D2C Diaries

Most brands walk into November with a discount and a hope. Six weeks out, that pattern is already forming.For the first-ever D2C Diaries panel, three operators take Black Friday apart: Laurence Booth from Internos Advisory, Frederica Watson from Revive Collagen and Nick Kane from Magic AI. What the episode focuses on is offer, media, creative, and the unpublished part: what operators actually do when day one lands 40% under forecast.Disagreement is the point. The panel does not agree that peak is a straight revenue win. One guest makes the case that the same revenue would have landed without Black Friday at all.Inside the episode:- Why BFCM becomes a trap for wellness and subscription brands, and what discounting really costs inside a repeat-purchase model- Offer architecture: what separates offers that scale from offers that burn margin, and why complexity kills most of them- Timing: when promotion should start, and whether an early launch avoids the CPM peak or discounts full-price demand- Creative and media: why the strongest Black Friday ad is often already live, Meta's incremental reach problem, and why partnership ads deserve closer to 30% of spend than 5%- Demand shift at peak, the £1,000 gift signal, and the Friday-morning fallback plan: what to change, what to leave aloneThis podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard.If you're spending serious money on daily business expenses and getting nothing back on it right now, this dedicated offer gets you 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped.Sign up for free and use the code SWU2K26 to unlock your cashback: https://www.incard.com/?fpr=soarwithu...0:00 The True Cost of Complexity0:32 Quality Over Quantity in Ad Creative1:08 Meet the Panel: Scaling Consumer Brands4:06 Preparing for the Peak Season7:40 Volatility and Market Shifts14:05 The New Reach Challenge24:27 Defining Your Peak Objectives36:11 Learning from Past Mistakes53:40 The Future of Creative Strategy1:49:16 What to Do When You Miss TargetsFollow our guests:Laurence Booth-Clibborn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurence-booth-clibborn/ Frederica Watson- https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederica-watson-a21bb4a4/Nick Kane - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-kane-4b9a73102/Hosted by Olly Hudson and Loukas Hambi - operators behind £200M+ in Meta, TikTok and Google spend across 250+ brands.D2C Diaries is a weekly podcast breaking down D2C growth, performance marketing and brand scaling.🚨🚀 If you’re a brand spending £100K/month, we’ll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0wjzrY0Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudsonFollow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marstonFollow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambiFollow D2C Diaries: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

A data-packed Black Friday playbook built from £32M in ad spend. Explore how to phase Q4, grow audiences before costs rise, match offers to margins, and audit winning creative. The discussion covers UGC, satire, statics, urgency, rapid daily iteration, and landing pages that turn post-click traffic into conversions, plus gamified experiences to boost purchase excitement.

Omer Kaplan, co-founder of ironSource, helped build the company to an $11B valuation and now leads Zyg, an AI platform for consumer brands. He discusses bringing mobile gaming’s prediction playbook to DTC, testing products before inventory bets, forecasting LTV, building defensibility, and replacing tool sprawl with connected AI agents. He also explores fundraising, retention-led growth, and why founders must stay hands-on.

Peak season preparation goes far beyond raising budgets. Explore the creative volume and diversity needed for Q4, how early testing beats frantic scaling, why upper-funnel investment prevents reach problems, and how automated buying puts greater pressure on offers, landing pages, and customer signals. Plus, a look at creative fatigue, measurement blind spots, TikTok Shop’s halo effect, and turning winning ideas into repeatable systems.

Creative research starts with finding the real commercial constraint, then scoring opportunities across personas, messaging, volume, formats, and concentration. Explore audience language through reviews, Reddit, search, and customer conversations, uncover overlooked angles from indirect competitors, and turn social research into sharper, testable creative opportunities.

🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://www.soarwithus.co/d2c-diaries-get-in-touch?utm_campaign=191661253-D2C%20Diaries&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_term=d2c_diaries&utm_content=ep_88Mark Scott built Bella & Duke into one of the UK's biggest raw pet food brands - £40M+ revenue, 140+ employees, profitable since early on - then deliberately stepped down as CEO at £30M to get out of his own way. He breaks down how community (not audience) drove Bella & Duke's growth, why referral rate is the only way to beat the "death curve" on rising CAC, and the signals that tell a founder they've become the bottleneck. Plus: delegating KPIs not tasks, hiring people who aren't like you, and why he now spends his time doing breathwork instead of chasing another exit.Timestamps:02:58 Chopping a tree, and finding raw dog food07:51 Community vs audience, and why authenticity is uncomfortable11:03 A clear mission makes every decision easy17:34 Be more like a duck: expecting failure and letting it go20:07 Redefining the category and getting raw into retail22:31 The death curve and why referral rate is everything29:02 From pet food to full pet wellness39:32 Stepping down as CEO at £30m41:15 Are you the bottleneck? Signals to watch for46:18 Hiring people better than you, and delegating accountability49:55 Building a business vs building yourself a job51:24 Torus Tree, 9D breathwork and leading from the heart57:35 The real goal: energy, not moneyTorus Tree: https://www.torustree.com/Follow Mark Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markscottperth/This podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard.If you're spending serious money on daily business expenses and getting nothing back on it right now, this dedicated offer gets you 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped.Sign up for free and use the code SWU2K26 to unlock your cashback: https://www.incard.com/?fpr=soarwithus&fp_sid=podFollow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudsonFollow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marstonFollow Loukas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loukas-hambi-388067152/Follow Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-dean-a11a43152/

Yapper ads are reshaping Meta and TikTok creative. Explore why authentic storytelling beats polished AI scripts, how Reddit uncovers believable customer language, and how “Oracle” figures introduce products naturally. The discussion covers objections, failed solutions, emotional desires, curiosity loops, creator delivery, scripting styles, conversion-focused frameworks, and adapting winning videos into native ad copy.

They dive into AI tools that turn reference statics into fresh ads in minutes. Whiteboard and Miro-style visuals get attention by simplifying complex messages. A three-step ad account audit focuses on persona coverage, creative volume, and format diversity. They explain translating organic TikTok/YT trends into paid big-swing formats. Landing pages are flagged as the next crucial skill for DTC brands.

🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://www.soarwithus.co/d2c-diaries-get-in-touch?utm_campaign=191661253-D2C+Diaries&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_term=d2c_diaries&utm_content=ep_85Daniel McCarthy is the founder of Theta and an associate professor of marketing at the University of Maryland. Private equity firms bring him in to dig through the transaction data before they buy a DTC brand, and he's done it on over 450 companies, from McDonald's to some of the biggest names in ecommerce. He breaks down the "growth report card" that shows whether a brand's growth is real or just manufactured by spend, why discounting a customer's first order drags down what they're worth long after, and why most brands have no idea where they stand when someone asks ChatGPT which brand to buy.Harvard Business Review article: How to Value a Company by Analyzing Its Customers: https://hbr.org/2020/01/how-to-value-a-company-by-analyzing-its-customersThis podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard.If you're spending serious money on daily business expenses and getting nothing back on it right now, this dedicated offer gets you 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped.Sign up for free and use the code SWU2K26 to unlock your cashback: https://www.incard.com/?fpr=soarwithusFollow Daniel McCarthy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmcc/ Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi Follow Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-dean-a11a43152/ Follow D2C Diaries: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

Carl Weische, founder of Accelerated Agency and CRO specialist for brands like AG1, Huel and IM8, explores why post-click optimisation is the next growth frontier. He reveals how IM8 scaled from zero to $50M a month with 50 persona-driven funnels, why perceived value beats discounting, how smart post-purchase upsells work, and where AI helps, but strategy still needs human judgment.