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Good morning,
Hereâs what youâll find in todayâs DTC:
Youâre reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Parrish Tire, P.F. Candle Co., and E+PATROL. đ
ââ Your Competitors Are Missing These Opportunities. This Is The 2026 Marketing Calendar Every Brand Will Wish They Had
đ° Major shopping holidays can feel like a marketing goldrush⌠but itâs time to talk about hidden gems. đ
đ Niche celebrations, underrated opportunities, and fresh seasonal sales are a smart way to set your brand apart from the competition. But theyâre easy to miss if you arenât planning ahead. đ
đ Stay on top of it all with Klaviyoâs 2026 marketing calendar. It maps out month after month of need-to-know dates, so you can jumpstart your planning and skip the last-minute scramble.
đď¸ Grab your calendar today to discover:
Claim your copy now to get a head start on 2026. đĽ
*Â sponsored
âđ¨ AI Isnât The Hero, Itâs The Hype-Man
AI tools have made it possible to generate, adapt, and test creative faster than ever.
But Pilothouse shares that AI isnât about doing it all for you. Itâs about amplifying what you already have.
Think of it like this: AI isnât the artist. Itâs the remix DJ spinning your existing tracks into new hits. đś
đ¨ Step 1: Start With the Clientâs Real Stuff
When a new client joins Pilothouse, they drop off a mix of assets:
Sometimes itâs a goldmine. Sometimes⌠not so much.
But hereâs the thing: you donât need a massive asset library to make magic happen. AI lets you expand the creative world around whatâs already there.
đŞ Step 2: Expand, Donât Invent
In one Pilothouse client account, they had plenty of clean PNGs but zero lifestyle shots. No studio, no models, no props.
Enter Nano Banana and Photoshop Betaâs generative fill.
The team dropped their product into all kinds of realistic scenes:
Each image looked studio-grade. Like, âwait, what photographer did this?â level good.
No photoshoot scheduling. No extra costs. Just instant creative freedom.
đ Step 3: Give Old Content New Life
Got a killer piece of CGC thatâs been sitting in your asset folder since 2021? AI can breathe life right back into it.
With ElevenLabs, Descript, and a touch of ChatGPT, you can:
Itâs like cloning your best-performing creative but with better hair and a new personality.
The takeaway?
AI isnât here to replace creative teams. Itâs here to take your assets further.
It gives us new pockets of creative possibility without more shoots, more spend, or more stress. And thatâs the kind of innovation you want.
âđ The New Rules of Commerce Are Here. Is Your Brand Ready for Whatâs Coming?
đ¤ 2026 is the first true year of AI-native retail, and itâs changing the entire purchase journey.  Combine that with tariffs, shrinking margins, and shifting consumer behavior, and itâs a lot to keep up with... đľâđŤ
đ But you donât have to navigate it alone. Swap provides the infrastructure to make the transformation possible, connecting catalog, returns, tax, and global operations into one platform built for the next era of retail. đď¸
đ Their new report breaks down how top brands can stay visible, profitable, and adaptable in this transformation, and why AI-powered, unified infrastructure is now the biggest competitive advantage. đ
⨠If youâre struggling with visibility drops, rising return costs, or fragmented operations, youâll want this.
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âđ§ Building The Omnipresent Brand Part 1
Aves kicks off a three-part series on why the âmillennial brandâ finally ran out of gas and whatâs replacing it as we head into 2026.
The big unlock? Having a strong identity.
The brands that win now arenât the coolest or the loudest. Theyâre the ones that understand the culture their customer wants to belong to and show up everywhere that identity lives.
Not polished. Not precious. Just hyper-relevant.
What youâll learn:
âśď¸ Watch the full episode on YouTube here.
đ§ Or click here to listen on Spotify.
âAre your ads failing to convert?
Your post-click experience might be subpar.
One easy fix is to move the product highlighted in the creative to the top of the fold.
If itâs easier to find, itâs easier to buy.
âđď¸ New Uber Direct Integration Allows Shopify Plus Merchants to Deliver Faster
Shopify Plus merchants can now offer ultra-fast delivery at checkout through a new Uber Direct integration, letting shoppers choose one-hour, same-day, or scheduled delivery in the U.S., Canada, and France.
The feature is built directly into Shopifyâs online store and POS, giving brands a way to capture last-minute and high-intent purchases without building their own delivery infrastructure.
â𧠠How Hungryroot Scaled Meta Spend by 10x with Partnership Ads + Meta and adMixt on Cyber 5 Success Strategies
On this episode of the DTC podcast, we had three special guests join us!
Metaâs Jake Bailey returns to unpack the Cyber 5 data, Adam Weber from Hungryroot shares how they scaled partnership ads to 50%+ of spend, and Kevin Simonson from performance marketing agency adMixt drops a masterclass on testing, attribution, and scenario planning.
What youâll learn:
âśď¸ Watch the full episode on YouTube here.
đ§ Or click here to listen on Spotify.
đ Ship with Walmart: A smarter, lower-cost way to ship at scale. If you're a Walmart Marketplace seller looking for a shipping edge (one that cuts costs and boosts delivery performance), Ship with Walmart can be your secret weapon for succeeding on one of the U.S.'s fastest-growing ecommerce platforms. Learn more here. *
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âđĽ 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.
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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.
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