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The news: Eli Lilly joined forces with direct-to-consumer (D2C) telehealth company Ro to offer single-dose vials of its GLP-1 Zepbound to Ro patients with obesity. Previously, this reduced price form of the medication was only available on the drugmaker鈥檚 D2C website for its LillyDirect self-pay pharmacy (meaning insurance isn鈥檛 accepted).

Gauging the influence of digital on the shopper's journey.

Disney marked its first-ever profit in the streaming division, a quarter ahead of schedule, signaling a successful turnaround in its direct-to-consumer strategy. Retail media remains a rapidly growing sector. Amazon leads with forecasted US retail media spending of $41.95 billion in 2024, though Walmart is making significant strides with 26% advertising growth in Q2. Search.

But many D2C brands are now weighing the pros and cons of putting some of their goods on TikTok Shop and using affiliate marketing to drive sales. 鈥淔or products that are $100 and under, you see the affiliate budget slowly start to go that way,鈥� Mayberry said. 鈥淒o we keep this off dot-com and only go to TikTok Shop?鈥�. Affiliate is entering a period of data stratification.

But attempts to reign in D2C drug advertising as well as anti-vaccine rhetoric won鈥檛 go over well with Big Pharma. We鈥檒l be closely monitoring the confirmations of Trump鈥檚 picks for key federal health agencies in early 2025.

Ecommerce has become a dominant sales channel in the pet industry, fueled by convenience and a broad range of online offerings. By 2028, nearly half of pet products sales will come from ecommerce.

Deckers relies on scarcity to drive Ugg, Hoka growth: That tactic paid off with record sales and profits during the holiday quarter.

The final word: To that end, Walgreens decided to expand its direct-to-consumer virtual healthcare services to reach consumers in 30 states. The retailer launched Walgreens Virtual Healthcare last year in nine states. 3. Walgreens is considering a sale of the company to a private equity firm. The announcement comes as Walgreens closes out 2024 with a net loss of $8.6 billion鈥攁 177% YoY increase.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the unofficial list of the most interesting retailers for the month of January. Each month, our analysts Arielle Feger, Becky Schilling, and Sara Lebow (aka The Committee) put together a very unofficial list of the top eight retailers they're watching based on which are making the most interesting moves: Who's launching new initiatives? Which partnerships are moving the needle? Which standout marketing campaigns are being created? In this month's episode, Committee members Analyst Arielle Feger and Senior Analyst Sara Lebow will defend their list against Senior Analyst Zak Stambor and Analyst Rachel Wolff, who will dispute the power rankings by attempting to move retailers up, down, on, or off the list.

Our forecast was up, and Magna鈥檚 was even more bullish鈥攊ncluding consumer goods, driven by a D2C shift. With all of that spending, waste was a major topic, and avoiding overspending on channels like CTV and MFA sites was consistently in focus. To facilitate more dollars moving to digital channels, players like Google began launching features like AI chatbots to create ads more effortlessly.

Creators are going direct-to-consumer. Direct audience monetization tactics鈥攍ike tipping, subscriptions, and merchandising鈥攁re the fastest-growing social media creator revenue streams. But it isn鈥檛 easy for most creators to make meaningful revenues from them. Tipping is a thriving, but tiny, creator income source. The sums are small, but they鈥檙e beginning to add up.

Juice Media, which represents DSC and other direct-to-consumer brands, said shoppable ads could take up as much as 20% of budgets. Many buyers noted their interest and uncertainty, saying the format still needs to prove its value before securing further budget commitments.

The news: Amazon鈥檚 direct-to-consumer (D2C) telehealth business expanded its services to include upfront, fixed pricing for the treatment of five conditions鈥攕kin care, hair loss, erectile dysfunction (ED), eyelash growth, and motion sickness. Why it matters: The new offering places Amazon One Medical Pay-per-visit in direct competition with D2C healthcare companies such as Hims & Hers and Ro.

Direct-to-consumer ARPU: $11.99 for US and Canada; $4.05 for other markets. Global D2C ARPU for the quarter increased by 1% YoY to $7.84 but was lower than last quarter鈥檚 $8.00. Overall financials: Total revenues declined 4% to $9.62 billion as theatrical revenues plunged 40%, and adjusted EBITDA for Warner Bros. Discovery鈥檚 entire business dropped 19% to $2.41 billion.

In April, Headspace rolled out mental health coaching for its direct-to-consumer subscriber base, through which users can access one-on-one support for help managing stressful situations and improving emotional resilience. And just last month, the company followed that up by launching Ebb, an AI companion integrated into its app that provides personalized emotional support to members.

For some smaller D2C brands, ASC+ now represents well over half of their social ad spending. Social media platforms鈥� ad offerings are increasingly geared to retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertisers.

So I have the same ingredients in different proportions, and I just throw in the leadership piece into the D2C strategy. So I guess it's sort of similar.

If you are only using the AI in your wholesale channels, then you're not going to get that direct to consumer sort of traffic. If you could have your own agent, then that would be the coolest, right, that understood you. I think Google's tried to do that a few times in different iterations. Marcus Johnson (14:43):. Jacob, I want to ask you about that real quick.

Could pharma D2C advertising be reined in? Incoming vice president JD Vance recently said on a podcast that he鈥檚 a big critic of pharma advertising. Vance wasn鈥檛 concerned with drug ads鈥� influence on consumers but rather that media companies don鈥檛 appropriately investigate the drug industry since they rely so heavily on Big Pharma鈥檚 ad dollars.

Many brands, especially D2C ones, spent much of the 2010s relying on paid ads to reach Facebook and Instagram users. When TikTok started becoming more popular, several brands and small businesses found organic success on the platform, seeing massive boosts in both awareness and sales. Younger consumers are hard to reach with traditional ads on social media.

TikTok still has its place, Baus said, but requires a lot of content to achieve a few viral hits, and TikTok Shop is best suited for D2C brands and those that are already investing in product-focused content on the platform, such as beauty brands. On March 8, Reddit launched a new suite of tools to help marketers understand trending topics.

I think at eTail, that conference starts a little bit more around the direct to consumer. So there, I think it's a lot more about the connected experience, the true omnichannel or all channel and how there's commerce everywhere and how to really seize the moment.

Ralph Lauren鈥檚 AUR for its direct-to-consumer business rose 10% YoY鈥攂uilding on a 9% increase the previous year鈥攚hich the brand credited to its elevated positioning and higher full-price sales. The company also focused on reducing its exposure to lower-tier distribution channels such as off-price retailers, in favor of more upscale partners where margins are higher.

TikTok Shop, which features Chinese sellers alongside D2C brands and some global brands, is proving popular with younger buyers. Gen Zers spend more than average: Digital buyers in the UK make 42 online orders a year, per NIQ鈥攂ut TikTok buyers make 57. TikTok continues investing in the UK.