DTC1004: Post-Game Recap

Good morning,

Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:

🏈 Post-Game Recap: Ad winners, AI fumbles, and the scrappy brand plays that mattered

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Truffles Fine Foods, soulPhoodie, and Bangn Body. 👋

‍🔎 Is AI Search Recommending Your Brand…Or Your Competitors?

When shoppers ask LLMs what to buy, the brands AI recommends will win the click—and the sale. 💸

👉 On February 18th at 1pm EST, join Triple Whale experts and agency partner Elk for their AI Visibility for Ecommerce webinar:

In this session, you’ll learn:

• ➡️ What AI visibility is and where it matters most
• ➡️ Why AI visibility and SEO now work together as one system
• ➡️ How to influence what AI says about your brand—and correct misunderstandings
• ➡️ Real strategies Elk uses with leading ecommerce brands
• ➡️ 6 actions you can take this week to improve your AI visibility

Whether you’re just getting started or already tracking AI referrals, this webinar will help ensure AI recommends your brand—not your competitors’.

‍🏆 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’s “The Choice”

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-Cola’s highly ridiculed AI ads, online users praised Pepsi for its storytelling and “for giving the polar bear a job.”

Instacart’s “For Papa”

Instacart’s commercial, directed by Spike Jonze, featured singer Benson Boone and comedy legend Ben Stiller playing two brothers promoting Instacart’s services on stage.

But the performance quickly got derailed by physical stunts, like Stiller trying to pull off Boone’s iconic backflip.

Spoilers: It doesn’t end well.

Why this works: It blends nostalgia and comedy, appealing to Gen Z (Boone fans) and older audiences (Stiller devotees).

Dunkin’s “Good Will Dunkin”

Dunkin’ reimagined Ben Affleck’s 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 “Shake Your Bots Off”

The vodka brand’s campaign was created by AI and trained on TikTok dances, but the spot was quickly called “terrifying,” “pure nightmare fuel,” and an “AI hellscape,” and roasted by news outlets.

The lesson here? Just because AI can make an ad doesn’t mean it should.

Use AI to speed up production or test variations. Not to replace your brand voice.

Watch it if you dare.

The takeaway?

‍Don’t chase spectacle. Chase clarity. The ads that won didn’t 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! 🏈

‍🚀 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. 👀

The brands winning in AI visibility today aren’t just “optimizing.”

They’re making strategic bets on an AI-driven future where discovery and purchase decisions increasingly happen inside AI search.

👉 That’s why Triple Whale built a free AI Visibility tool—to show exactly how LLMs see your brand across ChatGPT and other platforms, and to tie those AI mentions directly to revenue using Triple Whale’s attribution.

💥 The inflection point in AEO (AI Engine Optimization) is now.

Lock in category leadership and claim your piece of the LLM referral pie. 🥧

‍🔥 Anthropic vs. OpenAI, Heinz vs. Heineken  

Seahawks vs. Patriots wasn’t 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.

Anthropic’s videos do an excellent job of showing how ads can be disruptive and fail to align with a user’s intent.

The videos quickly went viral and struck a nerve. Users called the messaging “genius” and “an example of great storytelling.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded on X, calling the campaign “dishonest,” which only fueled more attention.

Well played, Anthropic! 👏

Heineken vs. Heinz

After Heinz dropped its absurd ‘KegChup’ 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 “It has to be Hein.”

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 brand’s POV.

If you’re going to clap back, do it with intent, not desperation.

‍🥑 Snack & Wellness Brands: Pre and Post-Game Strategies  

Game Day was an excuse to indulge in snacks, and the smartest creatives sent before and after the game leaned into use cases:

• Recipe-Led Campaigns:
  • Chomps shared recipes like Sheet Pan Nachos and Game Day Charcuterie to promote creative game-day snacking.
  • Graza named dishes after their products (“Frizzle Fried Zucchini”) for seamless product integration.

• Stock-Up Reminders: Poppi pushed bulk-buy emails pre-game to drive early sales.
• Bundles with Purpose: AYOH Foods showed how pushing party packs outperformed standard promos.
• Post-Game Recovery: Supergut leaned into digestion and recovery tips for a “bounce-back Monday” message.
• Post-Game Cleanup: Lomi positioned their compost product as the solution to messy food scraps.

👉 Promos work better when they’re 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 Lay’s released a dream flavour and got fans to engage by promising a surprise.

Sephora sounded off on Bad Bunny’s 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.

💡 The play isn’t to outspend but to outthink the moment.

Brands that earned praise from users weren’t louder, they were just quicker with the cultural references.

‍🔎 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. *

🚀 Bushbalm 70% YoY growth: Learn how the skincare brand is scaling fast in retail and DTC. Listen here.

‍📥 Got a B2B Biz?

Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 150k brand leaders and founders this year. Talk to our team to learn more.

Have you heard our latest podcasts?

• 🚀 AKNF 583: Counterintuitive Ways To Maximize Net Present Value
• 💡 Ad-venturous 40: How To Write Creator Briefs That Perform
• 🔮 TWBERP 71: Predict Your 2026 Email Revenue
• 🪥 How Suri Sold 5,000 Toothbrushes With In a Week
• ⚡ AKNF 581: Meta Ads Aren’t About Targeting Anymore
• 🛍️ Ad-venturous 39: Bundles Aren’t Discounts. They’re Strategy
• 🔍 TWBERP 70: Diagnose A Drop in Email Revenue

Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

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.