DTC950: Slack Signal, Holiday Magic, Rebuilding Creative Process, and Starbucks Bear Cup Trend

Good morning,

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

• 🚀 ‘Tis The Season to Increase Ad Spend Strategically
• 💡 Don’t Confuse Mindless Scrolling with Research  
• 🐻 Trending Now: The Viral Bearista Cup

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Industry Beans, Healthy Metal, and Kings Seeds. 👋

‍‼️ BFCM Week is Here! Follow Live Sales Spikes and Advertising Trends All Week Long

Are you set up with the real-time signals you need to make fast pivots and maximize performance this BFCM?

Track sales and advertising trends from 50,000+ brands this BFCM with Triple Whale’s live dashboard.

A free account unlocks an instant view of:

1️⃣ Your own BFCM results: ROAS, CPA, CPC, AOV, revenue, and conversion performance

2️⃣ Exactly how your numbers stack up against brands in your industry

If your competitors are surging, you’ll see it.
If your performance accelerates or starts to slip, you’ll know instantly.

Get your free account set up now to track your own live BFCM data and unlock deeper benchmarks as the week plays out.

Spot where sales are spiking, where opportunities arise, and where your fellow DTC heroes are winning.

‍👀 What Pilothouse Is Seeing

This message popped up in the Pilothouse Slack: 👇

Scrappy creative is quick-turn, low-lift content in any format that gets ideas into the market fast. It is built for speed, authenticity, and volume, not production value.

It is not messy, it is efficient, human, and fast to produce, and it fills gaps while your polished assets run in parallel.

With creative diversity being more important than ever, don’t be afraid to lean into the scrap!

‍💰 Why Q4 Is The Season To Increase Ad Spend

If you don’t raise budgets during the holidays, you’re not just scaling slower… you’re losing visibility to brands that do.

Here's why.

Pilothouse shares that nearly every buying metric spikes in Q4:

• Impressions: up ~50%
• CTR: often doubles
• Direct traffic: up to +150%
• AOV: up ~30%
• Conversion rate: up ~60%

Intent is high. Shoppers are actively browsing, comparing, and buying.

The average consumer plans to purchase $890 in gifts this year (the second-highest amount on record!) If you want your products in that cart, your ad budget needs to match the moment.

3 Ways to Spend Smarter (Not Just More)

1️⃣ Fund the channels that already win: Lean into whichever channel performs best for you, whether it's Meta, Google, or both. Q4 is not the moment to reinvent the wheel. It is the moment to fuel what is working.

2️⃣ Increase creative volume: Creative diversity is king. Test out different angles: 👇

• Gifting hooks
• Problem > solution positioning
• Creator/influencer/user-generated styles

Fresh creative wins when competition spikes.

3️⃣ Let email convert the demand: Email is free revenue in Q4. Increase sends, tighten segmentation, and capitalize on the traffic your ads are driving.

Quick Playbook for Holiday Visibility

• Start before December
• Raise budget to match rising CPMs and buying intent
• Launch a strong gifting + urgency creative mix
• Use ads to fill the funnel, email to close and upsell

The takeaway? Q4 is not the time to be conservative. It’s the time to capture attention, grow market share, and lock in customers who will fuel Q1 revenue.

Don’t wait. Make sure these ramp-ups are underway.

‍🛍️ Selling On Walmart Marketplace Is One Of 2025’s Smartest Investments

👀 For ecommerce brands looking to diversify their sales and expand their footprint, there’s no better time to join Walmart Marketplace. 🛒

💸 Right now, Walmart’s New-Seller Savings event is offering new sellers up to $75K in incentives, which includes up to 75% off base referral fees and generous credits toward advertising and fulfillment.*  

Walmart is one of the world's most recognizable brands with over 255 million customers and members shopping at Walmart online and in-store around the world each week.

🤑 New-Seller Savings run from sign up to January 31, 2026, so don’t wait—the faster you start, the more opportunity you’ll have to save.

👉 Take advantage of this unprecedented offer and the endless opportunities on Walmart.com.

*Conditions apply.

‍🎧 The Marketer’s Guide to Using Socials on Purpose

In this episode, Aves unpacks why most marketers confuse scrolling with research and how to rebuild your creative process around actual audience insight (instead of whatever your algo throws at you).

Her no-BS approach shows you how to understand real customer behavior, choose the right platforms for your personas, and turn scattered inspiration into content that’s intentional and actually usable.

Listen to get into:

• 🔍 Why “research scrolling” doesn’t make you better at your job
• 🎯 How to identify where your real personas actually live online
• 📉 Why relying on your FYP is killing your creative accuracy
• 🗺️ A cleaner way to structure inspiration so it’s usable, not chaotic
• 📱 How to use platforms like TikTok, Reddit, and IG with clear intent

▶️ Watch the full episode on YouTube here.

🎧 Or click here to listen on Spotify.

Starbucks’ limited-edition Bearista cup went viral on social media this month, sparking a buying frenzy and quickly selling out in stores and online.

Brands like CeraVe, Walmart, and IKEA poked fun at the bear cup fever with cheeky posts of their own, using the cultural moment to tap into the conversation and showcase their own products in a playful way.

‍🤖 Time to Start a Group Chat on ChatGPT

There is now a group chat option for all ChatGPT users.

This feature allows up to 20 users to collaborate in a single shared chat.

So for brands using this AI tool, it'll be easier to plan, strategize, and make decisions.

Learn more here.

‍🤖 Your next customer isn’t searching Google, they’re asking AI. Shopify & Yotpo leaders break down how brands can stay seen and trusted in the new era of ecommerce. Watch the webinar 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?

• 📧 TWBERP 60: Deliverability Office Hours Feat. Senders.co
• ⛳ Levelwear’s Pivot to DTC From Golf Courses To 9 Figures
• 💡 AKNF 560: 3 High Leverage CRO Moves Before Black Friday
• 💰 Ad-venturous 28: Q5 Goldmine Between Xmas and New Year’s
• 🛠️ TWBERP 59: Looking Under The Hood of Your Account

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.