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DTC Podcast
Bonus: Anatomy of a Million Dollar Ad: Motion's James Mulvey on Seven Most Impactful Creative Trends of 2025
00:32:59
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- [00:00]
A
We help people get to those hundred thousand million dollar spend ads and we can dive into some of that today.
- [00:07]
B
The velocity of creative that's required for thriving DTC brands is that only going up? Is the amount of creative that people are using kind of still only going up?
- [00:16]
A
Yeah man, for sure. You got to sprint every day. The average ad, according to some of the research that we can talk about today is, you know, a couple days before it starts to fade. So you got to feed the machine. The algorithm just wants to give people so much new stuff.
- [00:31]
B
What goes making an ad that's going to get you to a six figure spend.
- [00:35]
A
Yeah, I think from this analysis, kind of digging in some of the traits that emerged from from the 100k winner, for example, to get to 100k winner.
- [00:52]
B
James, welcome to the DTC podcast. Your head of content at Motion. Motion is an app that I, we, we've used internally at Pilothouse and I hear again and again I have podcast guests telling me that using it for their sort of creative console, their creative cockpit essentially. So in your head of content there, it's a content company. Pretty exciting.
- [01:14]
A
Yeah, yeah. So we are a platform for advertisers to analyze their Meta Creative, YouTube Creative, TikTok Creative and to really like bridge the divide between the growth team and the creative team and like help you ship a lot of creative fast and really understand what's working and why.
- [01:32]
B
So that's the other thing we talk about on the podcast all the time is just the velocity of creative that's required for thriving DTC brands. Is that only going up? Is the amount of creative that people are using kind of still only going up?
- [01:44]
A
Yeah man, for sure. It's like you got to sprint every day. You know, the average ad, according to some of the research that we can talk about today is, you know, a couple days before it starts to fade. So you got to feed the machine and the algorithm just wants to give people so much new stuff and you, you really gotta push it. So that's why, you know, people like our platform and it really helps them guide those decisions and make them faster as well as like make use of what's existing and reuse it and all that.
- [02:15]
B
It can feel like throwing spaghetti at the wall. I might. When you're just building creative, you're just trying to find what sticks. But what I love about Motion is it appears to give you a system, a spaghetti system to make more repeatable, find more winners. Essentially that's the goal with ads, right? Is finding ads that can scale above you know, 50, 100 bucks.
- [02:33]
A
Yeah, it's funny, like, you know, the more you create ads, you realize like it's pretty hard to get like spend at least just, just that as like the benchmark. Like a lot of your ads, you know, they, they might seem like good ideas, but they're not picked up. So we help people get to those hundred thousand million dollar spend ads and we can dive into some of that today.
- [02:53]
B
The anatomy, I think that, yeah, I'm definitely excited to dive in with that. Before we do just, we'll mention that this is basically a highlight of the report that you've produced over the. You pulled together multiple experts, like 500 opinions and analyzed the spend of over 100 million in AD spend. Essentially.
- [03:11]
A
Yeah.
- [03:12]
B
How long you been working on that report?
- [03:13]
A
Yes, that's my team. And that's got to give a shout out to the man who lived in the madness for a couple months, which is Costa on my team, so we can tag him. But yeah, really did like, like you said, a survey of 500 DTC advertisers, $100 million in ad spend, meticulously analyzed as well as like mult deep dive interviews into like industry legends. You know, like Barry Hot taught us a lot. Morella Crespi taught us a lot. Alex Cooper, all the great ones. So super impactful piece of content. And I've been going through it meticulously to prepare for this interview and just like saw like man, there's like five other reports we can write as this is a basis. So super excited to get this in people's hands.
- [04:00]
B
That's super cool. What do you see as maybe the top insight that you gleaned for people out there looking to make better creative?
- [04:07]
A
I think there's a lot, you know, we have seven trends, so there's seven trends you can dive into. Maybe one that is a little bit nearer to my heart is comedy. So there's a comedy trend and you know, what we found is that like 25%, I think of the ads over a million dollars that we analyzed are funny and they use humor. And you know, everyone knows humor is effective. Everyone knows that, you know, brands like True Classic or Liquid Debt or whatever, they become so talkable because it's so funny and it just reaches your broader audience. But I don't think a lot of D2C advertisers right now on their yearly plan. If you look into their, you know, deck, they probably have like all this other stuff to like, do. I doubt many have like make more funny ads as a Goal, even though that's like a huge variable that you can do. And so I can share, like, what we're doing internally at Motion as we do our own advertising, as well as what we found. But I think really kind of taking humor, for lack of better words, seriously in 2025 is a huge advantage. And it's certainly one you see when you sort of like the brands that maybe you admire the most.
- [05:18]
B
I just was watching a clip this morning in honor of David lynch, who just passed away at the time of this recording. And it was the show, the Louis show, and it was him auditioning. Louis was audition for. To take over a talk show. And David lynch is like, okay, be funny, be funny, funny man. He just freezes and he can't do it. He comes up with something silly. But I think that's something that when you say a lot of advertisers don't have it on their roadmap, I think there's. I think it's intimidating maybe to think about how to be funny and not cheesy, not come across kind of cheesy in ads. So I'd be interested in examples from Motion or from the report that people could kind of practically get their heads around actually being funny.
- [05:53]
A
Yeah. I love this quote that the CEO of Lomi said recently, which was like, every problem is a people problem. So, like, first you got to solve it with the people. You know, ClickUp is. Is one of our customers, and we're doing a case study with them. Very funny brand, you know, hilarious stuff. Everyone knows ClickUp Funny.
- [06:11]
B
I know their creator, too. He was previously a creator at a company that I was at, Luke, I believe his name is, and he took over and has just done so much.
- [06:18]
A
That guy's the solve.
- [06:19]
B
Like, yeah.
- [06:19]
A
So. So at the. At the top level, if you have a lot of budget, like, you got to hire funny, funnier people. And I'm excited because this year I actually hired two very funny people that are starting and you're gonna see motions, ads get much more funny and like, just a comedy duel. So that's like, if you have budget, you gotta solve the people problem. You're not doing it because you maybe aren't that funny. So you gotta solve that. And then the other one is like, I think. I think there are people on your team who are at least like, a little bit funny and who can do it. So my old vp, Hank, shout out to Hank. He gave me this framework that I've used forever, which is when you're asking for creative ideas, ask Them to give it mild to wild. So like give me the first idea that's like the basic idea like 50% off. Then give me the wild idea like, oh well, drop it off the Eiffel Tower or something like that. You know, like give me the thing that is just like stretches your imagination. So that's always been useful. I'm gonna add to that now. Like, and give me the funny version. So like give me the 50% off. But do it in the true classic style where the guy's like crying because his wife doesn't understand why he needs so many shirts or whatever. Like at least stretch yourself and make that. And maybe it sucks and you don't use it, but I think like on your creative team already there's probably a lot of funny people and they can at least you can start doing like funny statics or funny headlines and kind of get into that. Maybe like a full on comedy sketch is not quite in your cards yet, but start doing that.
- [07:47]
B
That's cool. We just had at the agency, we just had a client ask for a sort of horror themed trailer that started within a world. And we created, just with, you know, with AI and with our, with the in house, just created this like simple narrative, like in a world without, you know, contact lens solution or whatever.
- [08:03]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [08:04]
B
And, and it's amazing. And it's what, what it has me thinking too is people are always thinking about ways that they can turn these direct response channels into higher funnel channels or more awareness to actually generate awareness in a way that also converts. And I feel like humor has got to be one of the best ways to do that. It's almost like if you're like if you're with a brand and it's made you laugh, you like instantly have a better brand awareness, brand affinity potentially for that because of that.
- [08:29]
A
Yeah, exactly. I'm always like, I use true classic too much as an example. But you know, I was on one of their ads because I'm always looking at their ads for inspiration. I see like my barber commenting, like that's how big that brand is and that's how far those jokes take them that even someone in my network thinks like, I love this ad. It's like you don't see that for a lot of, a lot of brands. So totally right. That it increases the memorability and like also if you can connect it to like the brand promise in a clever way without just like being a clown, what's not to like? And just like packages up your message in a much more memorable way.
- [09:04]
B
What would you say is another trend that stuck out to you in these top seven?
- [09:08]
A
We did do a lot on, like, lo fi content. So as a marketing leader, I feel pressure to get more high production stuff done. Like, it just feels like despite, you know, a lot of the ads working because they're lo fi feels like it's always on my task list to get some. Some high production stuff out there and like, build the brand. But, you know, in our analysis, we were looking at lo fi and really couldn't pick that it was high production or lo fi to get like a plus million dollar spending ad. So, like, you can go either or. But I think, like, what the trend report really unpacks is really that the best sort of lo fi is a little bit. It sort of fluctuates. Like, it's more of a masterful version of lo fi. Like, the lighting's good. There's, like, these clever details. It sort of balances polish in critical moments such as Ridge Wallets is a good one. Like, often start with a lo fi hook, but when you show the wallet, it looks good, you know, it's like spinning in the hand. Nice. They've obviously, like, put work into that. So I think, like, if you can arm your team with a little bit more of those branded polish moments, that that, that sort of goes a long way. And so I think on the one hand, don't stress about high production. Like, you can get a big winner just with lo fi, but also with lo fi, don't go like, full just sort of nasty stuff. Like, you know, just like, there's a place for that. But I think, like, what we also heard from talking to the. For getting the survey of 500 advertisers is that like, that sort of was also played out where it's just like, really, really grungy stuff maybe is like a little bit too lo fi. Like, put some work into it and control a few of the variables. And I think, like, you know, Savannah Sanchez is someone I really respect. She's always talking about the lighting. It's like, you got to make the lighting good. Savannah is always talking about the casting. Like, put me in an ad who, like, I'm okay, but, you know, like, you put someone super engaging, super, like, excited about the product. That is going to be a huge variable between one ad and another. And to do that, I was looking at some ads, you know, in prep for this interview, and you could really see, like, there'd be like, you know, a UGC ad with like 1000-002003-00000 spend or whatever. Very well, sort of sold. The person's like doing a lot in one take. Very convincing. Like there's something you like about the person delivering it. Then you go down and you look at like other ads that aren't performing so well and like it's sort of like a cut every two seconds because they like can't deliver a line without like stumbling over the script and so on. So you're like basically same thing but the casting. So I'm going to make more funny ads this year and I'm also going to spend more time worrying about casting, like vetting people, you know, like snl, that's like half the game, like getting the right people in the seats. And I think advertisers, we often just kind of go with what's available or like it's hard to get a customer review at all. So you take what's available but I think like putting a little bit more work. And we heard that reflected in the qualitative section of the survey where we're asking people what they're going to do. And people talked about a lot about high energy UGC creators and getting more of those and investing. Lessen the sort of like amateur sort of sort of ones.
- [12:19]
B
Quality over quantity. And when you do this like let's talk just a little bit about. Because everyone's looking for winners, everyone's looking for ads that like it's funny. The at D2C, we've had one AD, I'm kind of ashamed to say it. We've been able to undethrone it, unable to dethrone it for almost two years now. And it's basically this one ad. It's a text wall. It's just, it drives subscriptions on Meta for us at a great rate. But it's like we don't know how to get to that like next level with it. So I know you kind of thought a little bit about this in terms of like anatomy of a six figure ad. Anatomy of a seven figure ad. I think we probably talked about this a lot already. But what, what goes into making an ad that's gonna get you to a six figure spend.
- [13:00]
A
Yeah, I think, you know, one of the things I love about Motion's product is like this is what we trying to help you do at all the time which is like maximize your chances of success for these, for these winners. And from this analysis, kind of digging in some of the traits that emerged from, from the 100k winner, for example, to get to 100k winner lo fi high five. Probably doesn't matter. Like choose. Choose whichever one you want. We heard some people say like, you know, like luxury. Like we tried lo fi didn't work. Like it might depend on your product category. So like something a little bit more that requires a little more branding, maybe then you'll have more chances of getting a winner. But probably you can just like choose lo fi hi fi. Definitely you should do an offer, work on your offer or think of like some type of product line or something like that. We saw that in like a lot of ads where there's some type of newness to the ad. So like a discount, a promotion or a product line. But you know, it's kind of like it's the offer stupid. Like you gotta, you gotta focus on the offer and be funny. Like if you can get those three things. So don't worry about the lo fi hi fi, be a little bit funny and really work on the offer. That'll probably get you to like the 100k. That's like the best chance of hitting success. I think like at the million one we saw a little bit more emphasis on the high production. Maybe because they're bigger brands, they have more money and maybe just naturally you have more bigger budget production. But basically the same variable sort of came in. And again, what surprised me was that one of the traits we were looking for was high concept. Because as advertisers, you know, we all want that big idea. We all want to be Don Draper, sort of like searching for the headline, the magic. You know, you just don't want to just like put like 50% off Memorial Day and call it.
- [14:50]
B
You want to make them think of their wasted childhood or their want to.
- [14:53]
A
Make them wistful, sell the pain, sell the emotion. But we did not really see high concept. And I thought, I thought like, this is a variable track and for sure I'm going to get a nice chart that says you need bigger ideas to like get more winners. But that wasn't true, unfortunately for me. But good news for us is it's like less work.
- [15:11]
B
So yeah, it is. I keep thinking about, I keep thinking about top of funnel and I keep thinking about like Dan the Harmon Bros. You know, back in the early days of D2C and how much work they would put into these really high end narrative driven creatives and what a big deal they were for those brands in those early days. But we're just not seeing, I'm sure there's going to be exceptions to the rule. If you can create a Great ad that, that, you know, it could get a lot of, a lot of spend a lot of eyeballs. But. But yeah, you're just not seeing it borne out in the day in, day out grind of creative creation.
- [15:39]
A
Yeah. And you can take that off your stress list of like, I got to do more higher production, I got to get big ideas. It's like, no, you should, you should work on your offer. You should work on like a few variables like good lighting, good creator, good, good presentation. And you know, if you can be funny and feel like those are good things to do.
- [15:57]
B
So could you just like walk me through a little bit just of what finding your first hundred k ad or whatever ad that can support 100k and spend or whatever tens of thousands a day kind of thing. Like what is the product like in terms of iteration, in terms of like then taking, breaking that ad apart and changing out the hook. And do like talk to me about how motion helps advertisers break down the science of finding winners.
- [16:20]
A
You know, first there's sort of like the art and the science of advertising. And the reason why motion has become so popular among e commerce advertisers is that typically the insights and the strategy and the ad account sort of reality is locked in the head of the media buyers and the more data growth people. But then that team needs to work with the creative team to get things out the door. And motion sort of is like the bridge there. And then you can also have a creative strategist who's like driving inside of motion. And motion's like their home base and they're using it every day. So in terms of how we help is that, you know, the best brands that are using us have really figured out this like system that works. And I think if you don't have this system, what you have is sort of like creative teams kind of like throwing a bunch of stuff like you said against the wall. And maybe people not really working in a methodical way to serve the needs of like what you really need in your ad strategy. Like, you know, maybe you're doing a bunch of ugc, but if you did a bunch of testing and figured out things out a little bit deeper, maybe that's actually not what you need. Like maybe there's like trust issues and maybe you need like more trusted content or something. Or maybe you don't even have a creative. Maybe your media buyers aren't really like big on creative testing and you're just like delivering way too much ads and like way too many ideas and you just Don't. You're not kind of moving through in a way. So we like to think that when you use us, you're sort of like having more of a structured way of like, prioritizing iterations, little things you can do, like ads that you can kind of fill the volume. And then we hope that you're also discovering, like, some potential bigger swings or things you could do again and things that maybe didn't work this time, but you feel really strongly about and you're bringing that intuition into it. So you're like, well, let me, let me try it again. Let me try it like with a different, a different style or maybe fix something. So I think. Yeah, I don't know if that answers your question.
- [18:22]
B
I think it does. It's really the art and the science, right, where you're taking these swings. And then you're also using the fact that you've got all your info and data in one place. So you can start to kind of forge. You can take these big swings, but you can also, like, forge things together. You'd be like, okay, that hook work, that headline worked, this, this worked here. And you start realize all the winning aspects of your, of the ones that do well, and you can kind of blend them together in ways that, that give synergy.
- [18:45]
A
Yeah. And I'm more on the creative side, so, you know, I can't speak to media buying strategies that much, but I can say, like, my team, the creatives, not only putting their faces in ads, but, like, creating ads and then seeing, like, who they reach. Like, who are you reaching with this ad? It's one thing to talk about, like, getting a good hook score and like getting an ad that stops people. Way harder to actually do it. Like, it's like, you know, it's really hard to get like a 70% or an 80% hook score. And you really gotta put thought into it and you probably won't do it your first crack. So I've found, like, enormous value of my creatives being in the data, seeing how their ads performed, and then hopefully, like, adjusting their perspective. But also from my own side, like, whenever I'm doing a launch, I just know there's a bunch of obvious ads, Jess Bachmann calls them that. Like, you need to create too. And those are probably going to be like, my benchmark. So, you know, we're launching this report. I can guarantee you the static ad would just, like, download the report and some basic information is going to do much better than, like, any creative concept I can do. But you still got to Try the creative concepts.
- [19:53]
B
So yeah, this might be obvious, but what are for, for you know, an apparel brand, for instance, what are the obvious ads that would, that you'd consider as like each part of a portfolio?
- [20:02]
A
I think statics, you know, in this, in the analysis we were talking about before, like static or video path to 100k million spender for both of those. So like definitely putting work into the statics is like very obvious. Exceptional product imagery. You know, the best brands that you look at. Like it just looks really good. And maybe one of the like esthetic trends that we talk about in the report is like maybe a little bit more esthetic than, than, than previous months or like, like arranging things nicer and having a little bit more art to it, you know, like hand drawn or like handcrafted. So I think it's like that again, that lo Fi polish sort of like works very well. So it's like a simple idea, well executed I think is like what I almost always see when I'm, when I'm reviewing like the, the best of the best. It's like it seems simple at the start, but you're like, I can guarantee you it's harder than it looks to like create something that, that's seamless.
- [20:59]
B
Yeah. And yeah, it's funny, I talk with Aves on our creative team all the time. She's always talking about keeping it weird, not being afraid to take big swings. It's like you want to be, you want to create the new style that everyone copies. You know, you'll get so much of a benefit rather than if you're trying to jump on trends or things that have other people done, you're always going to get diminishing returns to some extent. But if you can be the creative force that's putting kind of new things out there, it pays to take those swings.
- [21:23]
A
Yeah, that's one. In one of our trends, the authenticity Renaissance, I believe it's called, which is like obviously I think you've probably noticed this like in the last three months. Being a skeptic about AI is now the minority. In our survey of 500 advertisers, only 12%, I believe were skeptical of AI and thinking it's going to under deliver. Well over 80% were optimistic and planning to do more in AI. So that's cool. But in terms of what you were just saying, we also saw, I think it's 70% of people are planning to actually do more UGC ads in, in 2025, which seems a little strange because in 2024 we're told like, well man, UGC creators are cooked. You can just like create AI avatars and like, you know, why have someone holding the product when you can just like generate in two seconds? But I think it's exactly what you talk about, like high contrast is really the source of true originality where you're like doing the opposite of what everyone else is going to do. And so it's like you're going to see a bunch of AI creators and so on. If you can get a 20% advantage over them with something slightly better and that just feels more natural, more messy, more human, that's a big win. So I think advertisers are seeing that shift and it'll be interesting to see. I think they'll adopt AI more in the back end processes, more in the insight gathering, more in the research. But we might see people sort of buck the trend of I can just generate this image in two seconds.
- [22:57]
B
But they all. But like people are like, it's funny, there's so many AI tools just in Photoshop and I believe Canva even now as well. Right. So people are pretty bullish on it as an like as using it in the ad. You just want to make sure you don't dominate it. You don't want that uncanny valley as they say. Right. And I feel like must be people walking the line right now with how they use AI.
- [23:16]
A
Yeah. Mirella Crespi, who's one of the experts we interviewed in the report from Creative Milkshake, she had a great sort of point about the name of the game of social advertising is to you just need to absorb the content that people are consuming naturally and you want to kind of fit in there. You want to do what the natural feed is doing. And that's one of my worries about the generative AI. I think other forms of AI are super powerful. But I doubt Eric, you're really jazzed when your friend shares a mid journey image. Or I doubt you're seeking out AI videos. You know, like check out this cool AI and advertisers are for sure we're doing that on our feed. But you know, it might be a little bit of a warning sign to advertisers if you're pursuing that. But like your customer is like watching like their favorite person or something like that. Like so we need to make sure that we're following the consumer trends versus the advertising trends.
- [24:14]
B
One of the other points you alluded to earlier was having the right person at the console. And so sometimes it's an ad buyer who'll be using your tool. Sometimes it'll be the creative. But the other position that you're seeing more and more of the successful brands hire, what was that the Creative Strategist is for?
- [24:30]
A
For sure, you know, table stakes. That is like the bridge between the media buying and creative team and sort of owner of the creative production. We have one at Motion internally and just like so useful to have someone who's sort of quarterbacking what growth needs. Like your job is to keep growth happy. Like they need to feel like they're getting the assets they need. But you also need to work with my team and make sure that our ideas are just not getting $200 to spend and just like ending the story there. We want to be taking risks, like you said, pushing the creative brand forward. And then the creative strategist is also managing an influx volume of content from other places, like sourcing it from creators, working with me to get more high polished stuff so that we can have that branded mix and just getting a mix of stuff and Central. But in trend 7 in the report, we actually talked to a really smart guy, Gil, who runs sort of like an internal agency at Meta and he's got insight into what the best of the best of the best teams do. And that Trend seven takes it a step further in terms of you have the creative Strategist, but he also breaks down some really interesting ways that you can even advance that more. One of them being platform directors where you have someone in the role whose sole job is to understand the cultural vocabulary of the platforms to bring those organic ideas into ads. And I think we're all trying to do that part time. But I mean, how amazing would it be to have someone who's just blasting that all the time into your creative team and then you're ahead of the game instead of behind it. I think that particular trend will interest people who are really trying to build that super high functioning performance creative team.
- [26:17]
B
Super cool. What about sticky notes and message Apple notes? Do these still have a place in people's funnels? Are they still working or are they on the graveyard of scrappy techniques?
- [26:29]
A
I like them. Some of the best ads I did last year, simple post it note. I think they're a great copywriting exercise. Like you gotta simplify. But you know, in prep for this interview, I actually pored through over 450 qualitative responses in our survey from like DC advertisers to see what they were sort of tired of. You know, like what's in, what's out, get ready with Me in particular, you know, get ready with me. Here's my routine hated by advertisers, you know, like mentioned like again and again and again. I even then split the data by like the highest spending, like a million per month advertisers even more. So I think on the one hand like you see different brands like the maybe serve an older demographic still like use that style and maybe that you should like base it on your audience. But I also think maybe like the best brands are thinking about like what is the customer doing now? And maybe it's like less of that sort of influencer style content. Other ones that sort of were on the chopping block are exactly what you said, which is like super, super lo fi, like without any polish. So like a post it note ad versus you know, like maybe like a nicely illustrated hand drawn like journal or something like that where it's got a little more care and attention to it. But the sort of super like grungy, grungy stuff, sort of like they picked up on that and said they weren't gonna do so much of that.
- [27:54]
B
One of the trends, I just did a podcast yesterday with someone who had a video go viral organically essentially where they're, they're doing an old bar trick they used to do and they have all doing this multi pour where they stack a bunch of glasses and pour it and they basically use this thing that I see on TikTok all the time, which is foreshadowing. So basically if you've got something in your ad that has a payoff or something cool visually like or a wipeout or something.
- [28:18]
A
Yeah.
- [28:18]
B
Splice that into the beginning in that first three seconds because then people will be sort of like hooked to find out like how that happened. So I don't know how that'll work for every advertiser, but in this case it created this viral video because it just shows her doing this big pour and then it shows her explaining why she's doing it and how she's doing it. But like did you, did you see anyone else doing that subtle foreshadowing angle?
- [28:37]
A
No. That's a great tip. Yeah, I like it. I can see how it could work for many different things. One of our visions for the report was not to be predictive and not like, you know, wax politic poetic about what's going to happen in the next 12 months. Instead we want it to be more like a taste making aesthetic cultural vocab. Like you know, spend it, spend 10 minutes with this report, keep it on your desktop and like hopefully, like increase your creative vocabulary. And one of the things that stuck out for me is just like a backlash against like the hyper edited style, which, which I do appreciate because, you know, I think like this time last year, maybe more in marketing land, but you know, videos were just like crazy with like every time you say money, like cash falls down or like transitions and like, you know, sound effects for everything. And I think like, there's been a backlash against that and I think that's pretty cool because I think like the video editors were kind of taking over for a while and it's like not really about like the message and the point. And I think, I like that there's this return to maybe something more, more orientated to like what the. The whole message and story that you're trying to communicate versus like all the whiz bang stuff.
- [29:48]
B
Return to classic storytelling. I think it's really good news for like, the barriers to this business have always been relatively low. Maybe they're going up year over year a little bit. But to hear that after analyzing all these creatives that it's still, you know, do it yourself. It's people who are taking care, taking care to do it well. But it's still very much DIY content.
- [30:09]
A
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
- [30:11]
B
Very cool. Nice. Any other insights for the DTC audience about what kind of creatives they should be making in 2025?
- [30:16]
A
Yeah, one little minor tip that I liked was, so there's AI voice voiceovers, which most people are pretty fine with. I think those are good. But I liked someone in one of the responses said, you know, they've been finding good success with getting a customer to record just the voiceover so you don't have to like capture them on camera. And I really like that because I feel like that kind of fits into the authenticity thing. And like, maybe you're not great on camera, but probably like you're going to talk about the product super passionately and like an easy lift. So I would like to try that myself. Like, we're just like, hey, do you mind just like recording for a minute, say stuff and then like put your other footage on top of that. And even actually I was talking to someone today. They were saying like they would sort of take like lower performing creators and then like swap out the voiceover so you can do like the person who maybe delivered like a better lighted shot of the delivery coming, but maybe they sucked at the voiceover so you then like take their shot and like mix it in with a more authentic voiceover. So that was a Good. Like, little tactical tip.
- [31:19]
B
I'll send you some of the clips of people waxing poetic about motion on the podcast. So where can people get this report when they want to download it? Right after this?
- [31:29]
A
Yeah, we hopefully give them a link. But also motionapp.com creative trends, and we'll probably have it on our homepage as well.
- [31:38]
B
But yeah, nice. I'll throw a link in the show. Notes. I'll show. I'll throw a link to your LinkedIn. Is that where you recommend people kind of get in touch with you if they're interested?
- [31:45]
A
Yeah, man. And if anyone wants a VIP tour of motion, tell them James Mulvey sent you and maybe they'll give you a special deal.
- [31:54]
B
Nice white glove.
- [31:55]
A
I'll tell them about this. Yeah. But, yeah, they're hearing about it.
- [32:00]
B
Nice, man. Well, you're just over on the mainland in B.C. there. I'm on the island. So we've got west coast connection down.
- [32:06]
A
Yeah, I lived in Victoria for many years and love that place, so got to come to a D2C event and meet you guys.
- [32:14]
B
Very cool. Well, I'm headed off to Whistler at the end of next week for Ecom north retreat that I'm extremely excited about.
- [32:20]
A
Awesome, man.
- [32:21]
B
That'll be a lot of my first time at Whistler. It's gonna be super.
- [32:23]
A
Oh, first time. Oh, that's amazing. Best place.
- [32:26]
B
Cool. Well, great connecting and everyone out there, go download the report. There's tons of great insights in there for you. Lots of usable stuff. Hope you enjoyed this podcast. Thanks again, James.
- [32:34]
A
Appreciate it, man. Always a pleasure, Eric.
- [32:43]
B
Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you're not a subscriber to our newsletter, you can do that right now AT direct to consumeralloneword.co. i'm Eric Dick and this has been the D to C podcast. We'll see you next time.