Ah, Labor Day weekend — one of those joyful times of year when affiliate marketing listicles begin with words like “must-buy,” followed by numbers like 27, 41, 65, and our old pal 79. Word to the wise, though: if your sale price has been your price since Memorial Day, that’s just your price.
Speaking of which, let’s get together face-to-face next week in LA and go deep on an important related topic! Scroll down to sign up for the LA DTC networking event next Wednesday, September 9th.
And behold: this week’s gathering of all things CPG and beyond. For example, who's really making the brand-buying decisions in 2026? Hint: it’s not the person holding the credit card.
Target Beauty Studio is coming! The brand list reads like a Sephora aisle: D&G, Sunday Riley, Supergoop — plus Buff Beauty gets a big retail debut.
Andrea Hernández of Snaxshot caught David protein shakes on shelves pre-launch. Bars, ice cream, and now RTD.
Tech journalist Taylor Lorenz reports ChatGPT went from citing Reddit 15% of the time to near zero on August 14.
Rylan Valdez of Luckyscent breaks down fragrance's format explosion. His Q: New customers, or same wallet sliced thinner?
Seven states charge brands for adding to the recycling stream. Better packaging means a smaller bill, so maybe noodle on that redesign.
Stop asking your customers what you want— because they really don’t know! A case against customer research from Sara Neves Paixao.
One of fewer than 5% of bootstrapped Sephora brands, Maed went from 80 Sephora doors to 109.
The teen girl is the household CMO now, finding the brand and making the pitch.
Poppi founder Allison Ellsworth posted open roles to Instagram and pulled 2,000 resumes for five jobs. LinkedIn, you okay?
Messi's Mas+ and Alex Cooper's Unwell both shut down, joining Skkn and Gxve in the celeb brand graveyard. Fame’s great, but it won’t get a repeat purchase.
Instacart's biggest growth bet is software. Is it grocery's new digital landlord?
Clare Moore of Following Up unpacks ShopMy Spotlights: organic post becomes an ad, creator is paid on what it sells. Some influencers love it, others will leave it.
Time’s running out to register for the LA DTC Happy Hour in Santa Monica on September 9 from 6-9 p.m. ⏱️ Elevator pitch: let’s hang out in person! If you’re in the area, we’d love to see you. RSVP soon since spots are already filling up.
The question of the hour: what actually makes a customer stick after BFCM?
Sign up here and see you there!
Olly Dixon started Something & Nothing in 2017 with Rupert Pugsley — basically a side hustle next to the pub he ran and the branding agency he owned. It launched as a “seltzer” in the UK, but between White Claw's hard seltzer invasion and their own boozy spritz line, everyone got confused about what was really in the can. So they renamed the whole thing “premium soda” and killed the alcoholic line for good once the data showed customers were using the product to drink less.
Along the way: exploding cans, a crash course in can printing, a refusal to look at a single competitor while building the brand, and a scrappy “Not Pop” campaign with huge results. Now the U.S. is about 70% of the business and growing 90% a year, right in the middle of the modern soda boom.
