PepsiCo slashes Poppi’s $300M earnout and founders say take the cash, AI ad creative is getting brands sued, Delta, Chase and Amazon start blocking AI agents as the “war on agents” kicks off, and Hark’s free-pizza launch flops.
It’s the consumer’s daily show — Ecomm Cowboy — where we break down the stories moving retail and DTC, then sit down with the operators building through it.
Today guest host Chris Orzechowski (Owner, Orzy Media) joins Chris Hall and Colin Dougherty.
ON TODAY’S EPISODE
Phil Kiel — Director of Paid Social, Taikun DigitalWe dig into what’s working on Meta heading into BFCM — what a seller’s creative pipeline should look like five weeks out and what most leave too late, testing new ad sets at $30/day on a $1M+/month account, which promo formats are winning (statics, UGC, AI video), the Trybe creator check that found 2 of 164 creators driving 72% of spend, why people confuse incremental with profitable and what a real lift test shows that Meta’s attribution setting doesn’t, and scaling accounts daily with Claude — what breaks and the guardrails every seller needs.
Sean Wendt — Founder, DTCMVPWe dig into vetting vendors from someone who sits in on thousands of brand-vendor conversations — which categories brands say are worth the money even when they were skeptical, which ones overpromise and keep falling short, what to spot in case studies and results claims that most operators miss, what a smart trial looks like before a long contract, how to check references when the vendor picks who you talk to, the category brands were all buying a year ago and are now canceling, and the three questions to ask before signing anything.
ALSO ON THE SHOW
- Elon bans “ugly, shrill, or overhyped” ads on X — DTC Twitter, home of the ugly ad, is not OK
- Amazon passes 1 million robots
- Nike’s Halloween hoops pack, including the Pennywise LeBron
- GoodPop’s packaging redesign that already lifted sales 40%- New holiday flavors and the Frosted Cranberry Energizer
- Words of Wisdom: Mike Beckham on the path to physical retail
- Moment of Zen: Austin, Texas maximalism
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