once were. Do you remember Apple's privacy updates in iOS 14.5? If you ran ads at the time, you likely know the end results. Cross-app data sharing was prohibited unless users chose to opt in. Due to this new policy, advertising across Facebook and Instagram has become much less effective then before. The Solution: Focus on Customer Lifetime Value One thing we know for sure: Apple’s focus on privacy isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Due to this, many e-commerce companies have begun exploring new and unsaturated marketing channels. Both Snapchat and TikTok have millions of users, and e-commerce merchants will continue to use these platforms and others to grow their business. Amping up efforts at customer retention is another way out of this difficult situation. As customer acquisition costs continue to rise, maximizing customer lifetime value helps maintain profitable margins for your business. One way you can adjust is by focusing on the lifetime value of your customers. The best repeat business is current customers. If you can think about ways to increase their lifetime value, you can make up for all the additional advertising costs you’re going to occur. Trend 2: Conventional Financing Methods Take a Back Seat Alternative financing is gaining popularity among e-commerce companies. Instead of taking out loans or trading equity for investors' money, many businesses now prefer other means of cash injection, such as revenue-based financing (RBF) and inventory financing. The paradigm shift didn't happen for no reason. When asked about why they switched from loans to revenue-based financing at Choco Up, some e-commerce marketers shared the following views: • Bank loans are time-consuming to apply for. • They don’t have eligible assets (e.g., cars or property) to pledge as collateral for loans. • Loan repayments in fixed installments would put pressure on their companies' cash flow. Equity dilution is also a common concern among founders who didn't opt for angel investments or venture capital. After all, giving away equity is expensive. The Obstacles It Creates During the past few years, a number of different financial tools have hit the market — many of these have been specifically designed for e-commerce businesses. E-commerce owners should be taking the time to get familiar with the new terminology and financing solutions. Here’s a good example: for revenue-based financing (RBF), funding is not repaid in fixed installments. Instead, RBF platforms will share a fixed percentage of the company's revenue until the amount is fully repaid. Yes, traditional financing solutions are still available, but interest rates are climbing thanks to the Federal Reserve’s hikes. These new financing options may be a good fit for your e-commerce business. Just like with anything, you’re going to have pros and cons. On the plus side, repayment is flexible. On the other side, your business must have recurring revenue in order to use revenue-based financing. If you don’t have that revenue coming in, it’s not going to work. The Solution: Exploring Alternative Financing Solutions Market research showed that in Q2 2021 alone, funding acquired by e-commerce companies worldwide totaled $16.8 billion. That is a five-time increase compared to the same period in the prior year. Evidently, e-commerce companies are poised for growth and challenges ahead. As traditional forms of financing cannot aptly address these companies' needs, alternative financing is here to stay. 2023 was a huge year for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin alone went up over 200% after hitting a low in December 2022. With a Bitcoin ETF likely around the corner and companies like BlackRock buying into it, the next few years for cryptocurrency can get real exciting. With crypto, many companies are investing in the digital asset and holding it long-term. If you held it for four years at any time during the past, you would have made big gains. Trend 3: More Users Are Buying on Social Media Platforms Social media is still a powerful tool to use to grow your business. Social media has created a wide range of great opportunities for e-commerce business owners. Social media presents new commercial opportunities, from brand marketing and product discovery to customer service and shoppable advertising. According to eMarketer, 30 percent of U.S. internet users have made purchases using social media. Even more interesting, global social media platforms are expected to triple that amount by 2025. Thanks to Facebook, TikTok, and other social media platforms, you can sell your e-commerce products on their platform. This presents a big opportunity for all e-commerce businesses. The Obstacles It Creates One of the biggest challenges you're going to face is building a loyal social media following. There's a few reasons why so many companies struggle to do so. Don't have a cause, purpose, or solution Don't publish content that their audience relates to Don't publish content consistently Don't use both organic, paid, and groups Solution: Create Genuine Content Content is key. Think about your customer’s journey. Buying from you should be simple and easy. It should always be a positive experience from start to finish. Make the speed to purchase as easy and as positive as possible for the consumer. Every touchpoint is key to the overall experience. No matter what type of e-commerce business you have, users crave content. Companies that produce consistent content daily are going to be the ones that benefit the most. You need to create a content calendar and track the results. This will give you insights to what works and doesn’t. Blog and article content have another benefit: search engine optimization. SEO is a powerful marketing strategy. When consumers can find you organically through Google when they search for a product you have, it can drive sales and revenue. Trend 4: Create Live Shopping Experiences Our 4th e-commerce trend on the list is live video. 2023 was the year for live video and 2024 will be no different. Live video streams are powerful and consumers love them! Companies like HSN and QVC have been utilizing live shopping successfully for decades. Now, you have the ability to do the same. Many brands are rushing to adopt this e-commerce trend, and rightfully so — it works! Thanks to a new report by Shopify for The Future of Commerce report, the number of app installs for livestream selling grew by 61 percent globally between January and September 2021, compared to the same time period in 2020. You now have access to the technology that the biggest e-commerce brands are using, and that can help make your e-com business an instant success. The Obstacles It Creates Customers seek ever closer and authentic relationships with the brands they choose to shop with. If you're not giving your audience that opportunity to build a special bond with your brand, your e-commerce business is going to suffer for it. Live video is not easy, but it's simple. You need to plan it out. You need to figure out which products to promote. You're setting it up as you would a show. This does present challenges. Live shopping can be a great innovation to consider as part of your marketing strategy in 2024 to build customer engagement, loyalty, and brand differentiation The Solution: Start Exploring Live Shopping Sure, you knew that, but it's true — are you giving live shopping a try? If you're not currently live shopping, it's time to give it a try. Both Facebook and YouTube make live streaming easy. You don't have to be perfect starting out. It's live video: a lot can go wrong — but a lot can go right. You're never going to know unless you give it a try. One thing we know for sure: live shopping is growing fast and if you don't jump in, you could get left behind. Trend 5: Content And AI Technology AI took off in 2023 and was a huge trend throughout the year and we can expect more of the same in 2024. When we started the year, few knew about Chat GPT. As we start 2024, even grandma knows about it, the popularity growth has been insane. But what does it mean for 2024? AI technology isn't going anywhere, it's here to stay. For ecommerce merchants, you just have to make sure you use it correctly. The Obstacles It Creates AI technology does create a big obstacle, especially if you're relying on it for your content. AI content is not as unique as you may think. We've tested it in our marketing agency and we see the same content snippets come up over and over again. While this should improve throughout the year, you don't want to rely on just AI content alone. AI content is a long way from being able to write for your specific target audience. If you're putting content out there that's not meant for your target market, that's a problem. A lot of digital marketers, business owners, and agencies are using AI content for their SEO, that's another big red flag as Google has cracked down on the AI generated content. If you're trying to build organic traffic and rankings using AI content, you may struggle to get the results you need. The Solution: Unique Content For Your Target Audience Yes, AI content is great, you can create it for free. AI content has a place in your ecommerce business, but it shouldn't be the main content for your business. To ensure you dial in your content to your target market, you should focus on creating unique content. Remember, every content asset you create can be used in your business. While you may publish one article as a blog, that content can still be repurposed as a podcast, as a video, or as a social media post. When your content speaks specifically to your "perfect" client/customer, the results are going to far better versus just using AI content. Want to Join a Thriving Community of E-commerce Entrepreneurs? If you want to learn more about being successful in e-commerce and want to rub shoulders with some of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet, make sure to join PDMI. You can become a member here.

By Nick Pietropinto I’ve been playing chess since I was five years old. While the game of chess has given me countless hours of enjoyment, it has also taught me valuable lessons that I continue to apply both to my own business as well as the work I do with direct-to-consumer (D2C) clients. At its core, chess is about strategy. It requires being able to understand the big picture, plan ahead, visualize next steps, anticipate and prepare for your opponents’ moves, and weigh risk versus gain. In other words: to be successful at chess, you need to apply strategic thinking. The same can be said for business success. To advance your position and goals in business, you must be able to think strategically. The research backs this up. A McKinsey study revealed that the most important trait for high-performing business leaders is the ability to provide insights. The same report found that only 35 percent of executives feel that their strategies were built on effective insights, and only 25 percent think that their companies are good at both strategy and innovation. Just how important is strategic thinking to business success? Very. Data shows that during a 10-year period, companies with clearly defined strategies showed a 304-percent improvement in profits and a 332-percent increase in sales over their competitors. A lack of strategy, on the other hand, can have a detrimental impact. Research conducted on companies that declared bankruptcy during the past 25 years indicates that the No. 1 contributor for these failures was bad strategy. So what, then, constitutes “good” strategy? Studies conducted by the Wharton School revealed six skills essential to thinking strategically: the ability to anticipate, challenge, interpret, decide, align, and learn. These same skills needed for strategic thinking in the boardroom can be honed on the chessboard. In the ever-evolving world of D2C marketing, strategic thinking is particularly critical. To cut through the competitive clutter and reach their target audiences, D2C brands must think strategically about the message they’re conveying, the platforms and media channels they’re using, and the customer experience they’re providing. Your direct response copywriting has to be on the point. You have to constantly look and plan ahead accordingly, anticipating their competitors’ moves and their audience’s shifting preferences. Let’s take a closer look at specific skills chess teaches us — ones we can apply directly to D2C marketing programs to maximize their success. Leveraging Strengths: D2C brands must identify the strengths and vulnerabilities of their own position — as well as their competitors’ positions — to make the best decisions and come out on top. Capitalize on the strengths of your brand, as well as on the weaknesses of your competition. Planning and Execution: In chess, you shouldn’t make a move without thinking about the consequences and having a long-term plan of action. “Winging it” simply isn’t a winning strategy. Proactive strategic thinking is essential in D2C marketing as well — both having a long-term plan and following through with it. Positioning for Success: In chess, every game piece has an important role to achieve the end game: checkmate. The same goes with every element of your D2C marketing campaign: all the moving pieces must work together to reach the desired result. Risk vs. Reward: Chess requires a willingness to take risks that take your opponent by surprise. Playing it safe is the surest way to lose the game. Likewise, D2C brands that stick to the status quo are more likely to fail. Understanding which risks will generate greater rewards requires a carefully considered strategic approach. Learning and Refining: It takes years — and many defeats— to become a competitive chess player. In D2C marketing, not every campaign will be a success. The key, as in chess, is to learn from mistakes and losses and continually refine your marketing strategy based on what you’ve learned. That’s where tracking and analyzing data collected from your campaigns really comes into play. Great chess players have something else in common: a mentor who taught and guided them as they developed, tested, and refined their strategies. D2C brands also stand to benefit from guidance and mentorship provided by an expert who understands the importance of strategic thinking. At Double Diamond VIP, we’ve been helping clients think and act strategically with their D2C marketing programs for decades. In my own professional journey, as well as with my clients, I continually call back to the years I’ve spent over a chessboard, strategizing my next move. It’s been a pleasure and privilege to share what I’ve learned with peers and clients. Nick Pietropinto is the founder and CEO of Double Diamond VIP. He can be reached via email at nick@doublediamondvip.com. For more, visit TryD2C.com.

Introducing CLIR Financials from PremiumMedia360. Can digital invoice management ever be painless? It’s a question media buyers are keen to answer. In the otherwise cutting-edge digital realm, buyers are trapped spending countless hours reading and inputting invoice data within their media management or ERP system — just to have the right information available to get started on discrepancy resolution. The manual and labor-intensive process can occupy multiple full-time jobs across an agency. This represents a major drain on resources. Now, PremiumMedia360 (PM360) is pleased to introduce a long-awaited answer to the problem: CLIR Financials, powered by machine learning and AI. CLIR Financials is poised to create an automation revolution in digital media workflow. To understand why, let’s start with a look at the root of the problem: Industry standards. Digital Invoice Standards: Ground Rules that Never Got Off the Ground It’s hard to overstate how crucial standards have been to the growth of the media business. Decades ago, the 4As set clear rules of what linear TV and radio invoices and orders would look like. As those standards took hold, the industry benefited from near-universal uniformity around everything from shared formatting to minimum data requirements on every invoice. More than just allowing for simpler operations, these standards gave software providers like CoreMedia and Mediaocean a solid foundation to create EDI. If you’re a media professional who benefits from automated workflow, you have standards to thank. Unfortunately, digital media took a different turn. To be sure, the IAB advises on clear standards for invoicing, orders, and much more. But in the fast-growing and sprawling digital ecosystem, many of these standards never caught on. For instance, the same information routinely appears in different places on different publishers’ invoices; meanwhile, some vendors bill CTV and linear TV on a single invoice — and others send the bills separately. Historically, software has been built around clear processes, so even seemingly minor variations across vendors’ invoices — like order numbers on the top right, others on the bottom left — add up to a system that’s too chaotic to automate. The end result is a great irony of invoice workflow in the digital age. Buyers in so-called “traditional” channels get efficient EDI automation. Digital buyers, on the other hand, are left to sort through a patchwork of non-standardized PDFs and other file formats. Today, connected TV (CTV) is transacted in a very similar fashion as digital, and these invoicing problems look to only get worse. Now for the good news: AI is changing the rules of the game. What Standards Problem? Artificial Intelligence to the Rescue. AI and machine learning applications are now able to “make sense” of less-than-specific information — allowing for automation of non-standardized information. It’s this AI-based breakthrough that forms the basis of CLIR Financials, PM360’s AI-based automation solution for invoice management. With CLIR Financials, the publisher can send over invoices in any format, and the AI can “understand” and reformat the raw invoice data into an electronic format that’s readily ingested into agency systems. More than just looking at the invoice itself, CLIR Financials can also spot gaps in the invoice and fill them in with information from the seller’s email where relevant. We’re excited to see the solution advance as we continue to train the AI model further, and we are confident in the benefits it will provide, because it’s built upon proven technologies. CLIR Financials is an adaptation of our publisher-side AI solution allowing sellers to convert information like traffic instructions from spreadsheets and PDFs into digital formats that are immediately usable by sell-side systems. More broadly, it’s built on the similar AI frameworks that are already transforming use cases in a host of industries. We’ve rolled out CLIR Financials with an initial focus on digital and CTV because these are the channels with the least standards causing the most “pain” when it comes to agency workflow. However, this same technology can be used for any invoice type. CLIR Financials adds another automation solution to the PM360 suite, as we continue our focus on automating the gaps in media workflow processes. Regardless of channel, CLIR Financials removes the drudgework of reviewing data with a fine-toothed comb and painstakingly keying it into media systems. More fundamentally, it eliminates a key workflow hurdle to fully engaging old and new channels alike as the media landscape rapidly evolves. This is great news for media agencies looking to marry digitally forward media strategy with maximally efficient operations. If you’re a media buyer looking to streamline resources spent on handling invoice data, reach out to Michelle Clayton of PM360 at michelle@premiummedia360.com to learn more.

Google processes more than 8.5 billion searches per day. Wow! That's a lot of searches, and if you're not aiming to get a piece of that pie, you're missing out. There are two core digital marketing strategies to penetrate Google search: one is search engine optimization (SEO); and the other is paid advertising (Google Adwords). In this article, we'll be covering SEO, which is used to drive targeted organic traffic to your website. We'll share 4 search engine optimization secrets, because here's the thing: SEO is widely mislabeled online. Everyone repeats the same SEO strategies: build backlinks, write content, make your website faster, add SEO metdata, use H2 tags, and the list goes on. While these SEO tactics are real, did you know that many SEO ranking factors don't move the needle? In other words, they're practically useless because they do not affect your SEO rankings enough to make a difference. And that is the key: focusing on what moves the SEO needle and helps you improve your keyword rankings in Google. (1) Writing First-Page Worthy Content Your goal to rank on the first page of Google must be focused on creating amazing content. Not just any content: it must be first-page worthy. Your focus should be to create the best article online for that specific keyword. Nothing less will work. Don't worry if you're not a writer, this won't be difficult. Here's what to do: go to Google and search for the keyword you want to rank for. Once you enter it, evaluate the top 10 ranking pages on the search queries. What pages are ranking highest? It is blogs? Pages? Products? This will help you get an idea of the type of content Google prefers for that search query. If seven out of 10 are blogs, you should create a blog for that keyword. Next, evaluate the top three ranking pages. Review all three pages. How do they differ? How are they alike? What keywords do they target within the content? If you need to review a larger sample size, go for it. You can analyze the top five or top 10, but don't go beyond that. Your job is to create better content than all 10 search queries on the search results. Period. Go through the content, see how it's structured, and begin writing your awesome article. (2) Google's E-E-A-T Algorithm Updates Content has always been associated to SEO in one way or another. Most people know that. Your onsite SEO content is the second-most important SEO ranking factor, so it is a needle mover. Google released a core algorithm in March 2023. This update, once again, focused on content. Google wants you to be an expert in your specific niche, and it's up to you to display that expertise through website content: blogs, pages, products, videos, images, podcast, or audio. Since that release, a few other core updates have been released and E-E-A-T has become the industry standard. As we head into the new year, your SEO strategy will need to focus more on your internal content and providing the best possible content you can for users. E-E-A-T is an acronym created by Google which stands for: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Originally, that acronym was just E-A-T. E-A-T first made an appearance in Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines in 2014. Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines are instructions that give you evaluators known as "Quality Raters." These evaluators use the guidelines to assess the quality of Google’s search results. While you don't need to know everything about the algorithm changes, you do need to realize how important it is and what it represents. In the simplest definition we can give you, it means you need to create high quality content on your specific topic. Google considers trustworthiness to be the most important factor of them all. In fact, it uses experience, expertise, and authoritativeness to establish how trustworthy a site is. Trust is everything. (3) Great Content That Can Attract Backlinks Backlinks are the top Google SEO ranking factor. That hasn't changed. We'll talk about link building more in just a minute. While you can do outreach and build relationships to get backlinks, you can also help your case by creating content that others want to link to. You should always aim to create the best possible content. You want it to be useful to search users, but it must be also informative to your target market. That's a win-win strategy. If you're building great content, you can naturally attract backlinks, so you need content for this purpose. Here are a few ideas that could help: Top 5 or Top 10 List: Everyone loves sharing a good top 5 or top 10 list; they also like linking to them. Research and Studies: If you have data and analytics to share from research, these are great for link building, as others will cite you. Tool/Software: If you have a cool tool, software, or app, websites can mention them and review them, as well. This can build natural backlinks. (4) Backlinks Are Still the Top SEO Ranking Factor We can't do a SEO article without mentioning backlinks. Yes, it's not a secret, but a lot of people don't realize this. You can't ignore the fact that backlinks move the needle the most. Secret or not, if you want to rank high in Google, you need backlinks. There are many layers to building backlinks. It's one of the toughest jobs in all of SEO. It takes hard work and dedication to build the best possible backlinks for your website. This is why you want to learn every possible strategy to getting backlinks. Here's what you need to know about backlinks: Every backlink is unique, so understanding the true value of that backlink is essential to make sure you get the best possible backlinks. You want to get backlinks from websites that have real SEO value, which means they need to have real organic traffic, real organic rankings, and real referring domains. The anchor text you use in your backlinks is very important, so understand the appropriate anchor text ratios that are key to maximizing SEO value from backlinks. Natural backlinks are your best friend, so make sure you're creating awesome content.

Performance marketing experts weigh in on today’s key issues in advance of PDMI West 2023. By Thomas Haire As the Performance-Driven Marketing Institute (PDMI) team began to build out content for October’s PDMI West event in San Diego, the must-cover trends became apparent rather quickly: media measurement and currency; attribution for performance marketing sales; the expanding role of connected TV (CTV) as an outlet of choice; and how agencies — both creative and media — are helping their clients navigate the changing landscape. We’re excited about the educational sessions that highlight PDMI West’s calendar. So excited, in fact, that we decided to seek insights on these same topics in advance of our fall event from a group of PDMI members and PDMI West speakers. Read on to hear feedback from 17 thought leaders, representing 15 companies — media outlets, media agencies, creative experts, and measurement pioneers — about the state of performance marketing media, technology, and the industry’s near-term future. Responses have been lightly copyedited for content, clarity, and space. What word would you use to describe the state of media measurement and currency right now — and why? Nancy Arnold, chief marketing officer, Diray Media: Fragmented. Richard Bertodatti, senior vice president, multimedia and audience sales, TelevisaUnivision: Testing. Every agency, client, publisher, measurement, and currency provider is doing ongoing testing for current or alternative measurement/currency providers to evaluate what works best for the KPIs (key performance indicators) that they are working toward. This is causing a lot of great questions, dialogue, testing, deep dives, etc., that will help inform the new (and ever-evolving) state of currency and measurement in 2024 and beyond. Chris Brombach, senior vice president, integrated media, Cannella Media: Fluid. The industry has acknowledged the need for more accurate measurement that quantifies both audience delivery and attributed performance — across linear and streaming. Patrick Burney, performance sales lead, Samsung Ads: Complexification. This characterizes the intricate state of media measurement and currency today. With new currencies emerging, the industry debates the blurred line between transactional metrics and assessment measurements. Evolving consumer behavior renders impression-based metrics less accurate, while the pursuit of unduplicated reach faces challenges due to device proliferation. Viewership and reach, though emphasized, are considered shallow metrics without ROI insights. The ad industry needs to continue to shift away from focusing purely on impressions to metrics aligned with campaign goals, considering transactional costs, viewer experience, creative quality, and outcomes. In this state of complexification, there isn’t a one-sizefits-all solution for measurement. Ultimately, each advertiser needs to think beyond impressions to focus on the metrics that are most meaningful to their specific business objectives. Brian Catterson, senior vice president of DR ad sales, A+E Networks: Words like "disruptive" and "messy" certainly come to mind when describing the current situation in our industry. We’re experiencing a fundamental shift in the way long-form video is being distributed, leading to significant audience fragmentation and more layers of complexity in measurement and attribution. There’s a major evolution taking place in the metrics and KPIs that brands now consider most valuable in evaluating the performance and effectiveness of their media investments. And we’re watching as Nielsen’s 70-plus-year iron-clad grip on measurement and currency across our industry begins to loosen considerably. But I think the word I’d use to describe it all is "inspirational." Having worked in the performance marketing space my entire career, I’m inspired by the wider industry finally taking a page from our handbook and moving away from one-size-fits-all conversations around archaic age/gender demo delivery and toward more tailored conversations around measuring, evaluating, and optimizing against actual brand performance. We still have a ways to go in figuring it all out across every screen and device, but the future is bright. Carey Chase, senior vice president of media, Modus Direct: Fuzzy. As an agency, the data we work with across the varied media measurement platforms is viewed as more directional rather than absolute. Different measurement platforms, and algorithms, actively alter the data we use to make buying decisions. All of this makes the media buying process trickier than the days of unique toll-free numbers and/or Nielsen books to post against. Christine Georgakakis, senior vice president, advertising sales, Reelz: Fragmentation. Data is being gathered from various platforms in various ways, and there are many measurement providers available to analyze the data — but there is not one currency across the landscape. Joseph Gray, senior vice president of DR solutions, iSpot.tv: Liberating. For decades past, the television industry has operated within the confines of a single currency and measurement solution. Now that new deterministic data is available from smart televisions and connected TV devices, our industry can benefit from deterministic state-of-the-art media measurement and currency methodologies. If you sum that up in a single word, it feels … liberating! Fern Lee, CEO, THOR Associates: Transitional. Attribution fluctuates with omnichannel delivery of linear, digital, Amazon, CTV, OTT, and influencer campaign distribution. Michael Lyons, chief investment officer, Juice Media: Customized. Clients have been forced to forge their own paths and seek out solutions that better fit their needs. Progressive clients have been asking for outcome-based measurement solutions for quite some time. These solutions do not currently exist in a unified fashion across mediums. This has led to a migration away from the status quo served up by Nielsen and the holding companies and have led clients to create custom solutions with innovative agencies and publishers looking to evolve their businesses. Delia Marshall, COO, Eicoff: Opportunity! We’re seeing a trend that marketers are more focused than ever on performance — whether they have a performance background or not. CMOs are feeling the pressure to drive measurable sales. That presents an opportunity to think about the measurement of media differently and shift, in small or large ways, into performance-first strategies. Those moves will unlock learnings for brands that they didn’t know were possible. Scott Morin, director, advanced advertising, Paramount: Opportunity. For reasons that have been well documented, the door has been opened for our industry to take a deep look at the way things have long been and examine if the reasons we continue to do things that way are sound, or if they are born out of factors like complacency and fear of change. Never have we seen as much disruption in this space, and disruption doesn’t occur without some level of dissatisfaction or disenchantment in the status quo. Rich Radzik, vice president, Advocado BVS: Progress. I could have used the typical adjectives for this like fragmented, evolving, or even chaotic, but there has been progress. The industry agrees that media fragmentation and the continued erosion of linear TV viewership has made the long-standing traditional sampling techniques (Nielsen) inadequate to accurately calculate and measure the success of campaigns. There is no longer one show in town, and agencies and brands now have options to better measure meaningful outcomes across platforms. They are not just testing these new options or supplementing them but are implementing them across platforms. David Tiberia, vice president of analytics, Bluewater: Fractured. There is literally no way to do this easily. While no one really trusted Nielsen numbers, they were consistent and universally used. TV is open. It’s a visible medium and broadcast for anyone to see and track. With the rise of streaming, there is too much hidden and proprietary data to easily measure it. Even when Nielsen stumbled, no one was able to deliver a reasonable alternative. Without some type of open standard, measuring will remain fractured and difficult to execute. Shira Witelson, founder, RSLT: Encouraging. Despite the abundance of measurement platforms, the current state of media measurement and currency is encouraging due to the emergence of new rules and regulations that are setting the stage for more ethical measurement solutions. These regulations are helping ensure more accurate and transparent measurement practices in the industry, instilling confidence in the data-driven decisions made by advertisers and media professionals. Direct-to-consumer and performance marketers have long used other methodologies to assess their success. What does this new universe of media currency options bring to the table that D2C marketers haven’t seen before? Karen Kluger, founder/CEO, TouchPoint Integrated Communications: D2C marketers have always been datacentric to prove a campaign’s success, focusing on backend KPIs of sales/revenue/qualified leads. New currencies deliver deeper insights, combining backend data with frontend views/reach/engagement for a holistic view of the customer journey and identifying media touchpoints influencing their path to engagement. These insights drive campaign optimizations, forward planning, and testing, which are essential to growth and ensuring campaigns evolve with consumer consumption habits. New currencies also confirm what we’ve known all along, which is D2C campaigns generate awareness and build brands. Arnold: What this new universe of media currency allows us to do is better tell a complete and holistic story across all touchpoints, regardless of whether we are talking about streaming or linear. This means we can better intersect with our target audience(s) no matter where they are in their journey. Bertodatti: Media currency is usually utilized as a secondary metric to the primary performance metrics that agencies and clients utilize. However, now that some of the new currency providers are also offering attribution methodologies, it may open additional opportunities for performance marketers to standardize across common metrics for both traditional media currency, as well as performance metrics — all by the same partner. Brombach: The new universe of media currency options aims to unify viewership and consumption, holistically, across both traditional and streaming. Additionally, the integration of full-funnel, multitouch attribution allows for a more dynamic understanding of true audience and media impact. Catterson: Performance brands have always tracked how their media investments impact business outcomes like CAC, web visitations, app downloads, and any number of KPIs. Now with more sophisticated measurement offerings from vendors like iSpot, VideoAmp, Comscore, and others, clients are getting access to a more robust toolset to measure the effectiveness and performance of their campaigns. From a currency standpoint, publishers are now able to step beyond demo delivery guarantees and shift to transacting and guaranteeing on the actual business metrics that really move a brand’s business forward. Chase: It’s made the data collection and analytics part of the business as important as the media-outlet relationship part of the business. You need to have an analytics team that truly understands how the different platforms and algorithm models compare in order to optimize performance. That said, the new methodologies overall allow us to better capture activity by "rogue" customers who don’t follow the normal marketing path but still complete transactions by searching the web after seeing a message. Georgakakis: Performance marketers have always led the way when it comes to measurement. The new universe of media currency has brought the advanced technology to the table that allows for the ease of doing business and the dynamic optimization of advertising campaigns. Gray: The direct-response industry, where consumer response and business outcomes can be measured and tracked back to individual TV network/dayparts, has long struggled with the fact that traditional impressions are hard to prove against a return-on-advertising-spend (ROAS). Said another way, traditional audience-based measurement can struggle at the task of informing direct response TV media strategies. These experiences have caused many of us to feel that legacy audience measurement methodology is flawed. In contrast, smart TV and connected devices allow us to measure commercial exposures in addition to actions taken at the household level. So, TV advertising can now have the same level of accountability as digital. We can see the correlation between commercial exposures over time and measure downstream actions like household web visits and/or app downloads. This means more branded direct-to-consumer advertisers can measure ROAS, and/or media efficiency ratios, back to specific media placements — all without having to use custom URLs or 800 numbers. This technology turns brand advertisers into direct response advertisers with key new synergies between the methodologies associated with each. The result is a new type of multitouch, deterministic attribution that is far more accurate than the probabilistic solutions of the past, paving the way for a new era of audience measurement. Lee: It brings new customer acquisition. The new universe of options allows for marketing leadership to test new models for messaging and, in turn, customer loyalty, which leads to growth revenue. A prediction: DTC and performance marketing will soon be referred to as "Growth Revenue." Lyons: Frankly, it is a bit of the first point. D2C clients were some of the first advertisers to rebuke the status quo of impression-based measurement in scale. They looked for accountable attribution solutions with tighter windows by channel and — for the first time — included linear as part of that measurement suite. That was a great start and a new beginning for the way networks and publishers were held accountable for their share of marketing spend. Make no mistake: this was a massive improvement over impression-based models. Now, we are in a world of pushing the envelope even further. Clients have seen that there are times when the individual channel silos do not equal the whole of the business. The next step in understanding the total impact of a marketing portfolio is incorporating multitouch attribution into the tech stack. This gives clients a true look at how their entire portfolio performs and gives them a greater understanding of the customer journey. Marshall: New media currency options should unlock opportunities for D2C and performance marketers to push into audience-first strategies where they haven’t before: leveraging ACR data; pulling first-party data sets into universes with media currency; building custom audience profiles. This all represents the kind of shift forward that is necessary to truly get brands into audience-first thinking. Morin: The size and scale of the new currency data sets — coupled with their ability to drive attribution measurement through scaled identity and exposure data — provide a better way to analyze, target, and measure campaigns. From a currency perspective, aligning currency with these new activation strategies creates total alignment of interests between all parties — the ultimate expression of partnership. Radzik: The D2C marketers are in a much better position to adapt to the new media currencies than any other group. While basic reach-and-frequency measurements were part of their KPI metrics, they were not the most important. Since day one, DTC and performance marketers optimized and attributed based on more granular, accurate, and meaningful metrics like CPC, CPO, and — most importantly — sales conversions in real time. Many more general advertisers are deploying better KPIs that mirror what the D2C marketplace has been doing for 40 years — but it’s much harder for them to adapt. I have said this for the past 10 years: a D2C agency/brand is fully prepared and trained for any of these changes. Tiberia: Not much yet. The de-emphasis on ratings and GRPs helps D2C agencies because we’ve always been great at delivering cost-effective impressions, but the way media is purchased never optimizes for GRPs. As more brands lean into impression loads, it will make more advertisers comfortable with response-driven and optimized TV buying methods. If in the long run, the lack of "centralized" currency creates inroads to an open standard for data sharing, then there will be real advantages for D2C marketers as response measurement could become easier and more connected. Witelson: In recent years, the assessment of advertising effectiveness, particularly on television, has predominantly relied on two methods: using 800 numbers and tracking viewers’ IP addresses. However, both approaches have significant limitations. Relying solely on 800 numbers provides only a partial view of the effectiveness, failing to account for online engagement and conversions. This led to the adoption of the second approach, which involves tracking viewers by leveraging their home IP addresses. However, this method carries substantial risks as IP addresses can be linked to personal information, jeopardizing a brand’s reputation and consumer trust. But there is a new, groundbreaking methodology available that harnesses the power of machine learning and first-party data. This approach offers distinct advantages that were previously unavailable to direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketers. Unlike traditional IP address tracking, this method prioritizes viewer privacy, a critical concern in today’s data-sensitive landscape. D2C marketers can now gain valuable insights without intruding into individuals’ personal information. This precision can be achieved by leveraging machine learning algorithms, enabling D2C marketers to accurately measure the impact of their TV commercials, identifying which advertisements resonate with their target audience and which ones fall short. Once Nielsen’s hold over TV outlets and brand advertisers broke, an array of data and measurement companies entered the marketplace with their own currency offerings. What solutions are — or should be — most important to video performance marketers? Eric Helgesen, COO, Diray Media: For video performance marketers navigating the fragmented landscape of linear, streaming, CTV, and digital video, the first priority is identifying trustworthy solutions that serve both the agency and its clients. A unified data view is essential for understanding consumer behavior across platforms, complemented by advanced audience segmentation and attribution models to target and measure effectiveness. Quality metrics provide a deeper layer of engagement analysis. Transparency in data practices is non-negotiable, and solutions must be scalable to adapt to changing needs while remaining affordable to ensure a strong ROI. Bertodatti: This is extremely variable based on the client and agency KPIs and needs to be carefully selected to ensure that the partner(s) being utilized is checking as many boxes as possible — while also ensuring representation of all types of audiences in their panels/datasets. Brombach: Companies such as Comscore, VideoAmp, and iSpot now have a prominent seat at the table because of more statistically significant measurement methodologies, ability to leverage deterministic data, and deeper understanding of the entire customer journey. Burney: In the post-Nielsen era, the influx of data and measurement companies has spurred the quest for essential solutions among video performance marketers across various platforms —linear, streaming, CTV, and digital video. Crucial solutions encompass cross-platform consistency, multi-touch attribution, audience insights, viewability and fraud detection, real-time analytics, cross-device tracking, engagement metrics, conversion tracking, content relevance assessment, ad creative testing, privacy compliance, and customizable metrics. While these solutions empower marketers to optimize video campaigns effectively — ensuring accurate measurement, audience targeting, and alignment with business outcomes, regardless of the chosen platform — there isn’t a single platform or provider that checks all the boxes of today’s complex measurement needs. It takes a strategic combination of partners to gain a full picture of holistic ad performance. Catterson: The holy grail for performance marketers has always been in perfecting the measurement of audiences across screens and devices, and in tracking a consumer’s path from initial ad exposure all the way through to sale (or any number of KPIs) and beyond. As the leaders in this space, the performance community must work to continue to demand the best solutions that matter most for our brands: across screens, across platforms, and across different measurement options. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Different brands will have different measurement needs. Chase: Solutions that can provide consistent methodology, reliability, and as much detail as possible — details within the data that we as marketers can then translate into trends which then develop into forward-thinking media strategies. The data that currently comes from streaming/CTV/digital video placements is not very specific, which makes it difficult to replicate in future media plans. Linear is still the easiest channel to buy and optimize because we receive all the details (date and time/programming/impressions) for the airing. Streaming/CTV/digital video is more difficult because most of the time, the platform is usually the only airing detail you receive back. Also, it’s important to remember that few consumers think of their viewing behavior as either linear or streaming, since live TV is available through what we’ve always considered streaming platforms. So, the new measurement is a hybrid process that tracks streaming/CTV activity as tightly as possible based on ads delivered, and layers in traditional time-based monitoring to see the linear activity. The best solutions are the ones that can see beyond the artificial linear and streaming lanes. Georgakakis: The solution would be the one that best suits the clients KPIs. Gray: I am a huge fan of deterministic solutions empowered by smart TV and connected device data. Whether you are measuring linear TV, streaming, or CTV, these large consumer household panels, built from smart devices at massive scale, are a real game changer. In the world of CTV or streaming, these are consumer-targeted video mediums that require direct integration with the media providers given the walled-garden nature of their offerings. Lee: Martech has found its way into the womb of the television mothership. The most important solutions will consider the loss of third-party cookies while, at the same time, capture repeatable, sustainable, and innovative delivery of offers, brand messaging, and retargeting. Lyons: We think this was a major step in the evolution of the media marketplace. It sent a clear message to publishers and agencies that clients are demanding better tools to measure a more complex and dynamic marketplace. These custom approaches have led to innovations we haven’t seen for more than 50 years in a multibillion-dollar marketplace. Ultimately, we see publishers taking steps to be more accountable for their contributions and giving clients the opportunity to increase investment in marketing because they have greater certainty in the outcomes. Marshall: As with all things performance-focused, it’s important to test and to be open to the fact that your approach to measurement, as to all things in marketing, will evolve over time. Marketers should think about where they want to be 12-24 months from now. Do you want to better understand your customers? Do you want to reduce media waste? Do you want to expand to new audiences? Based on these questions, it will be important to consider solutions that allow you to marry your first-party sales data with both online and offline media data (impressions, impact, attribution) in one universe to give you the levers to optimize across channel. Morin: Our approach to this conversation is one of agnosticism. When we look at the various currency partners that we are willing to work with, we use a standard set of criteria in our evaluation. Do we agree with the methodology being used? Is the data stable over time? Can the data be applied effectively for both demo and audience-based transactions? Can we incorporate their data into our and our partners existing tech stacks and workflows with minimal disruption? If a currency provider checks all those boxes, then we light up the ability to transact with us through them. But ultimately, what will determine the companies that win this space is going to be buy-side demand. Radzik: The data provider must first be proven with accurate audit-quality data. Second, it must be real time — and when I say real time, I mean within an hour of when the media airs. Third, it can no longer be done in a "black box" or behind a curtain. Our industry has tolerated working in the dark far too long, and we now must work in a "glass-box" atmosphere to fully understand how the measurement and performance is calculated. Lastly, and obviously, it must be done similarly across media platforms — not siloed. Witelson: In navigating this evolving landscape, one of the crucial considerations for video performance marketers should be the ethical collection and usage of data. Many of the new currency offerings rely on data sourced from individuals without informed consent, raising significant ethical and legal concerns. Marketers should prioritize solutions that are transparent about their data collection methods and obtain explicit consent from users. The blurring lines in media buying/selling between brand marketers and D2C/performance marketers adds another level of confusion for measurement companies, data companies, and agencies to navigate. What’s the biggest challenge your business faces from this shifting marketplace? Bertodatti: This is all positive information. That is sometimes obfuscated by the need to deliver on the demo guarantee. Knowing and being aligned on the KPI that the client/agency is driving toward helps publishers work more closely with the client/agency to collaborate and ensure that publishers are implementing the tools/partners necessary to ensure alignment and maximizing on the true KPI of client/agency success. The biggest challenges, however, are wall-garden data sets and partners that do not allow standardization across all partners, nor allow detailed information about blackbox methodology. Clients/agencies needs to be the partners that ensure that the walled-garden partners are working and comingling data using that same manner as other open publishers/partners. Otherwise, it’s just the walled gardens grading their own homework and trusting their metrics vs. being reviewed/monitored by a third party. Brombach: It’s more important than ever to acknowledge the complexity of a customer’s journey through the entire funnel, and its relationship with various media touchpoints throughout that journey. Chase: It used to be brand marketers paid more for higher impression delivery and programming that aligned with their target audience while D2C marketers focused on performance, using campaign results as their currency at the negotiation table. In essence, we stayed in our perceived "lane." Now, it feels like everyone (brand and D2C) is chasing efficiency and determining if a campaign is successful has become more layered and complex. Helgesen: The single most pressing challenge for us as an agency today is the intricate task of curating a data and measurement ecosystem that can seamlessly integrate both brand marketing and performance marketing to meet our clients’ increasingly diverse needs. This complexity involves sifting through a crowded field of new measurement and data providers, each with overlapping and sometimes partial solutions. It also entails discerning the genuine value behind industry buzzwords like AI (artificial intelligence) while maintaining a cost-effective balance in our selection of partners and vendors. As our clients now require a blend of brand and performance marketing strategies, our challenge is not just to adapt, but to do so in a way that brings cohesive value. Lee: It is all about attribution. When we are buying linear, we know that the halo to digital, Amazon, influencers, and other channels will be affected in a positive way. In both digital and traditional media, capturing of brand vs. non-brand is highly competitive and has unique search and delivery methodology. Couple this with general vs. DR media buying/selling while decisions are made based on the price of the media rates, rather than delivery of market segmentation, and success can be compromised. Lyons: This is a great question, and it is one we face very often. We take the approach that the most important person in this equation — the consumer — doesn’t see this line. The question of brand versus selling is a "Sophie’s Choice" marketers often put themselves in for no reason. We think it is not only feasible but, in fact, optimal to grow the brand through the sale of the product. When sales build brand equity, the client is truly in a win-win situation. The key to success in this equation is to have the proper measurement solution in place to measure both outcomes simultaneously. The final point on this question, and it may be the most important element, is to have a winning suite of creative assets to accomplish both goals. This may seem obvious, but I cannot underscore how important it is to a winning strategy. Nothing else matters if you do not get this part right. Marshall: We find it’s most important to set the primary goal right out of the gate. A brand may say they want to "make a splash," "reach new audiences," or "build awareness." But upon further discussion, you learn that the CFO will darken their doorway immediately upon launching a campaign to understand sales impact. Knowing this allows us to design a media and measurement strategy that focuses on goals and performance KPIs while still reading traditional audience delivery as a secondary goal. Morin: We have been preparing for years to have more holistic conversations that make use of our entire portfolio and serve all levels of the sales funnel. Understanding that, tactically, different pools of inventory can fill different needs, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be part of the same conversation. The challenge with historically performance-driven marketers that are now incorporating more brand marketing is in the wide range of patience they are willing to exhibit to have these longer-lead tactics have an impact, and the challenge with historical brand marketers diving deeper into a performance approach is how they balance efficiency versus efficacy. Some metrics they are used to seeing will lead to bias in certain areas, but those areas are not always what are most effective in driving their optimal business results. Radzik: The biggest challenge for us is the speed with which our marketplace will change and adopt our new metrics and methodologies. Let’s be honest: our marketplace can be slow to accept new emerging technologies or methods. For 30-plus years, we partnered with the majority of performance-based agencies/brands for traditional linear TV, but we now have many additional platforms and consumption methods that are processed real-time using advanced data science that we believe can have a major impact on the success of our partners campaigns and the maneuvering through this rapidly changing landscape. Tiberia: The lack of open standards for data sharing continues to be the biggest challenge. Love or hate TV, it is open and accountable. Digital advertising isn’t. There is no path for small and mid-sized advertisers to gain access to most detailed serving data from many streaming services and walled-garden digital platforms. Based on Google’s most recent issues on YouTube, with where content was being delivered, even the largest digital ad solutions can live in a gray area when it comes to transparency. Without impression-level data, it’s very difficult to provide attribution and cross-screen measurement solutions. If you could only choose one performance media outlet to use over the next three years, which one and why? Gina Pomponi, president & COO, Bluewater: I feel like this is a loaded question since no one can truly predict the future. As direct marketers, we know to follow what the data tells us. Currently, the best performance media outlet to reach scale is television. Notice that I’m intentionally not delineating between linear TV and streaming. In 2023, linear TV is alive and well and continues to be a strong response generation vehicle for adults 35 and older — and the strongest for reaching adults 50 and up. However, the trend toward streaming continues to grow across all demographics. The challenge stems from the overwhelming number of streaming outlets and channels, causing a substantial fragmentation of viewership. This fragmentation poses a considerable hurdle for direct marketers, as it becomes increasingly challenging to reach a responsive audience in a cost-effective manner. There is a clear need for someone to consolidate these diverse streaming options into bundled offerings, simplifying the experience for marketers and consumers alike. I predict someone will step up within the next the years to offer all streaming options/content through one provider. A "Stream 360" model is going to become the norm. Chase: Next three years: linear will still be the primary place for performance media. Next 10 years: CTV. Helgesen: Even as a TV-centric performance agency, we would never commit to a single media outlet, especially in today’s landscape where consumer behavior is increasingly fragmented. The shift to an omnichannel world means that performance is optimized when we engage audiences across multiple platforms, from traditional TV to streaming services and digital channels. Relying on a single outlet would not only limit our reach but also miss the opportunity to capture consumer attention at various touchpoints, which is crucial for maximizing ROI in a complex and ever-changing media environment. Kluger:  Based on its versatility to be effective against both awareness and lead-gen goals, online video (OLV) would be the media outlet we would choose to use over the next three years. Creatively, through sight and sound, OLV has the power to engage consumers, reinforce a brand’s message, showcase products, and use narrative to tell a story through various unit lengths. OLV has massive reach given its broad distribution across social platforms and websites on both mobile and desktop and can cost-efficiently deliver a volume of impressions. The channel also offers robust targeting, from demo and geo to interests and behaviors and can be measured from upper-funnel engagement metrics down to click-throughs, sales, and revenue. While online video is already an effective media outlet today, we expect it to become even more powerful over the next three years through technological advancements. Lee: Influencers! As social media platforms become the new online retail superstores, influencers will create word-ofmouth and referral-based purchase power. Lyons: Video, but I do not want to commit to the specific distribution method because I think that is a rapidly evolving space. Video advertising (sight, sound, and motion) is still the most valuable asset in a client’s toolbox and provides unsurpassed scale and profitability when executed correctly. Marshall:  We see that video — with the power of sight and sound — can demonstrate a product or service’s benefit in an effective way. Using a blend of linear and streaming allows for a brand to reach new audiences, while measuring and optimizing based on impact on sales. Radzik: I don’t believe there is just one today yet that can truly accurately meet all the requirements. Most performance-based agencies are using or testing multiple measurement methods (for linear, CTV, web, mobile, etc.). I do know that it all needs to be conducted in a fully transparent manner, be based on real-time, audit-quality data, and leverage advanced data sciences that can quickly adapt to and implement emerging media measurement. Witelson: TV. Our extensive performance analysis over the years consistently identifies TV as the top performer among various media outlets. Its enduring effectiveness and broad reach make it our preferred choice. If you’ve never advertised on TV before, consider making your initial investment in one market, testing, learning, and then expanding from there. This approach will enable better measurements, especially if you’re working with smaller budgets. One of the biggest complaints we hear from PDMI members is the inability to accurately measure how CTV is working with the rest of a campaign. What can performance marketers expect from CTV in the next 2-3 years, and how can its measurability be simplified? Bertodatti: CTV is an evolving term that is coming to mean anything that a publisher puts out there that ends up on "big glass" — whether it is CTV, FEP, OTT, VOD, DAI, MVPD, VMVPD, etc. There is a need for agencies and clients to recognize that consumers of their products are viewing content on the largest screens in their residences but are coming from other places that may not have the best return path data — therefore it’s considered "unusable" by some performance agencies and clients. Simplicity in the space will come when clients/agencies start to activate with partners across all these end points and are able to see a commingled report on traditional metrics and performance metrics. Brombach: CTV’s reach is larger than cable, and video consumption continues to point toward streaming. That said, it’s critical to integrate deterministic CTV "match-back" attribution into a reliable multitouch attribution ecosystem. Catterson: The industry is in a very inventive and innovative period right now. As the media landscape continues to see more fragmentation, new solutions in the market are helping to make it easier for brands to find and optimize against their audiences no matter where they’re viewing content. It’s still a bit messy and confusing, but it’s getting better every day. We believe the focus should be on finding your audience wherever they are, serving the right message in the right environment to that audience, and then measuring and optimizing against performance. As an industry, our collective aim is truer than ever. And, in two to three years, we’ll look back on this period as a pivotal turning point in the evolution of the TV advertising ecosystem. Chase: Unfortunately, the ever-increasing number of solutions that block tracking to protect privacy will not make this easier. One solution that we’re seeing more often is the use of QR codes in commercials to track sessions more accurately. These can have very specific UTM parameters embedded in them that can help tracking, and consumers are more accustomed to using them now. There will be new tools soon that help identify how consumers enter the sales funnel, but this is all still an emerging area. Gray: Given these significant challenges, having a unified measurement solution has never been more critical. Today’s deterministic offerings make it possible to understand when an ad hits linear or CTV, along with instant measurement of impressions mapped to the exposed audience’s precise demographic makeup. It has become routine to then connect this data to subsequent conversions such as web visits, app downloads, sales, offline conversions, and more. It’s true closed-loop attribution that’s not historically available to TV marketers. Today, advertisers and agencies can have highly actionable campaign results displayed in real time, in a single comprehensive dashboard that’s available to the entire marketing team. This allows one to take quick and immediate action to improve return on advertising spend, even when the campaign is still in flight. All of this is possible today thanks to smart TVs, smart connected devices, granular data, and deterministic methodologies, which have been developed by leading industry providers. Kluger: While CTV as a media tactic is relatively new, as marketers, we shouldn’t abandon the measurement tactics used to prove out the value of the media channels that have come before it. CTV should be evaluated through a "whenin" analysis designed to quantify the incremental conversions generated when CTV is added to a brand’s media mix. Like any upper funnel tactic, CTV’s value will be in its ability to lift sales, through convergence, across all paid and organic channels vs. expecting a positive ROAS on directly attributed orders. Measurement teams should set up "exposed" and "holdout" groups prior to a campaign launch, either through a traditional geographic split or by separating eligible programmatic target audiences into two distinct groups at the time of the bid. Provided that external influencers are consistent across the two groups, and variables controlled incrementally, a brand’s baseline orders can be attributed to the exposure to CTV. Return-on-ad-spend should be derived by calculating the incremental revenue generated divided by the cost of the CTV media. Lee: CTV media agencies need to streamline their reporting based on geos, publishers, and media metrics. The data and sales need to reflect a budget that is carefully adhered to, based on KPIs and formulas reflecting CPA and CPL. Pivots need to be made judiciously, if not daily, if the needle is to be moved. According to Statista research (2022), CTV completion rate as an industry benchmark was 95%. What needs to happen to reach these goals moving forward: length of creative (:30 vs.60); a clear plan for retargeting; seasonality in the media ecosystem (politics, healthcare, sports); and integration with paid social. Lyons: This is a common adage that I have heard repeatable over time, and I am still confused as to why this is still a question. The shiny new object is another powerful tool in the marketer’s belt. It is the preferred way consumers enjoy FEP content and get introduced to awesome brands. Impression-based measurement or DAR ratings are an antiquated approach measurement. The tools and the tech exist to measure CTV alongside every other marketing channel in the mix. Clients who are struggling with this question should find a new partner who will invest in tech and ultimately their brands. The true differentiator is finding a partner who understands the interactions of different channels and creatives and creates a customized strategy for brands to maximize their outcomes across each KPI that drives their business. Marshall: While measuring CTV in a silo is simple and accurate today through partners like Innovid, it’s less clear cut on how it’s playing with other marketing channels and what the real incrementality is. Sometimes more traditional measurement strategies like market-level pre- and post-test trendlines in things like branded search traffic or website sales can solve for that, so we may see old-school approaches adapted to CTV more readily in the coming years. It’s important to remember that these challenges aren’t unique to CTV. Demonstrating a channel’s true value has always been an ongoing battle — just think about how many digital media attribution models there are even when everything can be tracked to a T — so CTV measurement will ultimately evolve to reflect the nuance of the channel: a blend of traditional and digital, a mix of brand and performance. Morin: It won’t be a simple flip of a switch, but through industry collaboration, and the strides being made in identity resolution, CTV will continue to gain influence in how marketers spend their video budgets. The answer is not to continue to build more, and taller, walled gardens, but to make use of technological advancements to have data inputs from multiple sources inform and enrich one another in a privacy-compliant way that will allow for greater targeting, greater measurement, and ultimately, greater performance across all video investment — with CTV very much at the heart of that. Another key expectation is the use of scaled, first-party data to power these measurement solutions, which will greatly improve CTV measurement. This is why so many publishers have committed to sharing their first-party digital data with measurement companies through the Joint Industry Committee (JIC). Radzik: Ironically, while responding to this, a client partner called me about CTV and measurement of it, as more and more of their media is moving to CTV. With linear TV audience time dipping under 50 percent for the first time (and the majority of that lost to CTV), the No. 1 question I am asked by clients is how they can properly measure it. They are asking how they can know where their CTV media is airing in real time, and how can they precisely activate or optimize on CTV as part of their cross-media campaigns. Over the next two-to-three years, there will be an option to verify where and when CTV (and other emerging media) media is airing, through the use of watermarking, across media. Watermarking will be the first step to fuel existing and new optimization and attribution techniques to determine what is driving sales across platform in a real-time, automated manner. Tiberia: I think advertisers have an unrealistic expectation of CTV. They expect it to behave and measure like linear TV, and it just doesn’t. The single impression nature of the medium causes serving to be more fragmented. It’s just as easy as it is to serve one person way too much frequency as it to serve someone a frequency of 1. Right now, you can measure CTV, but it’s just not as directly measurable as linear or other digital platforms. Based on the current tech landscape, the biggest hope for CTV is that data clean rooms become based on an agreed upon standard and become affordable. It’s too early to really know if this tech is going to be able to deliver on the hype and provide actionable data. If it does, it could be a game changer for both cross-media measurement and attribution. Witelson: We are addressing this challenge head-on. After years of development, there is a methodology that does just that, all while safeguarding user privacy and without the use of trackers. This approach leverages advanced machine learning and first-party data, enabling precise measurement and optimization of CTV advertising within the broader campaign context while respecting privacy. This idea simplifies CTV measurability but also prioritizes data privacy, providing advertisers with valuable insights to maximize their campaign impact.

(Especially When It Comes to AI.) By Nick Pietropinto Direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketing is an ever-evolving beast that requires an ever-evolving approach to see continued results. With all the hubbub around artificial intelligence (AI), you may be asking yourself, “Should AI have a role in my D2C marketing strategy?” To answer that question, we must look at the both the advantages and the potential pitfalls of using AI. Marketing professionals appear to be heartily embracing AI as way to be more efficient, effective, and informed. One Salesforce study shows that in 2020, 84 percent of marketing leaders were using AI — up from 29 percent in 2018. Indeed, according to a recent McKinsey report, AI has the potential to unlock up to $2.6 trillion in value for marketing and sales efforts. How so? For starters, adding AI tools to your D2C marketing arsenal can help you provide the customization your customers crave. By leveraging a wealth of granular data about your target audience, AI offers a powerful tool in creating segmented campaigns and hyper-personalized content that drive engagement and conversion rates. AI tools can also provide an effective way to optimize your content, improve SEO, and create more relevant campaigns that get more clicks. That’s especially important considering that third-party Cookies are going the way of the dodo. Once your target audience is engaged and converted, AI can help you improve retention of those customers. In a recent survey of American consumers, 48 percent of respondents said they’d be willing to interact with AI more frequently if it made their customer experience more seamless, consistent, and convenient. AI tools like chatbots can do just that, by providing instant responses and information. Or take AI-enabled self-service portals, which serve up personalized recommendations depending on your customers’ buying histories. Or you can leverage AI-driven data to create super-targeted rewards programs. AI can also support predictive analytics, allowing you to anticipate your customers’ future behaviors and preferences so you can proactively adapt your D2C campaigns accordingly. AI additionally offers the promise of automated efficiencies, especially when it comes to generating content. A Forrester study shows that while 65 percent of marketing leaders say that they’re confident in their creatives, nearly the same percentage have a hard time scaling their creative approach. AI tools help address the scalability problem by automating a wide range of otherwise time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks — from writing infinite iterations of Google ads to A/B testing email subject lines, to creating weekly blogs and daily social media posts complete with AI-generated graphics, to coding webpages with all the right key words. But before you rush to replace your human team with AI tools, here come the words of caution. Relying too heavily on AI to create, execute, and manage your D2C marketing campaigns has its risks. To begin with, the quality of your AI-powered campaigns relies on the quality of the data it’s pulling from. Without access to accurate, current, and complete data, the content your AI generates may be false, inconsistent, irrelevant, or even downright off-putting. For all of AI’s prowess, it’s still “artificial,” meaning it lacks the emotional intelligence and creativity unique to human beings and essential to your brand. This can leave AI-generated content feeling canned, repetitive, and inauthentic when unchecked. Then there’s the risk of running with the same AI-created content that your competitors are using, or worse, that’s plagiarized. What’s more, consumers are still somewhat wary of AI-produced content. For instance, in a 2023 survey 48 percent of respondents said they don’t think AI-generated people should be used in social media ads. All of which makes a compelling case for approaching AI as a collaborative tool used by empathetic humans. Back to our original question: To evolve or not to evolve … your marketing with AI. With the right tools and the right team of experts leveraging them, AI can have a potentially game-changing role in D2C marketing — but that role should be a supplemental and collaborative one. Keep in mind that every D2C brand is different: different audiences, different products, different goals. Determining whether to use AI should be decided on an individual basis, with an experienced partner who can help you find and manage the right tools, stay ahead of emerging developments, and maximize results. If you’re interested in seeing what role AI might have in your evolved D2C marketing strategy, contact the team at Double Diamond VIP. Visit www.TryD2C.com. Nick Pietropinto is the founder and CEO of Double Diamond VIP. He can be reached via email at nick@doublediamondvip.com. For more, visit TryD2C.com.

By Nick Pietropinto Direct-to-consumer (D2C) is clearly having a moment. In 2022, data shows that around 64 percent of global consumers regularly purchased products directly from brands. New research reveals that 55 percent of consumers actually prefer to buy direct from brands, with 81 percent reporting that they plan to make at least one D2C purchase in the next five years. This demand is fueling tremendous D2C growth. In 2023, D2C sales in the U.S. are expected to reach nearly $183 billion‚ a 36-percent increase from the period between 2020 and 2022. Capitalizing on this demand, more than 52 percent of consumer brand manufacturers are now embracing D2C. The success of D2C brands, however, is far from guaranteed. In fact, D2C brands face significant challenges in achieving and sustaining growth — including an increasingly crowded marketplace competing for the increasingly fragmented attention of consumers. To succeed, D2C brands must break through the clutter to find, connect with, acquire, and retain their target audience. What's the right marketing strategy and what should be your primary focus to gain the growth you deserve? That’s precisely why finding the right partner is critical to help plan, deploy, and refine your D2C marketing strategy. To clarify, we’re not talking about partnering with just any marketing firm or advertising agency. What you really need is a strategic partner who understands the complex D2C market and omnichannel media landscape, and who has a proven methodology for driving ever-better results from your D2C marketing programs. Let’s break that down into more detail with this seven-point checklist. 1. D2C Expertise. The D2C landscape is constantly shifting. Look for a partner who understands D2C, and who actively stays ahead of ever-evolving D2C trends, tools, and strategies. If they’re doing that work to give you a competitive edge, that means you don’t have to. 2. Relevant Experience. Look for a partner with a seasoned, tenured team and a long track record of satisfied clients. The partner you choose should have extensive and demonstrable experience not only in D2C, but in your specific vertical. 3. Omnichannel Champions. The most successful D2C marketing programs employ an omnichannel approach that encompasses digital and social media, linear TV, OTT (over-the-top) content streaming, and CTV (connected TV), as well as print, outdoor, and other channels. Your partner should be well versed in omnichannel strategies and creating the right media mix. 4. Media Agnostic. Along with taking a holistic, omnichannel approach, your D2C partner should be agnostic and unbiased when recommending which media channels to leverage. They should identify channels that will launch your marketing programs’ effectiveness — not line their own pockets. 5. Proven Methodology. In a recent survey conducted by Allocadia, 47 percent of marketing leaders admitted they struggle to calculate ROI for their marketing efforts, and 61 percent said they don’t even use ROI in decision-making due to a lack of confidence in their data. When it comes to D2C success, being able to make data-based decisions is essential to seeing results and growth. So, look for a partner with a data-driven methodology that allows you to precisely target the right audience, measure results, and continually fine tune your marketing programs to show and maximize ROI. 6. Powerful Attribution Platform. Your partner should have a full arsenal of tools and resources at their disposal to demonstrate and drive that elusive ROI, including an attribution platform. An attribution platform, typically software, will allow you to measure and optimize your campaigns across multiple media channels by tracking users who interact with your ads. The most effective attribution platforms tell you which order from a consumer is originated on what media channel (i.e., from a social media ad vs. a Google ad vs. a TV ad). This data shows you where you’re getting the best return for your marketing dollars, so that you can adjust your media mix accordingly to lower your costs and accelerate conversions. 7. Great Team. Last but certainly not least, you should enjoy working with your D2C partner. They should not only be knowledgeable, but also responsive, flexible, and client centric. Your partner’s team members should take the extra time and effort to truly understand your business and goals, while making you feel like a VIP. At Double Diamond VIP, we’ve built our business model on hitting these key points for our D2C clients. To learn more about our team and approach to supporting successful D2C marketing strategies, visit www.TryD2C.com. Nick Pietropinto is the founder and CEO of Double Diamond VIP. He can be reached via email at nick@doublediamondvip.com. For more, visit TryD2C.com.

Thirteen months after proposing sweeping changes to its Endorsements and Testimonial Guides (Guides), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finalized its revised guidelines and released an updated set of FAQs to help guide the industry with respect to the proper use of customer reviews, influencer marketing, and traditional endorsements and testimonials. While the new guides are more than 80 pages long, attorneys at Venable LLP recently shared an initial set of highlights that performance marketers should know about. Click here to continue by visiting Venable’s blog post on this crucial regulatory update.