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Good morning,
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:
🥑 The Gronk and guac campaign mash-up: Learn how Avocadoes from Mexico uses AI in its interactive Guacline campaign featuring NFL star Rob Gronkowski.
🏈 Tips on how brands can advertise leading up to the Big Game (which doesn’t require a $7 million dollar 30-second ad placement.)
🟰 And…let’s do the math. This scrappy social post format is a great way to keep followers engaged with your content.
You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Parker Baby Co, Desjardins, and Lullabellz. 👋
Thousands of DTC brands and agencies have already downloaded Motion’s 2025 Ad Creative Cheat Sheet—and they’re putting these insights to work.
This is your final chance to get the strategies shaping this year’s most successful campaigns.
This report reveals 7 critical ad trends for 2025, plus actionable insights on:
All sourced from:
💵 Insights from $100M in ad spend.
📊 Data from 500+ DTC advertisers.
🧠 Expertise from 12 industry leaders.
The first DTC brands that apply these creative trends will capture the most attention. Don’t miss your chance to be one of them.
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🥑 Avocadoes From Mexico Wants You To Call Their Guacline
Avocadoes from Mexico returns to the Super Bowl with another creative campaign, this time enlisting the help of former NFL star Rob Gronkowski.
The Guacline campaign
Fans must enter their name before ringing 'Gronk AI,' a highly realistic digital avatar of Gronk.
The deepfake of the four-time Super Bowl champ then promotes guac recipes for fans to test out during The Big Game.
Why this angle just makes sense:
AFM president and CEO Alvaro Luque shares, "[This campaign] is a combination of everything that we think could spark the conversation that we want at the right time of the year, that is the Super Bowl."
How it all came together:
Avocados From Mexico filmed Gronkowski saying various names and phrases and then used the footage to replicate his speaking voice, mannerisms, and facial expressions.
AI voice generators HeyGen and ElevenLabs brought Guacline to life.
👉 AFM also set up safety measures so the deepfake will stay on script even if goaded by users to say something else.
The takeaway?
Creating a campaign that leverages AI and is highly shareable was a winning recipe for Avocadoes from Mexico last year, and now that they also have added Gronk to their campaign roster, this is likely to create even more engagement with NFL fans.
While AFM acknowledges that AI comes with difficulties and risks, it can also help brands create creative campaigns with endless possibilities.
👍 Google Ads Labels Low Search Volume Keywords As ‘Private’
Google Ads has now rebranded keywords with low search volumes (under 50 unique searches in 90 days) as private.
By introducing this new “private search terms” category, it’ll be easier for advertisers to understand how much traffic is coming from this group of keywords but they won’t be able to see which individual keywords are impacting campaigns.
This is part of Google’s shift towards privacy-first advertising.
👏 What If You Could Do Less, But Get More?
minisocial was the first platform to deliver BOTH micro-influencer posts and fully-licensed content.
Why do it this way?
Because influencers know how to create engaging content, and organic engagement is one of the most powerful ways to grow a brand.
minisocial has perfected the art of micro-influencer UGC campaigns and worked with 1,000+ consumer brands to help them do the same. 🧑💻
Just submit your brief, and their team of experts will book creators for you to review and approve. Then, watch as content goes live on social and gets delivered directly to you! Plug this content in on ads, social, emails, your site, and beyond, and watch the magic happen! ✨
With minisocial, the proof is in the pudding.
* sponsored
🏈 Kicking Off Big Game Ad Performance Tips
The Big Game is coming up quickly, and now’s the time to prep marketing content to take advantage of this seasonal moment.
This event is a good time for advertisers to take advantage of scale opportunities as there are typically more users on their phones during the game, ads, and during the halftime show.
👉 The Pilothouse Meta team recommends testing a campaign with Reel and story-only placements during the game to take advantage of more people scrolling on mobile.
Last year, the team saw success running ads that highlighted “the Big Game” for a handful of DTC brands.
The team saw the best performance and higher intent on ads during the Super Bowl weekend (Feb 9-11) compared to the week leading up (Feb 6-8).
These are the results that one brand saw on ads promoting the Big Game: 👇
Account wide, CPMs dropped by -4.68%, with link CPCs decreasing by -8.82% and ROAS increasing by 2.30% after increasing ad spend by 40% during Super Bowl weekend.
👉 The Meta Pilothouse team definitely recommends looking for opportunities to capitalize on lower CPMs during this period.
Here are a few other ways you can advertise leading up to the big game:
Give these ideas a try in the next few weeks to scale your brand during the Super Bowl.
🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE
This social post format is making waves again on Instagram. All you need are a few images related to your latest product launch.
Create an equation so users stop the scroll.
While users work on this brain teaser, brands can benefit from lots of engagement!
💸 MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
⚡ QUICK HITS
🤖 34% of customers who interacted with this AI agent purchased a bundle vs. a single product. Increase your conversion rates and AOV in less than 30 days with App0. Get a free trial here. *
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DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.
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