Home The Big Story The Big Story: DTC Principles Come To Big Brands

The Big Story: DTC Principles Come To Big Brands

SHARE:
The Big Story podcast

The Big Story is a podcast featuring a roundtable of AdExchanger editors talking about the biggest stories from the past week. It is available wherever you subscribe to podcasts.

In 2019, US digital ad spend will finally hit the milestone we all knew it would reach: It will surpass traditional ad spend, according to eMarketer.

Congrats to digital!

And especially to Amazon, whose share of the advertising cake is expected to grow from 4.5% last year to 8.8% this year – a period in which Google, Microsoft and Verizon will all decline, while Facebook is projected to flatten out.

This week on “The Big Story,” we’ll talk about the growth of digital and Amazon, in particular: why it’s succeeding and what it must do to grab even more precious, precious spend.

We’ll also look at a curious case of Kellogg’s, an old-school brand that’s top of mind every morning when you’re heating up those Pop-Tarts. Kellogg’s recently launched two new health products – a smoothie bowl and a something-biotic cereal.

But instead of traditional wide releases, it did so iteratively, pushing out the products in select channels and tweaking them based on live customer feedback.

In other words, Kellogg’s is bringing real DTC principles not just to marketing and advertising, but also to product development. Releasing an unfinished product like this would once be unthinkable for an incumbent brand.

Kellogg’s isn’t the only legacy company bringing some DTC to its R&D. Verizon is also giving it a shot with its Visible carrier plan.

To hear more, grab a bowl of cereal and tune in to this week’s “The Big Story.”

Must Read

AdExchanger's Big Story podcast with journalistic insights on advertising, marketing and ad tech

Guess Its AdsGPT Now?

Ads were going to be a “last resort” for ChatGPT, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman promised two years ago. Now, they’re finally here. Omnicom Digital CEO Jonathan Nelson joins the AdExchanger editorial team to talk through what comes next.

Comic: Marketer Resolutions

Hershey’s Undergoes A Brand Update As It Rethinks Paid, Earned And Owned Media

This Wednesday marks the beginning of Hershey’s first major brand marketing campaign since 2018

Comic: Header Bidding Rapper (Wrapper!)

A Win For Open Standards: Amazon’s Prebid Adapter Goes Live

Amazon looks to support a more collaborative programmatic ecosystem now that the APS Prebid adapter is available for open beta testing.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters

Gamera Raises $1.6 Million To Protect The Open Web’s Media Quality

Gamera, a media quality measurement startup for publishers, announced on Tuesday it raised $1.6 million to promote its service that combines data about a site’s ad experience with data about how its ads perform.

Jamie Seltzer, global chief data and technology officer, Havas Media Network, speaks to AdExchanger at CES 2026.

CES 2026: What’s Real – And What’s BS – When It Comes To AI

Ad industry experts call out trends to watch in 2026 and separate the real AI use cases having an impact today from the AI hype they heard at CES.

New Startup Pinch AI Tackles The Growing Problem Of Ecommerce Return Scams

Fraud is eating into retail profits. A new startup called Pinch AI just launched with $5 million in funding to fight back.