DTC Unboxed

Ryan Walton

5.0 (1)
Marketing

The growth podcast unboxing the strategies behind the world’s fastest-growing DTC brands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aug 12

Skin + Me: Unboxed - Their Cheapest Offer Was Costing Them The Most with Harry Cunliffe

Harry Cunliffe runs paid media across three prescription DTC brands: Skin + Me, Hair + Me and Renew + Me. Sixteen to eighteen channels, a paid team of three, and three heads of growth competing for the same two week creative sprint. For years, success at Skin + Me meant sign-ups. Then the business moved to lifetime value against CAC, and it turned out the intro offer driving all that volume was selecting for people whose only qualification was that they could not turn down something cheap. Harry talks through the day-zero signals they use to predict lifetime value, what happened when they tested a much higher intro price on Meta, and why adding qualification questions to the consultation flow costs more than it earns. On the creative side he covers what Andromeda is changing about the brief, why the persona matrix is hard to pull off at three brands and one design team, and the decision on one brand to stop accepting finished ads from creator partners in favour of raw footage they can cut themselves. For DTC founders, growth marketers and anyone running subscription acquisition on paid social. (00:00) Introduction (01:01) Harry's role and the + Me universe (04:35) 3 brands, 18 channels, and capital allocation (08:16) Moving off sign-ups: the intro offer trap on Meta (10:48) Measuring LTV: cohorts, channels and day-zero signals (14:00) Qualification, whack-a-mole and the partner channels (22:16) Resourcing 3 brands without dilution (25:11) Growth priorities: Google, AI and lifetime value (32:32) Andromeda and the persona matrix (35:39) Creative that works: near misses, UGC and raw footage (47:05) Consultation flow, offer testing and the LTV reframe (56:31) Advice for growth marketers in 2026 (58:17) Fail 9 times, learn 9 things Follow DTC Unboxed: https://linktr.ee/dtcunboxed Follow Harry on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cunliffeharry99/ Follow Ryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurary/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 20

Bob: Unboxed - £10K to £292K a Month in 15 Months with Michael Brennan

Twelve months ago, Mike Brennan left a decade in software to solve a problem he had every single day: travelling with a bar of soap wrapped in kitchen roll. That became Bob, a refillable body wash bar for men that's since grown from £10K to £292K in monthly revenue. In this episode, Mike walks through the 15 months Bob spent in stealth getting the mechanics of a refillable bar right, the CRO testing that built a 5.39% conversion rate, the near stockout that nearly broke their Christmas, and why the team now describe themselves as a creative house that happens to sell body wash. This one's for DTC founders and growth marketers who want the product and operations reality behind a fast-scaling brand, not just the ad account wins. (00:00) Introduction (00:27) Who is Mike and what is Bob (01:26) The refillable format origin story (04:01) Formulating for men, getting the pH right (06:01) Three co-founders, three personas (08:03) Kickstarter vs Shopify lessons (09:05) £10K to £292K MRR in 15 months (10:21) Knowing, and not knowing, your customer (12:11) Hard bar vs liquid roadmap (13:54) The Dove bar in kitchen roll (15:00) The 5.39% conversion rate (16:13) Product investment vs cash flow (18:09) Packaging and CX lessons (19:04) The Bob logo problem (20:26) Building brand while performance-first (23:01) Will's role: cutting the noise (24:51) Value prop vs supermarket pricing (27:23) The bundle model (29:29) The 14-day trial and its LTV lesson (30:44) Nearly out of stock at Christmas (34:41) £209K in December (36:22) Stocking three months ahead (37:33) Meta as the core channel (39:01) AI content vs authentic UGC (42:07) The organic reel that beat every paid ad (44:34) Message-market fit over granular measurement (47:10) "A creative house that sells body wash" (49:45) Fractional hires vs full-time (50:56) Bob XL and the top-secret liquid launch (51:55) Why five scents (56:53) The £500K December target (57:12) Final advice for DTC founders Follow DTC Unboxed: https://linktr.ee/dtcunboxed Follow Michael Brennan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/🧼-michael-brennan-625b9568/ Follow Ryan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurary/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 17

ZOE: Unboxed - The one hook that cut Zoe's CAC in half with Raphael Yarish

He had 30 minutes with Steven Bartlett. The brand team had six hours. He spent all 30 minutes filming hooks. That is Raph's approach to performance creative in one scene. Over five years and $50M+ in Meta spend across Zoe, Speechify and Mojo, he built systems that produced 500 ads in a day with three people. One CGM hook cut Zoe's CAC by half. At Speechify he helped scale from 50 ads a month to 2,000. Now as co-founder of AdManage.ai, he's behind nearly 2 million Meta ad launches. This episode is a practical breakdown of how high-volume creative systems actually work: who to hire, how to structure shoots, how to measure what matters and what the volume data really shows about how spend scales. If you are running paid social, building a creative team or trying to get more out of Meta, this one is for you. (0:00) Trailer (1:04) Introduction (1:42) Raph's background and early career in paid media (3:43) Joining ZOE as head of performance (4:37) Shooting with Steven Bartlett: 30 minutes vs six hours (8:13) The CGM education problem: advertising a complex product (10:49) The hook that cut ZOE's CAC by half (14:43) Building a high-volume creative system with a lean team (20:57) Brand vs performance tension and how to navigate it (27:04) Attribution, MER multiples and geo holdout methodology (34:57) Why your performance person needs to be on set (38:39) Speechify: 500 ads in a day with three people (43:18) Iteration vs net new: when to switch and why (53:10) AI ads and what formats are actually winning now (57:13) Three levers: creative volume, offers and KPIs Follow DTC Unboxed: https://linktr.ee/dtcunboxed Follow Raphael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelyarish/ Follow Ryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurary/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 3

HelloFresh: Unboxed - $100M In. Her Worst Ads Taught Her Most with Madelyn Byers

Madelyn Byers has managed over $100 million in media spend, had individual videos spend tens of millions, and says she still sometimes has no idea what will work. After a decade in D2C, that is not a confession. It is a philosophy. She built the in-house performance creative programme at HelloFresh Group, working across HelloFresh, EveryPlate, Factor and Green Chef. She was an early member of Aura Ads' growth team. She now works on growth at Black Girl Vitamins, one of the fastest-growing supplement brands in DTC. In this episode, Madelyn and Ryan cover her two-lane creative system: running optimisation and experimentation in parallel rather than in opposition. They get into why the body and CTA of a video ad are more important than most people give them credit for, how she structures creative testing with real spend thresholds rather than gut feel, and what Andromeda has genuinely changed about the way performance creative works. They also cover why statics kept winning at HelloFresh through the video era, how working across four brands inside the same group shapes your view of personas and brand role, and why the worst-performing ads in her career taught her more than the ones that scaled. For DTC operators and growth marketers who live in ad accounts. (00:00) Introduction (00:43) Madelyn's background and joining Black Girl Vitamins (02:46) How creative became the targeting on Meta (04:04) Why knowing media buying and creative both matter (05:19) The two-lane creative system: optimisation vs. experimentation (08:20) Hook, body and CTA: what drives performance (10:10) HelloFresh creative: statics, subscription and beyond discounting (14:22) Working cross-brand: Factor, EveryPlate and Green Chef (17:24) Being customer-first and building around personas (18:57) Authentic content and making someone feel seen (22:35) Learning from failures and when organic and paid started to merge (27:01) Staying inspired and prioritising ideas (31:06) Ugly ads, niche personas and addressing elephants in the room (34:18) Andromeda: what automation means for creative strategy (38:29) Creative testing: spend thresholds, winner criteria and account structure (42:15) Final advice: go learn the technical side Follow DTC Unboxed: https://linktr.ee/dtcunboxed Follow Madelyn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelynbyers/ Follow Ryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurary/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 20

The Oodie: Unboxed - "Getting Banned on Meta Was Our Best Move" with Paddy Kennedy

Paddy Kennedy managed $5M a month in global media spend at Oodie and helped scale it to $220M in turnover. At Füm, he built an entire multi-channel growth programme from scratch when Meta kept banning their account. Now he is building Menina, his own DTC eyewear brand, launching June 26th. In this episode Ryan sits down with Paddy to unpack three growth levers most DTC operators underinvest in: Employee Generated Content, podcast advertising and the full-funnel persona approach that holds up in the Andromeda era. Plus what a career performance marketer discovers when they try to build a brand brand for the first time. If you work in DTC, run growth for an ecommerce brand, or are building your own product business, this one is worth your time. (00:00) Introduction (00:53) Who is Paddy Kennedy (01:41) Selling snapbacks at school (03:26) The Melbourne watch brand (04:41) How Paddy landed at Oodie (05:23) COVID and Oodie: perfect timing (05:48) Brand manager to head of marketing (07:48) What is Füm (08:47) Meta is still the meta (09:04) Employee Generated Content (09:15) The Oodie Girl (09:51) Why EGC builds brand trust (10:20) Represent 247 and Minted New York (12:22) Authentic vs AI-generated creative (13:07) Meta Andromeda explained (13:56) Persona-matched creative at Füm (14:51) Whitelisting: still underutilised (15:16) Founder account vs brand account (16:04) Groons: full-funnel persona targeting (17:03) Why brands are not doing EGC (18:07) How to hire for an EGC role (19:34) Podcast advertising at Füm (20:01) Getting banned on Meta (21:07) Podcast strategy: CPM and show selection (22:16) Why crime podcasts outsold everything (23:24) Podcast ad creative approach (23:52) Measuring podcast ROI (24:32) Discount codes, Fairing and Podscribe (25:14) Podscribe: multi-touch attribution (25:38) Podcast as digital billboards (26:59) Podcast as a long-tail channel (27:36) The clipping economy (28:56) The moment that validated podcasts (29:55) Media mix: 60/40 (30:14) YouTube creator partnerships (31:40) YouTube as passive income (32:56) Organic vs paid YouTube (33:53) Creator selection: category fit (34:08) Ridge Wallet and MKBHD (35:49) YouTube Shorts (37:02) Google Demand Gen (37:40) YouTube in the DTC funnel (38:52) TikTok Shop: here to stay? (39:35) TikTok Shop AOV: $30 to $50 (39:56) The TikTok affiliate flywheel (41:33) Live shopping: China vs the West (42:41) Menina: DTC eyewear brand (42:56) The story behind the name (44:04) June 26th launch and scarcity model (45:21) Performance marketer builds a fashion brand (46:48) Direct response vs brand marketing (47:38) Menina product details (49:04) Leveraging a creator's audience (49:35) Why it is not merch (50:05) Product quality as the foundation Follow DTC Unboxed: https://linktr.ee/dtcunboxed Follow Paddy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paddytkennedy/ Follow Ryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurary/ DTC Unboxed is the growth podcast for modern direct-to-consumer brands. New episodes every two weeks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 6

Smalls: Unboxed - "They Literally Repackage Dog Food and Sell It to Cats." How Smalls Is Dismantling Big Pet with Will Youm

Smalls is one of the fastest-growing fresh cat food brands in the US, with over $100M in annual revenue and 200% year-on-year acquisition growth. Will Youm is Senior Growth Manager at Smalls, leading the growth strategy behind a brand that is actively trying to dismantle a century of pet food industry misinformation. In this episode Ryan sits down with Will to unpack the full Smalls growth playbook. How they are closing a 77-point brand awareness gap on Fancy Feast. Why brand is treated as a company department rather than a marketing function. And the "pink and shrink" analogy that explains why the entire pet food industry has been failing cats for a hundred years. If you are a DTC founder, growth marketer or brand builder operating in a category dominated by legacy incumbents, subscribe for new episodes every two weeks. 00:00 Introduction 00:54 What Smalls actually is: fresh food you would recognise as a human 01:34 The founding story: cats, humans, and 10,000 years of symbiosis 02:47 What "Big Pet" really means and why Smalls is built to dismantle it 04:56 The three growth levers: brand, product diversification, customer-led growth 05:51 When to diversify product, and the risk of doing it too early 08:00 The marginal CAC trap most DTC brands fall into 09:12 Increasing TAM through new SKUs vs deepening existing cohorts 09:55 Why brand building is the strongest LTV lever 11:51 Why podcast and affiliate channels lead Smalls' top of funnel 13:01 The contrarian view on TV: go big or go home 14:26 Brand isn't a marketing function, it's a company department 16:26 Why AI slop is killing DTC creative and Smalls' response 17:58 Adapting strategy for Andromeda and the new Meta era 18:59 Field research and the customer-led growth pillar 19:54 Neophobic vs neophilic cats: insights only the quiz funnel reveals 22:09 How retail is becoming a credibility play, not just a sales channel 24:59 Why pet food brands are leaning so hard into brand differentiation 26:24 The biggest challenge: changing pet owner beliefs and habits 29:53 How Smalls justifies a premium price in a price-sensitive category 30:57 The one growth lever Will would keep if he had to pick one 31:22 Why people don't buy with logic, they buy with emotion Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 15

AG1: Unboxed - How AG1 Leveraged Podcast Advertising To Grow From $10M to $600M

AG1 grew from $10M to $600M in revenue over seven years, entirely customer funded with zero VC money until 2021. Jon Corne was Global CMO for most of that journey, building the podcast advertising and creator economy strategy that the entire DTC industry has spent the last five years trying to reverse engineer. In this episode Ryan sits down with Jon, now 12 months out of the business, to unpack the full playbook for the first time. From landing Joe Rogan before anyone knew what podcast advertising was worth, to signing Huberman before his first episode aired, to cutting Amazon when it was 25% of the business, this is the most detailed breakdown of AG1's growth strategy ever recorded. If you are a DTC founder, growth marketer or brand builder, subscribe for new episodes every two weeks. 00:00 Introduction 02:08 How Jon joined AG1 with no marketing experience 03:12 What AG1 looked like in 2017: 10 people, one product, $11M run rate 06:02 Why podcasts beat every other channel for supplements 06:08 The single product strategy and why it created a brand moat 21:04 The almond croissant analogy: focus as competitive advantage 24:09 Building the creator economy playbook before the term existed 24:19 "We will be the number one audio brand in the world" 27:02 The runners thesis: using creators as live market research 33:49 The Google Sheet that managed 8 figures and delivered 9 36:34 Why AG1 cut Amazon when it was 25% of the business 37:47 Why Meta was only 15% of AG1's ad spend 41:27 Day trading is Meta. Value investing is creators. 43:38 How AG1 structured creator deals and why they paid fairly 49:25 The COVID moment that halved their customer acquisition cost 53:00 The Joe Rogan story: almost cancelled after episode three 54:06 The Elon Musk episode and what it taught Jon about context 58:03 Why Jon paid above market rate for Joe Rogan impressions 1:00:48 Signing Huberman before his first episode aired 1:13:09 How AG1 thought about retention and why it starts with acquisition 1:17:44 The data infrastructure problem that held them back 1:22:56 Gummies, competitors and the future of the category 1:28:22 What Jon would tell his younger self Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 1

DTC Unboxed: Breakdown - How Gruns Hit $300M ARR in 2.5 Years (And Why the Model Is Genius)

Grüns went from zero to $300M ARR in 2.5 years. They ship 4 million gummies per day, just raised a $35M Series B at a $500M valuation, and have 10 new products launching in 2026. This isn't luck. It's an intelligently architected DTC model - and in this solo breakdown episode, Ryan Walton tears it apart piece by piece. This episode is a different format to our usual guest interviews. Ryan runs through the full Gruns growth funnel - product strategy, pricing mechanics, landing pages, creative strategy and unit economics - to show exactly why this model is scaling so fast and what DTC operators can learn from it. 00:00 — Intro: Why Gruns is the holy grail of DTC growth right now 01:00 — What Gruns actually is and who built it 03:00 — The AG1 problem: taste and value as the two biggest objections in the category 06:00 — How Gruns solved both problems and redesigned the category 10:00 — The wellness market opportunity: energy, gut health and immunity 12:00 — Landing page breakdown: why 80% of traffic goes to blog-style pages 16:00 — The GLP-1 angle and why it's smarter than it looks 20:00 — Creative strategy: visual diversity, conceptual diversity and the squint test 22:00 — Persona breakdown: gym bros, menopausal women, parents and GLP-1 users 28:00 — Whitelisting and why Gruns maps creator pages to target personas 32:00 — Reverse engineering the full TAM strategy 35:00 — Unit economics: AOV, LTV and why they're probably losing money on first purchase on purpose **37:00** — Why a high LTV model lets you hammer spend and scale fast Website: https:// dtcunboxed.com DTC Unboxed is the growth podcast for DTC operators - unpacking the tools, tactics and principles behind the world's fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 18

Tushy: Unboxed - How Tushy Convinced 3 Million Americans to Ditch Toilet Paper with Jerel Blades

Tushy has convinced 3 million+ Americans to ditch toilet paper, challenging bathroom habits that have gone unchanged for 170 years. In this episode, Ryan sits down with Jerel Blades, Head of Growth at Tushy, to unpack the growth playbook behind one of DTC's most recognisable brands. 0:00 Intro 01:35 - Defining Bathroom Wellness: Shifting from "The Bidet Company" to a "from gut to butt to bowl" ecosystem. 04:00 The "Blue Ocean" Challenge: Educating a market where only 6% of households use a bidet compared to 60-70% in Asia. 05:34 Three Pillars of Growth: Jerel’s fundamental framework 08:14 OOH & Awareness: Using unconventional "poop trucks" 10:00 The Consideration Cycle: Analyzing why 40% of new customers known the brand for over a year before buying. 11:11 The Power of Word-of-Mouth: How a remarkable product drives 35-40% of sales through friends and partners. 12:27 Whitelisting & Human Trust: Why creator-led content is 10x more effective than clinical brand advertising. 15:10 The "Andromeda" Era: Moving away from complex lookalikes back to the core principles of emotional, story-driven marketing. 18:58 Strategic Innovation: Using product launches like fiber gummies to re-engage customers who haven't bought since 2021. 21:38 Amazon as a Proxy: Using marketplace data to identify sub-category growth and inform the product roadmap. 25:38 The LTV Unlock: Why Tushy focuses on multi-packs and bundles. 28:01 Retention Nuance: Distinguishing between "repeat" (unpredictable upgrades) and "recurring" (predictable subscription) revenue. 30:45 Innovation vs. Market Penetration: Deciding when to double down on one product based on the Total Addressable Market (TAM). 32:55 Brand as a Performance Lever: How a strong brand presence in culture directly reduces Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). 38:36 Movement-Based Marketing: Building a sense of "cultural movement" (like Caraway) to maintain demand during economic pullbacks. 41:43 Post-Tariff Resilience: How a 140% cost increase forced the team to become more disciplined, creative entrepreneurs. 45:10 The Future of Toileting: Expanding into AI stool tracking (the Hindsight app) and 10 new product launches for 2026. 48:49 Avoiding "Shiny Tool Syndrome": Final advice on ignoring software hype to focus on the human fundamentals of persuasion. Website: https://dtcunboxed.com Follow Jerel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerel-blades-89407412b/ DTC Unboxed is the growth podcast for DTC operators - unpacking the tools, tactics and principles behind the world's fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

9 Episodes

The growth podcast unboxing the strategies behind the world’s fastest-growing DTC brands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Creator

Ryan Walton
Years Active

2026
Episodes

9
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Ryan Walton
Show Website

DTC Unboxed