The Role of DTC in Retail’s Digital Acceleration

by | Mar 30, 2021 | Industry Insights

In recent years, market interest has gradually shifted towards direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. Stay-at-home orders and declines in in-store shopping caused by the pandemic significantly accelerating these shifts. Operating relatively few retail stores and already having an active online presence, many DTC brands were uniquely positioned to weather disruptions caused by the cross-industry impact of COVID-19. With DTC, consumers usually come for the convenience but ultimately stay for the value and experience.

One thing is certain, ecommerce is definitely having a moment. U.S. consumers have spent an extra $183b online—equivalent to an entire holiday shopping season—during the pandemic so far. In fact, 2022 may be the first-ever trillion-dollar year in U.S. ecommerce.

But how can DTC brands keep this momentum going post-pandemic?

 

Meeting Evolving Consumer Expectations

Last year, retailers were forced to rework their operational, merchandising, and marketing strategies to align with changing consumer shopping habits. Consumers can now research brands and make more conscientious, informed buying decisions. With more choice in products and purchasing options than ever before, brands now have greater pressure to meet the needs of their consumers, and stand out in the crowd to effectively connect with them.

 

Reshaping the Retail Landscape

The transition to digital that has transformed many businesses in the last two decades hit hyperdrive last year. By the time stores reopen and a new normal emerges, these new digital-focused preferences will not only be a habit, but an expectation. Brands need to evolve into this new retail environment. Now is the time for brands to invest in the combination of consumer behavioral change and technology acceleration, the key drivers shaping the future of the retail industry.

By investing efforts into expanding their offerings, digital presence, and marketing impact, DTC brands can ensure that customers remain engaged and loyal—both online and offine. Many traditional companies are looking to position themselves to take advantage of the growth in online shopping. For example, CPG giants like PepsiCo, Kraft, Heinz, and Nestle have recently established DTC channels to get their brands directly in the hands of consumers.

Ecommerce has become a top priority for many brands. Nearly half of U.S. retail CFOs said they are pursuing digital transformation in 2021 and much of that has already been underway for most of 2020. For example, 51% of respondents increased their ecommerce investments in the past six months and 64% said they plan to invest in the next six months.

The boundaries between the digital and physical shopping experiences are converging. The pandemic catapulted frictionless, contactless experiences—and consumers’ expectations—years into the future. The main focus for retailers moving forward will be how to evolve in-store experiences in a post-pandemic environment. Omnichannel features and experiences will present new life to brands with physical stores and allow businesses to take advantage of proximity to local consumers. This shift in focus will require a more detailed approach to attribution to measure all consumer engagement touchpoints (both in-store and online) and fully understand the effectiveness of this new hybrid shopping experience.

 

Eliminating Consumer Blind Spots

The DTC space has unique advantages and challenges that brands face. By cutting out any middlemen, DTC brands create a more direct relationship with their suppliers and can bring better quality products at lower price-points to their consumers. However, DTC brands need to continuously work to create value for shoppers. Given the high turnover rate in the space, DTC brands often strive to re-engage ex-customers and keep them in the funnel. This becomes difficult for brands with limited resources and capabilities and often requires creative targeting tactics and access to high-quality inventory sources to make an impact.

Digitally native brands will continue to adapt and evolve in the year ahead. In order to stay competitive in the rapidly-changing, increasingly-crowded space, DTC brands will need to establish strategic partnerships, utilize innovative digital media offerings to connect with the right audience, and leverage consumer data to make the most of their marketing efforts.

 

The Digital Remedy Approach

Similar to how DTC brands focus product offerings and marketing efforts on their customer pain points, Digital Remedy has developed our solutions with the main goal of making the daily media operations of our clients easier and stress-free. Our innovative solutions can help DTC brands unlock the full potential of their campaigns by providing the most engaging platforms and targeting tactics to effectively reach and resonate with their consumers. Digital Remedy solutions address the top needs of DTC brands, including:

 

Flexibility 

DTC brands are focused, nimble, and agile by nature. Following the pandemic, brands that are able to quickly adjust their marketing strategies to address changing circumstances will be at an advantage, especially at a time when no one quite knows what will come next.

How Digital Remedy Can Help: AdReady+ allows advertisers and agencies of all sizes with the flexibility to make changes to their media plans on the fly. The platform also provides personalized media recommendations based on your industry, goals, and budget by leveraging our full product portfolio. With AdReady+, DTC brands can create more intelligent media plans and make the most of their advertising dollars across different channels.

 

Full-funnel Attribution

Conversions can be difficult to nail down. DTC is notorious for its high consumer turnover. Although brands often provide free trials or other enticing offers, many shoppers tend to cancel after the free trial period ends. The long-term customer can be an elusive relationship for many online businesses and many brands struggle with gaps in their sales funnel.

How Digital Remedy Can Help: The Flip OTT solution optimizes campaigns in real-time—pinpointing exactly where actions are coming from by tracking impressions (aka ad views) to conversions (aka physical results), whether it is an app install, site visit, cart amount/site purchase, or in-store visit—providing brands with deeper insight, transparency into campaign performance, and most importantly, a full view of their consumer journey. Bottom line? Better measurement data, better insights, better campaigns.

 

Personalization

Given the on-going shifts in media consumption and purchasing behavior, keeping consumers engaged in an ever-crowded and competitive landscape has become increasingly difficult. Building an online presence requires constant trial and error, as well as significant time and dedication. Shoppers are gravitating more towards innovative brands that build authentic connections and boast the same values that they do. DTC brands need to communicate their values and differentiators, and reach their consumers in the right setting to establish a meaningful connection with them.

How Digital Remedy Can Help: Consumers want relevancy in the ads they see. By leveraging Flip, DTC brands can ensure that their messaging is being delivered to the right audience, at the right time, in the right mindset—driving action among audiences by effectively resonating with them. Flip provides valuable insight regarding what’s working in their ad campaigns and what needs to pivot, optimizing budget towards overperforming variables in order to eliminate any wasted impressions.

 

 

To stay updated on more industry trends and insights, be sure to follow Digital Remedy on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

 

Sources:

1. Adweek, “Americans Bought So Much Stu! Online Last Year, It Was Basically Another Holiday Season”

2. EMarketer, March 8, 2021, “Retailers plan to increase investments across digital channels as many solidify their omnichannel plans”

Mike Seiman

Mike Seiman, CEO & Chairman, is the founder of Digital Remedy, a digital media solutions company leading the tech enabled marketing space he co-founded while still a college student at Hofstra University in the early 2000s. The company has grown quickly and is now a major player within the crowded digital advertising landscape. The rapid growth of Digital Remedy, formerly CPXi led to its inclusion on Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest growing privately held advertising/marketing companies in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014. Mike was selected as a semi-finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year initiative in 2010 and 2013 and as a finalist in 2009 and 2014. In his free time, Mike serves on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Hofstra University. He also focuses on numerous philanthropic initiatives including sitting on the boards of the H.E.S. (Hebrew Educational Society non-profit community center) and Children International, where he spearheaded the development of community centers in both Guayaquil, Ecuador in 2010 and Barranquilla, Colombia in 2014.

David Zapletal

Before graduating in 2005 with degrees in Retail and Consumer Science (with an emphasis in eCommerce) and a Minor in Public Business Administration at the University of Arizona, David Zapletal had already successfully grown a start up ad network from serving an initial 1 million impressions per day to over 10 million impressions per day. It was his deep understanding of internet advertising during the industry’s beginning stages that led him to another start up at the time, CPXi. More than 8 years that have passed and Zapletal currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Digital Remedy. In that role he continues to help grow and implement optimization tactics across various ad serving platforms, oversee daily operations of the account management and trafficking groups and maximizes ROI for Direct Response advertisers as well as for Publishers. Outside of Digital Remedy, Zapletal commits his efforts to an organization called Camp Dream Street, a camping program for children with disabilities, where he serves on the Board of Directors.

Jeff Reitzen

Jeff has worked in multiple facets of the online industry, from sales to operations as well as consumer engagement, content analytics and most recently in data optimization. His career began as a wedding, bar mitzvah, and Sweet 16 DJ where he learned the delicate balance of crowd energy management. Quickly, this skill made him incredibly successful in managing online sales for Geico. He joined CPXi at its startup stage as employee number 4 and has been a key driver of continued growth. His unique knowledge of what converts in the digital ad space, the application of data, and how to optimize platforms for efficiency continues to be invaluable to Digital Remedy clients. Today, Jeff is responsible for innovating and optimizing all Digital Remedy offerings including platforms, systems, tools, and internal processes—ensuring the organization remains on the precipice of the marketplace.

Mike Juhas

Mike Juhas, has over 13+ years of experience in ad tech client services, working with brands, agencies, and publishers ranging from top 10 advertisers to small regional organizations, to rep firms, holding companies and independent shops. An integral member of the Digital Remedy team, Juhas leads all client relationships, including facilitating onboarding and integration, establishing relationship protocols, overseeing Quarterly Business Reviews and status meetings, navigating financial coordination, and overseeing 24/7 team support. His specialties include consultative services, planning strategy, and account management disciplines. Juhas lives in New Canaan, CT with his wife and two daughters, and their dog, Perry–the unofficial company mascot.

TJ Sullivan

TJ Sullivan has over 20 years of media sales and leadership experience. His knowledge of the digital media landscape, ability to develop strategic solutions that solve brand challenges, and talent for motivating sales teams, have made him a vital member of several media and ad tech organizations. Before joining Digital Remedy, Sullivan was VP, Connections at iHeart Media, a cross-divisional group that enabled national advertisers to seamlessly work with multiple iHeart business units; CRO of Reelcontent, a video distribution company for brands; SVP of sales at AdoTube, a video ad network; and was Co-Founder and SVP of video measurement company, OpenSlate—for which he is still an advisor.

Sullivan had served as the President of 212, New York’s Interactive Advertising Club, and currently advises many early stage start-ups in the programmatic and video space. Notably, RUN (sold to Publicis in 2014), Futures Media, Transmit.Live, and Kubient.

Outside of his work in the media industry, Sullivan sits on the Board of St. Elizabeth School in Wyckoff, New Jersey and the Advancement Committee of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, New Jersey. He resides in New Jersey with his wife and four children.

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Geo-Location: Target your audience residential cluster, proximity to retail locations, campaign level DMAs and more.

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Buying Power and Quality

Let’s be honest. Your ad ops are limited by your access to only a handful of channels and DSPs. You want more reach and better prices, but don’t want to sacrifice quality in order to achieve those goals. Digital Remedy has access to a vast multitude of channels based on relationships we’ve cultivated over nearly 20 years in business. That means we get the best prices, have personal relationships, and don’t get sent to voicemail when we call.

It also means that we can execute omni-channel ad ops for better prices than an internal team, while ensuring the quality is up to industry standards. On top of access to all sorts of specific audiences we’re able to to leverage first- and third-party data across all your campaigns and pivot across platforms based on results. Any campaign, any budget, any platform, any audience. Digital Remedy backed by AdReady is restriction free ad ops….and what could be better than that?

Resources, Time, and Overhead

When was the last time you enjoyed balancing budgets, reading resumes, dealing with aggressive sales teams, or wasting years of time for small gains in performance. By partnering with Digital Remedy you get the full support of $30m in OPEX including marketing teams, sales teams, and a dedicated 24/7 ad operations team. No hiring new employees for media optimization, business development, or account management. No months of training and on-boarding. No long meetings crafting sales materials. Just your team focused on making deals, and our teams and tech focused on supporting and executing those deals in a tech-enabled, digital ecosystem designed to get the most out of any KPI.

Reporting and Support

How nice would it be to have all of your data and insights in one location. We don’t mean an excel sheet sent out once a week with complicated charts, or an XML file with pages and pages and pages of tables (what is this, 2003?). We mean a fully customizable dashboard reporting in real time, or as real time as possible. You get to decide the how, what, and when of the reporting you’re seeing. And that’s ALL of the how, what, and when’s. If you want to see breakouts of all of the individual campaigns in your system, done. If you want broad scope comparisons of all of the campaigns in the last year, done. If you want to see CTR’s for specific audiences and compare them to CPM for your best performing advertiser but limit the scope to campaigns greater than 30k, done. All of this is at your fingertips with the AdReady Dashboard, all in one place.

Jessica Cortapasso

With more than a decade of experience in human capital management, Jessica Cortapasso serves as SVP, People at Digital Remedy. After graduating from Muhlenberg College, she quickly recognized her passion for people and entered the workforce in Human Resources where she gained expertise in employee relations, designing strategic benefit plans, and the development, implementation, and curation of corporate engagement initiatives for big-name brands and small companies alike. Becoming a member of the Digital Remedy family in 2013 while simultaneously acquiring her Masters Degree in Human Resources Management and Development from New York University, Jessica has steered company culture through significant events ranging from acquisitions and a rebranding, to the development and application of our Core Values that shape our daily business practices. Cortapasso resides in Brooklyn, plays competitive volleyball, and loves spending time with her nieces.

Erez Feld

Responsible for the financial and legal practices of Digital Remedy, Erez brings 22 years of experience in precision financial analysis, growth management practices, strategic acquisition, and investment leadership. A graduate of Hofstra University, Erez began his career modeling for corporate finance, and expanded his accounting prowess in the real estate sector. Erez joined Digital Remedy in 2008 as a senior accountant, and helped to create and build an accounting department that could support the rapid growth of the company and aligned with those needs. Over the past 12 years he has evolved through various positions at the company within the finance discipline, supervising and mentoring additional finance personnel, while growing under the tutelage of Michael Fleischman, former CFO of Digital Remedy. Today, he leads the Finance Department by supporting high-level projects such as acquisitions and restructuring, and is responsible for overseeing all financial assets, establishing financial procedures, controls, and reporting systems.

Michael Fleischman

After a successful career as an accomplished Fortune 500 financial professional leading Corporate Finance and Strategic Planning at Cablevision Systems Corporation and its programming subsidiary Rainbow Media Holdings, Michael currently plays a role in the overall management of Digital Remedy including direct responsibility for all financial-related activities including accounting, financial planning, M&A, legal, insurance, real estate and banking relationships. Michael brings more than 25 years of media experience at Cablevision and Rainbow Media and during his career was instrumental in the launching and managing of a number of cable television networks including 10 Regional Sports Networks across the US, American Movie Classics, Bravo, and the Independent film channel as well as the structuring of corporate partnerships with companies including Liberty Media, NBC, Fox/NewsCorp and MGM. Additionally, he was the finance lead on a number of professional sports team acquisitions including Madison Square Garden, the successful IPO of Cablevision and a tracking stock at Rainbow Media.Michael was involved in the creation and launch of Rainbow Advertising Sales which was one of the Cable Industry’s first Local Advertising Sales Divisions.

Tony Pascal

With over two decades of experience in the design, product, and technology space, Tony joined Digital Remedy as a graphic designer in 2007. His responsibilities quickly expanded, landing him in leadership roles across multiple disciplines including creative direction, analytics, monetization optimization, and management of platform development. He continued to grow with the organization over the last fourteen years, overseeing all design, development, and execution of Digital Remedy products and platforms. In his current role as SVP, Product & Technology, Tony leads product and technology development for the company and acts as the go-to liaison across teams, ensuring alignment on all aspects of internal and client-facing technology initiatives.

Prior to Digital Remedy, Tony built and ran his own direct response company from 2002-2007 after graduating from New York Institute of Technology, where he learned the fundamentals of digital advertising and optimization strategies that still remain relevant today.

In a previous life, Tony was a ski instructor and still remains an avid skier today. When he is not leading product development, he can be found working on old cars, rock climbing and hitting the slopes.

Gayle Meyers

Gayle Meyers is an entrepreneur, venture partner, investor, and operating resource in the digital media and marketing industry, with over two decades of executive leadership experience. After launching a management consulting firm, Growthing which is focused on optimizing growth strategies for executive leaders and their organizations, Meyers has frequently been tapped for high-profile consulting and advisory positions to help marketing technology companies enhance their in-market presence.

“Gayle is widely recognized as a leading strategist with years of expertise in the ad tech space,” said Mike Seiman, Chairman and CEO of Digital Remedy. “Her career in discovering and integrating game-changing technologies in the marketing industry will serve as an invaluable resource as we continue to enhance our product suite in the months ahead.”

With expertise spanning multiple disciplines, Meyers frequently serves as a keynote speaker at industry conferences for companies such as Google, Verizon, Omnicom, LiveRamp, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Oracle. A list of her notable past clients who have benefitted from her unique insights to increase shareholder value includes Tinuiti (acquired by New Mountain Capital), Adometry (acquired by Google), MediaForge (acquired by Rakuten), Integral Ad Science (acquired by Vista Equity Partners), and Tapad (acquired by Telenor).

Matt Sotebeer

With 14+ years of experience in ad tech and emerging technologies, Matt Sotebeer brings an uniquely innovative approach in his role as Chief Strategy Officer at Digital Remedy. As CSO, Matt focuses on the intersection between the product, product marketing, tech, data, and sales teams, while fostering productive cross-functional company-wide relationships to inform and influence sales, educate clients, and optimize company performance.

Matt has an extensive knowledge in the integration of data science, creative, and media solutions to drive sustainable growth for companies, with a focus on designing customized, scalable solutions leveraging machine learning alongside human intelligence. Throughout the tenure of his career, he has successfully managed global teams aligned to common goals, encouraged collaborative problem solving, and supported talent growth for entrepreneurial companies including MiQ, Rocket Fuel, and Audience Science.

Jeremy Haft

A proven strategic, revenue, and team leader with over 20 years of experience managing and scaling revenue in the competitive ad tech landscape, Jeremy serves as Chief Revenue Officer at Digital Remedy.

Before joining the team in October 2022, he served as CRO at Channel Factory, where he reorganized the revenue team for sustainable growth and increased the sales team by 3x to drive predictable and more accountable revenue. Prior to that, he served in a decade of leadership positions. Most notably, as SVP of Sales at Amobee and as VP of North America Sales at Viant/Adelphic. At both organizations, Jeremy successfully built and scaled platform and business solutions from their infancy to achieve the desired corporate goals.

Jeremy graduated from The University of Vermont and currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling to tropical locations, dining out, cooking feasts with friends, and any new fitness trend he can get his hands on.

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