Good morning,
Last week Microsoft briefly took Apple’s spot as the most valuable public company again thanks to a flurry of exciting AI announcements.
As these two battle it out, this is a reminder to keep an eye on your competition and take advantage of the latest AI tools to help streamline your ecommerce business.
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:
You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Klaviyo, Vital Explorations, Cosmic Candy, and Mind Spark 👋
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Conversation hearts always make an appearance leading up to Valentine’s Day, but this year Sweethearts Candies has made a fun marketing push to go after a niche target audience: people in situationships.
The candy brand’s satirical Situationship commercial pokes fun at how this is the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for 2024.
What is a situationship?
When you may or may not be in an ambivalent relationship that has no label which leads both parties to wonder: What the heck are we?!
Stats on situationships trend:
Why this marketing campaign works so well:
The result?
The campaign quickly went viral on social media, racking up over 1.2 million views on TikTok and comments from users who loved the spot on commentary.
Not only is the campaign itself brilliant, but Sweethearts Candies was also able to reduce their waste by selling their defective products.
Satirical and sustainable. Wins all around. 🏆
*Looks like the campaign went so well the product has sold out. Sweethearts Candies is now racking in emails for their newsletter list for people waiting for the next drop.
Valentine's Day is the next high-purchase intent holiday for Q1.
Every DTC brand should take advantage of this time (in one way or another) by tailoring it to their audience and niche.
Here are some tips from the Pilothouse team on how to capitalize on this high-purchase opportunity during the next few weeks.
Do’s & Don’ts for Valentine’s Day Meta ad campaigns
❌ Don’t force Valentine's gifting angle: If your product or service isn’t a good fit for Valentine’s Day messaging, don’t force it.
✅ Do offer a customer appreciation promotion: Your messaging can be more about your brand giving love back to customers with a sweet discount or gift with purchase.
❌ Don’t create expensive Valentine’s Day creatives: While bigger brands pull out all the stops, if you're on a tight budget there are ways to run a V Day campaign without spending all your dollars.
✅ Do take your top-performing creatives and add a seasonal twist: Add pink and red background colors, heart emojis, and other V day appropriate designs to stand out.
❌ Don’t keep pushing Valentine’s themed creatives if they aren’t performing: If you aren’t getting clicks and conversions, then the messaging might not be resonating with your audience.
✅ Do pivot from your learnings: A/B test various Valentine’s Day and/or let evergreen scale during this high-intent purchasing period.
These do’s and don’ts tips for Valentine’s Day campaigns should get you thinking about how to simplify your creatives and a way to show love and appreciation to customers.
👀 Looking to optimize multichannel sales? Don’t miss Pipe17’s virtual Omnichannel Commerce Summit on Jan. 17th and learn from expert sellers on Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, Wayfair, and more. Register here. *
🎨 Want to reinvent the way you use Canva? Canva, every marketer's bff, has a ChatGPT Plus plug-in. Connect your Canva and GPT Plus account to make custom templates or designs that you can port back into Canva to edit.
⏰ Trends are moving FAST. Wanna see what’s trended and is trending right now on TikTok? Check out this list.
Hey there! We just kicked off our 2024 Audience Survey and we'd love to hear from you. As a DTC reader and a member of our community, we value your opinions and feedback.
Got a few minutes? Jump into this quick survey to let us know more about you, your work, and your likes and dislikes about DTC.
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DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.
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