Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupMeta used to let you pick your customer in the backend. Those days are over. Post-Andromeda, the creative itself carries the targeting signal, which means the old spray-and-pray playbook now works against you.Rafael Gi spent a decade in traditional creative agencies, then led marketing at a nine-figure apparel brand, and now runs strategic growth and partnerships at Pilothouse. In this one he breaks down why the algorithm is forcing marketers to be good marketers again, and what that looks like in an ad account.What he gets into:Why "creative is targeting" is now literal, not a slogan, and how Meta reads your creative for who to serve it toSalience and memory structures: how brands like Volvo, Red Bull, and AG1 got remembered, and how to build the sameThe spend discrepancy that caps scaling brands: 80 percent of budget chasing 20 percent of revenueWhy structuring an ad account by product instead of by persona burns money and buries your messageThe shift from "all revenue is good revenue" to winning the customer instead of selling the productHow to evolve one message into new occasions without breaking the memory you have already builtWho this is for: DTC founders and operators between eight and nine figures who are seeing diminishing returns on creative volume and cannot figure out why more ads are not buying more growth.What to steal: the "one tank of gas, twelve cars" test for whether your budget is spread too thin, and the account-structure fix that lines your media budget up with where your revenue comes from.Timestamps:00:00 Why Meta's Andromeda Changed Marketing02:34 Creative Is the New Targeting05:55 Building Brand Salience That Lasts14:32 How to Fix Creative Strategy at Scale24:42 Applying Salience to Better Meta AdsSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF625Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupMost list-growth advice assumes you have a website people visit. Cove Soda doesn't. They sell zero sugar soda in roughly 7,000 retail doors with no real DTC store, which means no site traffic, no purchase pop-ups, and no easy email capture.Zoe Kahn runs marketing for Cove as interim VP. In this episode she breaks down how a retail-first brand still builds a direct, owned channel, why she treats in-person events as the acquisition surface, and how she competes in a soda aisle that already has Olipop and Poppi running Super Bowl ads.What you'll get:The event tactic that grows an email and SMS list without DTC: trade a full can for an opt-inHow to segment by geography so US news goes to US fans and Canadian news goes to Canadian fansHow she picks which events to sample at, and why marketing assets in a state change the mathUsing Amazon attribution links to test creative and copy when you have no DTCA clear take on why an oversaturated category is not a reason to quitThe early-career mistake that shipped roughly 700 wrong orders, and what it taught herWho this is for: retail-first and omnichannel operators, beverage and CPG founders, retention and lifecycle marketers, and anyone who has been told they can't build a list without DTC.What to steal: the can-for-email swap at events, geographic list segmentation, and an event-selection checklist built on demographic fit and asset location.0:00 Intro3:16 Building a Canadian Brand in the US7:55 How Cove Soda Stands Out in a Crowded Market10:09 Using QR Codes to Grow Email and SMS Lists17:50 Practical AI Workflows for Marketing TeamsSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupGoogle search is changing under everyone's feet. AI overviews are eating the top of the funnel, exact match stopped being exact years ago, and shoppers now type full paragraphs instead of two keywords. Doug, who leads Google at Pilothouse, breaks down what actually came out of Google Marketing Live 2026 and what DTC operators should do about it.He runs the Google paid side for DTC brands at Pilothouse, so this is the operator read, not the press release.What you get:Why transactional shopping queries still convert while top-of-funnel search moves into AI overviewsWhat AI Max for Shopping means for how your products get matched to conversational queriesWhy your Merchant Center feed is the most undervalued performance lever you controlHow far Claude or Gemini can get you on a feed audit, and where you still need a humanWhy "keywordless" is the direction, and what targeting intent looks like nowThe measurement gap on YouTube and demand generation, and what Google is testing to close itWho this is for: DTC founders and operators running or buying Google Ads, plus anyone trying to understand AI's effect on Shopping and search.What to steal: audit your product feed before you touch anything else. Most brands copy-paste their site into the feed or rely on an automated integration and leave half the attributes empty. That is the cheap win.Timestamps:0:00 Intro1:47 Google Ads and AI Search Changes5:30 Biggest Google Marketing Live 2026 Announcements7:50 Why Google Shopping Feed Optimization Matters12:04 Why the Future of Search Is Keywordless15:45 Measuring Demand Generation on YouTubeSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF623Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Most brands expand into the US and treat it like the same business with a different shipping label. Outway learned it is not.Taylor Fraser is the Chief Growth Officer at Outway, the Canadian performance sock brand. In this episode he breaks down why Outway now runs Canada and the US as two distinct businesses, why he dropped retargeting on Meta entirely, and why a sub eight-figure brand cannot optimize its website to growth.What you'll learn:Why Outway swapped the CMO role for a Chief Growth Officer and split growth into performance, retention, and e-commerceWhy Canadian and US customers buy so differently, and how Outway split the two businesses on the backend and frontendWhy the team runs no retargeting and lets the algorithm handle itWhy simple store-wide discounts beat clever BOGO offers, and why the mystery pair became a "golden handcuffs" attachWhy you cannot CRO your way to growth under a certain revenue line, and what to do insteadWhy Outway rides external moments like Mother's Day and Prime Day instead of manufacturing its own salesHow the team uses AI daily for reporting, data pulls, and custom dashboardsWho this is for: DTC operators, growth and performance marketers, and founders selling across more than one country.What to steal: the two-businesses framework for cross-border selling, and the decision to stop manufacturing fake sales and ride moments customers already care about.Timestamps:00:00 Meta Doesn't Need Retargeting Campaigns13:06 How Andromeda Changed Meta Ads18:11 The Creative Volume Debate21:08 Why Scaling in the U.S. Is Harder Than Canada35:20 Why More Ads Beat CRO for GrowthSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupBraydon from Pilothouse joins for a fast AI check-in on what the team is actually shipping right now. Not theory. The exact tools, prompts, and workflows behind their current creative output.If you run growth or creative at a DTC brand or agency, this is a look at how one team is collapsing production time on landing pages, video ads, and founder content using AI.The sub-agent "council" prompt: rewrite a landing page eight ways, with each sub-agent playing a role (copywriter, CEO, customer, CRO expert), then have the council rate the versions and a final decision maker pick the winner.How to keep Claude fast on long projects: ask the chat to summarize itself into a markdown file, then carry that into a fresh chat instead of letting one thread balloon.Higgsfield as a model aggregator: one place to run VO3, Kling, ElevenLabs, and image models, with one-click image-to-video and multiple aspect ratios.The founder avatar workflow: build a 30-second explainer with B-roll and slow zooms, clone the founder's voice in ElevenLabs, and ship it the same afternoon.Why Braydon leans into obviously-AI creative (claymation, Pixar-style) instead of trying to pass synthetic people as real.How Meta's Andromeda rewards ads that improve the scroll, and why social boosting organic winners is finding new scale.Who this is for:DTC operators, growth marketers, and agency creative leads who want a current, practical AI workflow rather than a hype reel.What to steal:The sub-agent council prompt, the Higgsfield image-to-video and voice-clone pipeline, and the social boosting approach to finding ad winners.Timestamps:00:29 Fable AI and One-Shot Development06:54 Higgsfield for AI Creative Production10:33 New AI Advertising Disclosure Rules13:15 AI Search, SEO, and Answer Engines14:33 How Andromeda Rewards Better Ad ExperiencesSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF621Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupThis episode, Kemberly Gong, VP of Marketing at Contentful, joins Eric to walk through what some marketing leaders are calling “The Great Content Collapse”, and what marketers can actually do about it.The setup: 60% of Google searches now result in zero click-through, and replaced by GenAI models like AI overviews. LLMs already account for 5% of traffic and climbing. Marketing budgets are flat or shrinking. Companies are flooding consumers with AI slop to hit KPIs. And consumers can smell it. 50% lose trust in a brand when they think the content was written by AI.Explore Contentful: https://www.contentful.com/?utm_source=dtc&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=fy27-q2-global-tl_awareness&utm_content=gcc What you'll learn:What is the "great content collapse" and why traditional content strategy is breakingAEO vs SEO: where they overlap and where they divergeWhy agentic agents prefer structured, query-aligned content with third-party validationHow buyer behavior is changing and what marketing teams can do to stay aheadWhere brands over-rely on AI and how to keep the human voiceThe 30-day content audit for the agentic webThe Pets Deli case: 50% conversion lift from one personalization changeThe Ruggable BFCM case: 7x CTR and 25% conversion lift from personalized hero banners + homepagesHow Bossard scaled its content across 18 languages and 38 countries with AI workflows using personalization softwareWhat On Running does to drive 40% of sales onlinePlus: Kemberly Gong's 30-day content audit checklist for the agentic web.Timestamps:00:00 The Great Content Collapse05:38 AEO vs SEO Explained10:08 Why Personalization Wins in 202613:27 Where AI Actually Helps Marketing Teams22:23 Building Brand Trust Across ChannelsSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupOrigin owns its entire supply chain. The thread, the brass, the leather, the denim, all of it made or sourced in America, in their own factories. That sounds like a constraint. Justin Parker explains why it is actually the brand's biggest growth lever.Justin runs e-commerce at Origin, the American-made apparel brand born in jiu-jitsu gear and now backed in part by Jocko Willink. He sits at the intersection of marketing, ops, and manufacturing, and that vantage point is exactly what makes the AI stack so powerful for him.What you will learn:How owning manufacturing let Origin pull a planned-for-June product into the line overnight when a hoodie went viral in JanuaryWhy Origin uploaded its 20-page production tech packs into Moby, and how that turned a marketing tool into something that diagnoses manufacturing defectsHow they run 100% internal media buying through an agentic media buyer, and the one question Justin asks it: "what in your context made you decide to pause this ad?"Why branded search spend got flagged as non-incremental, and how goal-setting changes what the AI doesHow the e-commerce team stopped hiring internally while the rest of the business keeps net hiringWhere Justin thinks the role is going next: agent orchestration and one centralized goal pushed down to every business unitWho this is for: DTC founders and operators, e-commerce and growth leads, anyone figuring out how to actually deploy AI agents inside a real business.What to steal: Justin's approach to context loading. The output you get from any AI tool is capped by the context you feed it. He spent an afternoon uploading product blueprints one PDF at a time, and it changed what the tool could do.Timestamps:0:00 Origin's Unexpected Maduro Viral Moment2:01 Building an American-Made Supply Chain7:00 Pricing Premium Products in a Competitive Market15:02 How Vertical Integration Creates a Growth Advantage22:18 Inside Moby AI and Agentic Media BuyingSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupMost brands are quietly killing themselves with growth hacks. Swapping button colors, chasing this week's ROI, discounting to hit the number.Duncan, Strategy Lead at Pilothouse, makes the case that this is the worst creative strategy there is, and walks through what actually builds a brand that lasts.Duncan runs strategy at Pilothouse, where brand and performance are treated as one system instead of warring departments. He explains why Meta's Andromeda shift is quietly ending the era of high-volume AI slop creative, and what replaces it.What you will learn:Why the growth-hack mentality leads to a discount death spiral and erodes brand valueWhat Meta's Andromeda infrastructure changed, and why it forces advertisers toward thoughtful creative over high-frequency iterationHow to integrate brand and performance instead of picking oneWhy siloed agencies fight over attribution while the customer journey falls through the cracksThe one question to ask any agency before you hire them: "Where will growth come from this year?"Who this is for: DTC founders, brand and growth leads, and anyone choosing between agencies or trying to make brand and performance work together.What to steal: the agency-selection test. If a partner can only answer with optimizations, they are a vendor. If they can tell you where growth comes from this year, they are a strategist.Timestamps:00:00 Why Growth Hacking Is Breaking Brands03:00 Meta Andromeda Changed Creative Strategy06:00 The Problem With Optimizing Only for ROAS12:00 Building Customer Journeys Beyond Attribution20:00 Measuring Channels by Their Actual JobSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF619Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupRecorded live at The Whalies.Enterprise brands are past the prompt-and-generate phase of AI. The conversation has moved to connected data, agentic media buying, personalization, attribution, and the quiet operational wins that actually move the P&L.Eric Dyck sits down with Justin Parker (Origin), Ashley Kick (DÔEN), and Martha Ann Pavoni (Universal Ads) to unpack how leading ecommerce brands are embedding AI across the commerce stack — without losing trust, measurement, or human judgment.This episode is brought to you by Triple Whale. Much of the panel centers on Moby 2, Triple Whale's agentic operator for insights and media buying — Justin Parker runs all but three of his Meta campaigns through it and has been in the beta since the start.Learn more: Triple WhaleIn this episode:Why business context — not the model — is the missing ingredient in most AI implementationsHow DÔEN rolls out AI one workflow at a time to measure real incremental liftWhat happens when AI runs all but three of your Meta campaignsWhy connected TV and incrementality are eclipsing the clickThe retargeting decision where AI flatly contradicted itself a week laterWhere human oversight still matters most — and how to size it to riskWhat to steal:Build a trusted source of truth before you layer AI on topTest AI one workflow at a time so you can actually attribute the liftPoint AI at analysis and reporting first; hand it bigger decisions laterScale human-in-the-loop in proportion to dollars and customer exposureFor DTC operators managing multi-channel growth who need more output without adding headcount.Timestamps:0:00 AI Is Only As Good As The Data Behind It2:03 How Enterprise Brands Roll Out AI Without Breaking Things8:16 Why Some Brands Refuse To Use AI Creative18:28 Inside Agentic Media Buying And AI-Powered Marketing Teams30:03 The Biggest AI Opportunity Most Brands Are MissingSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupMost founders want to be first in a category. Justin Soleimani and Zach Dannett did the opposite, and built Tumble into one of the standout washable rug brands without raising a dollar.In this episode, the Tumble co-founders and Co-CEOs break down how they entered a category Ruggable created, fixed the product complaints they found buried in thousands of reviews, and validated the whole thing on Indiegogo before opening a Shopify store. Then they get into the part most founders never have to survive: moving their entire supply chain out of China in 30 days when tariffs went from 25% to 175%.What's covered:Why they launched with 120 SKUs and used crowdfunding as a demand-forecasting tool, not just a fundraiserThe lot-number QC system that let them kill 90%+ of product defects within two yearsHow pre-orders and Shopify payouts gave them a negative cash conversion cycle while bootstrappingWhy they didn't hire a single full-time employee until they were well past $20M in revenueThe China-to-Thailand pivot and accidental Canada launch during the tariff crisisTheir YouTube incrementality test that ran head-to-head against Meta, and tiedJustin's contrarian take on vibe coding: automate manual tasks, don't rip out your tech stackWho this is for: Bootstrapped DTC founders, operators obsessed with margin and cash flow, and anyone building a physical-product brand in a competitive category.What to steal: The crowdfunding-as-validation playbook, the lot-tracking QC system, and the asset-light structure that let them move a supply chain overnight.Timestamps:00:00 Why Great Competitors Make You Better03:00 Launching 120 SKUs Through Crowdfunding10:00 Product Feedback at Scale18:00 Growing Past $20M With No Employees23:00 Surviving Tariffs and Moving ManufacturingSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video