Partnerize Head of Customer Success, EMEA Emily Bedford spoke to DTCDaily about the tactics that will drive the next phase of growth for direct-to-consumer brands. Here is an excerpt from the article.We have arrived at the age of the DTC Brand. You know the brands we’re talking about. They’re the direct-to-consumer players that so often sit next to the word ‘disruption’ in our industry discourse – names like Allbirds, Glossier, and ThirdLove. In fact, just this past autumn, IAB hosted its first-ever Direct Brand Summit, an event explicitly designed to recognise the recent dramatic shift from the realm of traditional indirect brand relationships to those being forged directly with consumers.
But here’s the thing: as swift as the rise of DTC brands has been, so too could be their plateau. These brands, which are notoriously proud of their customer-centric strategies and digital roots, are rapidly saturating the marketing channels that supported their rise to power. After all, if all you’re buying are search and Facebook ads, it’s not long before your business hits a point of diminishing returns. And that’s where many DTC brands may well find themselves today.
But weep not for these direct-to-consumer darlings. Steeped in cultures of nimbleness, these titans are evolving. Ironically, for all the thought pieces we’ve read in recent years talking about how traditional brands need to be taking a page from their DTC competitors, we’re now seeing DTC brands embrace some decidedly more traditional concepts. Let’s take a look at the tactics and shifts that will propel these brands into their next phases of growth.
Turning attention to TV
TV is perhaps the only element of our industry that’s evolving faster than consumer-brand relationships. In this regard, it’s a uniquely apropos time for DTC brands to begin dipping their toes in the TV water. We’re already seeing the start of this trend with brands like Uber, Airbnb, Hello Fresh, and others. They’re household names at this point, yes, but they’re just getting started when it comes to tapping into the power of TV’s sight, sound, and motion. In doing so, they’re opening themselves up to audiences previously much more difficult to reach via their search and social budgets. At the same time, they’re establishing deeper ties and building new narratives in the minds of consumers who already knew them from their social feeds.
You can bet that first TV buy for a DTC brand feels quite alien. But over time, as more TV buying moves into the programmatic and addressable toolsets, their comfort will grow. And it won’t be long until TV is just another arrow in the quiver of DTC disruptors.
Read the rest of the article in DTC Daily.