Good morning,
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:
You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Community Savings, Telefonica Tech, and Mattress Plus. 👋
‍🤔 Are You 100% Confident Your Agency Performed to Its Full Potential This Q4?
Are you confident you got the clearest thinking, the strongest creative, and the smartest use of your budget when it mattered most?
Q4 has a way of revealing whether partners are truly pushing the ceiling or just managing what’s in front of them.
For many brands, this is the moment to step back and reassess before moving into Q1.
If there’s even a hint of uncertainty, don’t sit with it. Pilothouse, DTC’s sister company, partners with brands to build systems that scale with clarity and intent.
Don’t settle for “good enough” in your growth partner.
‍🎉 From Meta’s Andromeda To AI Workflows That 3x Creative Output
If you want to engineer viral content, build a subscription model that actually retains, or turn AI into your competitive edge, these are the top 12 episodes from the DTC Podcast Network worth replaying.
🎙️ Ep 558: Creative Strategy in the Andromeda Era
Meta’s Andromeda has changed the game when it comes to ad creatives.
Aves, Pilothouse’s Creative Lead and host of Ad-venturous, breaks down what concepts and ad formats actually work now and how to engineer ads that train the algorithm in your favor.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 516: AI Workflows That 3x Creative Output
Braydon shares the exact AI systems the Pilothouse content team uses to speed up ideation, client communication, and content production.
A tactical playbook for any marketer looking to scale their workflow, not just their workload.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 514: Hestan’s 40% Repeat Purchase Engine
What does it take to generate luxury-brand retention without discounting?
Hestan’s Senior Director of Marketing drops by and breaks down their content-led approach, the power of plain-text email, and how they built a 40% repeat rate that compounds every quarter.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 479: How Chubbies Beat the Performance Marketing Trap & Built a Lasting Brand
This year, one of our most listened to DTC podcast episodes was with Preston Rutherford, co-founder at Chubbies.
The shorts brand shares the dark side of performance marketing and how short-term addiction of Meta ads almost killed Chubbies’ margins.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 507: Subscription Models That Actually Retain
Jordan Narducci (formerly Kellogg, Momentous) digs into the biggest subscription mistakes brands make and how to craft offers, cadence options, and education flows that increase LTV without killing margin.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 485: How Soberish Hit $1M+ Without Ads
Kim Gamez reverse-engineered viral content across TikTok, IG, and Facebook to build a seven-figure brand from scratch.
She breaks down how to create thumb-stopping videos, repurpose content for scale, and turn pure organic reach into revenue.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 15: Building An Audience in 2025 and Beyond
Pilothouse’s Head of Email and Retention, Jordan, explains why the old playbook for list growth and reactivation is officially broken.
He outlines what actually works in 2025: tighter segmentation, content people genuinely want to engage with, and using flows and on-site engagement to keep subscribers “alive” before peak revenue moments hit.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 36: Retention Programs for Different Cohort Profiles
In this episode, Jordan breaks down how to build retention programs tailored to different buyer cohorts: one-and-done shoppers, repeat buyers, and product subscribers.
You'll learn how to guide each group through targeted flows that increase LTV, boost replenishment rates, and move buyers toward high-value behaviors.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 22: The Psychology of Persuasion: Cognitive Biases Every Marketer Must Know
How do customers really make decisions? The answer lies in cognitive biases, the psychological shortcuts that shape buying behavior.
In this episode, Jordan breaks down the most powerful cognitive biases and how marketers can use them to improve email conversions, retention, and overall sales.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 1: A Peanut Butter Sandwich Could Always Lead to Disaster
On the debut episode of Ad-venturous, Avery from Pilothouse takes us deep into the making of one of the greatest ad campaigns of all time: Got Milk?.
From Aaron Burr to Beyoncé, the campaign features more than just milk moustaches; it's an understanding of human behavior and turning bland products into culture.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 11: UGC vs. CGC vs. EGC: When to Use What
What’s the difference between UGC, CGC, and EGC?
Avery shares how each content type works, when to use them, and what kind of results to expect, using examples from brands like Coach.
If you’re building a content strategy and want to know where to invest (and what to stop doing), this one’s for you.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
🎙️ Ep 20: Creative Workflow Hacks
Want to stop creating ads in chaos and start building content that actually scales? Aves shares her proven creative workflow system, including the monthly ads planner she uses with high-scale brands at Pilothouse.
▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
Short, tactical, founder-tested. Queue these up in your Spotify playlist and take your 2026 strategy to the next level!
‍🎧 How Pilothouse 3x'd Buddha Board with a Year-Long BFCM Strategy
We are joined by Pilothouse's Amazon Leads Tyler and Takai for a tactical BFCM debrief.
Learn how one brand 3x'd in November by setting the groundwork months in advance, and the optimizations that separated the winners from the stalled-out.
What you’ll learn:
▶️ Watch the full episode on YouTube here.
🎧 Or click here to listen on Spotify.
Most brands default to using positive subject lines, but sometimes addressing customers' real worries can perform better.
Jimmy Kim shares why negative subject lines can work and build trust quickly.
Speak to a customer’s doubts and see how they respond.
‍❗ TikTok Deal Has Now Been Finalized To Avoid a U.S. Ban
Good news: TikTok is not going away in the U.S.
ByteDance has finally signed an agreement which gives a group of U.S. investors majority control over its U.S. business. Â
The deal is expected to close on January 22, 2026.
‍📥 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.
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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