📦 - Filled With Mixed Messages and Sweet Nothings

Situationship Campaign, 8.11x Your ROAS, V Day Do’s and Don’ts, What’s Trending? Monday, January 15, 2024 Good morning, Last week Microsoft briefly took Apple’s spot as the most valuable public company again thanks to a flurry of exciting AI announcements. As these two battle it out, this is a reminder to keep an eye on your competition and take advantage of the latest AI tools to help streamline your ecommerce business. Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC: - How Sweethearts Candies leveraged defective conversational hearts to target people in ‘situationships’. - Some do’s and don’t tips for setting up your V Day Meta ad campaigns. - How to integrate Canva and ChatGPT and how to peep what’s trending on TikTok. - And read until the end to learn…the three red flags to watch out for when someone starts a business. You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Klaviyo, Vital Explorations, Cosmic Candy, and Mind Spark 👋 📰 NEWS - Google Cloud launches [new generative AI tools for ecommerce retailers]( like an AI-powered chatbot. - Returnmates [rebrands as Sway and raises $19.5 million]( in funding to manage ecommerce returns. - Disney [unveils a new shoppable ad format]( for streaming called Shop The Stream. - e.l.f. Cosmetics releases a 15-minute [true crime parody called Cosmetic Criminals]( about their steal-worthy products. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SARAL 📈 How To 8.11x Your ROAS In 2024 As an ecommerce brand looking to build an ambassador program, you typically face two options: - Do things manually and waste hours on boring work 👎 - Spend $20k+ on software and tools with no guaranteed results 👎 Neither option sounds overly appealing… But, as a DTC reader, we’re letting you in on a third option — [SARAL](. With SARAL, the average brand is seeing an 8.11x ROAS on their influencer marketing spend. 🚀 Here’s why ecom brands like Obvi and Root’d are loving SARAL: - They automatically find influencers for you. - The outreach is “direct-to-creator” so you preserve relationships. - Robust workflow automations ensure posting after product seeding. If influencer marketing is on your Q1 roadmap, take this chance to start the right way with SARAL. [👉 Claim Your No-Risk Free Access 👈]( WHAT’S TRENDING 💝 Why Sweethearts Candies’ Situationships Campaign Is A Hit [Sweethearts Candies situationship campaign. No, this isn’t an SNL skit.] Conversation hearts always make an appearance leading up to Valentine’s Day, but this year [Sweethearts Candies]( has made a fun marketing push to go after a niche target audience: people in situationships. The candy brand’s [satirical Situationship commercial]( pokes fun at how this is the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for 2024. What is a situationship? When you may or may not be in an ambivalent relationship that has no label which leads both parties to wonder: What the heck are we?! Stats on situationships trend: - Searches for the keyword ‘situationship’ have been rising YoY and now have 90K/month searches at this time 🔥(Source: SEMRush) - The word ‘Situationship’ was a finalist for Oxford’s Word of the Year in 2023. - In a non-scientific 2022 survey conducted by YPulse, [20% of Gen Z and 16% of Millennials report they have been in a situationship](. Why this marketing campaign works so well: - Targets a specific audience: Almost all Valentine’s Day campaigns target happy couples who have had the DTR (Define the Relationship) conversation but Sweetheart Candies stands out by targeting a different ‘unseen’ demographic. - Truthful messaging: The tagline ‘mixed messages’ resonates well with this audience since people in situationships report high levels of anxiety, uncertainty, and distress. - Leads with humor: The brand successfully pokes fun at how confusing situationships can be and is highly relatable. The result? The campaign quickly went viral on social media, racking up over 1.2 million views on TikTok and comments from users who loved the spot on commentary. Not only is the campaign itself brilliant, but Sweethearts Candies was also able to reduce their waste by selling their defective products. Satirical and sustainable. Wins all around. 🏆 *Looks like the campaign went so well the product has sold out. Sweethearts Candies is now racking in emails for their newsletter list for people waiting for the next drop. MORE V DAY INSIGHTS 👀 Valentine’s Day Do’s and Don’t Tips Valentine's Day is the next high-purchase intent holiday for Q1. Every DTC brand should take advantage of this time (in one way or another) by tailoring it to their audience and niche. Here are some tips from the [Pilothouse team]( on how to capitalize on this high-purchase opportunity during the next few weeks. Do’s & Don’ts for Valentine’s Day Meta ad campaigns ❌ Don’t force Valentine's gifting angle: If your product or service isn’t a good fit for Valentine’s Day messaging, don’t force it. ✅ Do offer a customer appreciation promotion: Your messaging can be more about your brand giving love back to customers with a sweet discount or gift with purchase. ❌ Don’t create expensive Valentine’s Day creatives: While bigger brands pull out all the stops, if you're on a tight budget there are ways to run a V Day campaign without spending all your dollars. ✅ Do take your top-performing creatives and add a seasonal twist: Add pink and red background colors, heart emojis, and other V day appropriate designs to stand out. ❌ Don’t keep pushing Valentine’s themed creatives if they aren’t performing: If you aren’t getting clicks and conversions, then the messaging might not be resonating with your audience. ✅ Do pivot from your learnings: A/B test various Valentine’s Day and/or let evergreen scale during this high-intent purchasing period. These do’s and don’ts tips for Valentine’s Day campaigns should get you thinking about how to simplify your creatives and a way to show love and appreciation to customers. 🧰 THE TOOLKIT 👀 Looking to optimize multichannel sales? Don’t miss Pipe17’s virtual Omnichannel Commerce Summit on Jan. 17th and learn from expert sellers on Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, Wayfair, and more. [Register here](. * 🎨 Want to reinvent the way you use Canva? [Canva, every marketer's bff, has a ChatGPT Plus plug-in](. Connect your Canva and GPT Plus account to make custom templates or designs that you can port back into Canva to edit. ⏰ Trends are moving FAST. Wanna see what’s trended and is trending right now on TikTok? [Check out this list](. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 📦 DTC Audience Survey Hey there! We just kicked off our [2024 Audience Survey]( and we'd love to hear from you. As a DTC reader and a member of our community, we value your opinions and feedback. Got a few minutes? Jump into this quick survey to let us know more about you, your work, and your likes and dislikes about DTC. Plus, fill it out and you'll get a shot at winning a $500 Amazon gift card!* [Take The Survey Now]( *Limit one entry per person. There is no purchase necessary in entering the sweepstakes for the audience survey. One winner will be randomly chosen to win a $500 Amazon gift card (or equivalent). Entrants must be located in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand and enter the email address used to subscribe to DTC Newsletter to be eligible to win. Winner will be notified via email. 🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE Can't view the image? [Click here]( 👀 BANTER What happens when you Google ‘Stanley Cup’. Have you heard our latest podcasts? - 😎 Nick Shackelford’s CBD brand [BREZes Hits $1 Million in 8 Months]( - 📝 [AKNF 367:]( Steal our Google Ads Promo Bible! - 📦 [Unboxing the Supply Chain]( with Ingredient Brothers’ Eran Mizrahi - 📧 [AKNF 365:]( Jogo Talks About Critical Gmail Changes for 2024 - 💵 Tiny Founder Andrew Wilkinson [Hero’s Journey From Barista to Empire Builder]( Don’t forget to [rate the DTC Podcast]( on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) DTC Newsletter is written by [Rebecca Knight]( and [Frances Du](. Edited by [Eric Dyck](. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. NEED MORE DTC? 🚀 [Advertise]( in DTC Newsletter. Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content. [Direct To Consumer]( Pilothouse, 1011 Government St., Victoria, BC V8W 1X6, Canada [Advertise with DTC]( | [Work With Pilothouse]( [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](