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Good morning,
Hereâs what youâll find in todayâs DTC:
đ Post-Game Recap: Ad winners, AI fumbles, and the scrappy brand plays that mattered
Youâre reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Truffles Fine Foods, soulPhoodie, and Bangn Body. đ

âđ Is AI Search Recommending Your BrandâŚOr Your Competitors?
When shoppers ask LLMs what to buy, the brands AI recommends will win the clickâand the sale. đ¸
đ On February 18th at 1pm EST, join Triple Whale experts and agency partner Elk for their AI Visibility for Ecommerce webinar:
In this session, youâll learn:
Whether youâre just getting started or already tracking AI referrals, this webinar will help ensure AI recommends your brandânot your competitorsâ.
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âđ Best Big Game Day Campaigns of 2026
In a year when celebrity cameos, AI-driven concepts, and nostalgia collided on the biggest stage, the winners were often the simplest ideas that cut through the clutter.
What made certain spots talked about versus scrolled past tells us a lot about where attention lives in 2026.
Ad Winners
These were the commercials that broke through the noise and stuck with audiences.

Pepsi leaned into the cola wars with cinematic direction by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi and a blind taste test that gave the Coca-Cola polar bear⌠an existential crisis?
The ad quickly became a popular meme, prompting people to pick a side and reigniting the Pepsi versus Coke debate.
Why this works: Hot off the heels of Coca-Colaâs highly ridiculed AI ads, online users praised Pepsi for its storytelling and âfor giving the polar bear a job.â

Instacartâs commercial, directed by Spike Jonze, featured singer Benson Boone and comedy legend Ben Stiller playing two brothers promoting Instacartâs services on stage.
But the performance quickly got derailed by physical stunts, like Stiller trying to pull off Booneâs iconic backflip.
Spoilers: It doesnât end well.
Why this works: It blends nostalgia and comedy, appealing to Gen Z (Boone fans) and older audiences (Stiller devotees).
Dunkinâs âGood Will Dunkinâ

Dunkinâ reimagined Ben Affleckâs film Good Will Hunting as a 90s sitcom and featured cameos from stars like Jennifer Aniston, Jason Alexander, and Matt LeBlanc to promote the launch of its iced coffee in 1995.
The ad immersed audiences in 90s nostalgia by referencing iconic one-liners from hit shows like Friends, Seinfeld, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Why this works: The '90s-inspired spot is integral to its brand history, so the nostalgic lookback feels purposeful.
Ad Fumble
Svedka âShake Your Bots Offâ

The vodka brandâs campaign was created by AI and trained on TikTok dances, but the spot was quickly called âterrifying,â âpure nightmare fuel,â and an âAI hellscape,â and roasted by news outlets.
The lesson here? Just because AI can make an ad doesnât mean it should.
Use AI to speed up production or test variations. Not to replace your brand voice.
The takeaway?
âDonât chase spectacle. Chase clarity. The ads that won didnât rely on novelty alone. They anchored celebrity, nostalgia, or humor to a clear brand truth.
What was your favorite Game Day ad? Reply back and let us know! đ

âđ 59x LLM Referral Growth. The Next DTC Land Grab Is Here.
In Q4 2025, Triple Whale merchants saw 424,000+ orders from LLM referrals. In all of 2024? Just 7,152.
This is a major shift in how DTC brands get discovered. đ
The brands winning in AI visibility today arenât just âoptimizing.â
Theyâre making strategic bets on an AI-driven future where discovery and purchase decisions increasingly happen inside AI search.
đ Thatâs why Triple Whale built a free AI Visibility toolâto show exactly how LLMs see your brand across ChatGPT and other platforms, and to tie those AI mentions directly to revenue using Triple Whaleâs attribution.
đĽ The inflection point in AEO (AI Engine Optimization) is now.
Lock in category leadership and claim your piece of the LLM referral pie. đĽ§
*Â sponsored
âđĽ Anthropic vs. OpenAI, Heinz vs. Heineken Â
Seahawks vs. Patriots wasnât the only heated rivalry happening on Game Day.
Brands were also being bold and clapping back at competitors.
Anthropic vs. OpenAI

OpenAI introduced ads on ChatGPT in February, and its competitor, Anthropic, quickly put together some hilarious Super Bowl ads to criticize the move.
And double down on the fact that their AI chatbot, Claude, will remain ad-free.
Anthropicâs videos do an excellent job of showing how ads can be disruptive and fail to align with a userâs intent.
The videos quickly went viral and struck a nerve. Users called the messaging âgeniusâ and âan example of great storytelling.â
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded on X, calling the campaign âdishonest,â which only fueled more attention.
Well played, Anthropic! đ
Heineken vs. Heinz
After Heinz dropped its absurd âKegChupâ novelty product earlier this month and stirred up reactions online, Heineken moved quickly and issued its own response.
They parodied Heinz's design and changed the slogan to âIt has to be Hein.â
The beer brand was quickly praised for being one of the fastest ad clapbacks of all time.

The takeaway?
Fast, confident reactions win but only when they align with your brandâs POV.
If youâre going to clap back, do it with intent, not desperation.
âđĽ Snack & Wellness Brands: Pre and Post-Game Strategies Â
Game Day was an excuse to indulge in snacks, and the smartest creatives sent before and after the game leaned into use cases:


đ Promos work better when theyâre framed as solutions. Tie emails to moments, use cases, and outcomes instead of discounts alone.
Brands that jumped into real-time commentary during key game moments saw strong engagement numbers.
Duolingo celebrated the Seattle Seahawks' victory by cleverly plugging language exercises from their own app, while Layâs released a dream flavour and got fans to engage by promising a surprise.

Sephora sounded off on Bad Bunnyâs iconic halftime performance, which celebrated his Latin roots with a house party.
The white plastic chair, a known fixture at Puerto Rican family gatherings and community events, quickly became meme-ified by brands.

đĄ The play isnât to outspend but to outthink the moment.
Brands that earned praise from users werenât louder, they were just quicker with the cultural references.
âđ Is AI recommending your brand? Join Triple Whale and Elk on Feb. 18 at 1pm ET to learn how to win visibility in ChatGPT, Google AI, and more. Register for free. *
đ Bushbalm 70% YoY growth: Learn how the skincare brand is scaling fast in retail and DTC. Listen here.
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DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.
Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.
