EVENT AGENDA
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EVENT AGENDA 〰️
Growth talks, panels and workshops covering ONLY the most important retail topics of 2022.
Hundreds of DTC founders + growth marketers are working to solve the exact same problems as you, every single day. The friendliest, smartest, most approachable and most fun people in online retail meet at GROW NY.
Our speakers and discussion hosts have been there, done that. They are here to share their experiences in creating multimillion-dollar online brands, explaining exactly how they got there.
From revenue scaling and tech stack building to hiring and capital raising, we’ll cover a lot in two days. And we know how valuable your time is - that’s why we only hand pick retail leaders and tech providers with inspiring stories and important, practical lessons.
Skip the large, impersonal trade shows and hotel conferences this year and join GROW for an unforgettable two days of conversation + human connection.
Tuesday July 19, 2022 | Knockdown Center 52-19 Flushing Ave | New York
[7:15am onwards] FREE Lyft rides courtesy of Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash
[7:30am - 8:50am] Registration presented by Rebuy + Breakfast presented by ShipBob
MAIN STAGE
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MAIN STAGE 〰️
Hear from the biggest-name brand founders and tech platforms on how they are maximizing online revenue. FREE to attend for retail brands, IN-PERSON. All times in ET.
[8:50am - 9:10am] INTERVIEW: Understand how to grow and when to diversify your brand
Rich Fulop, Co-founder & CEO, Brooklinen interviewed by Nora Ali, Co-Host, Business Casual by Morning Brew
As the eCommerce landscape continues to shift, diversifying your brand, especially into channels such as retail stores, is more important than ever. In this insightful and open interview, the Co-founder & CEO of bedding behemoth Brooklinen outlines how the company continues to grow in innovative ways. Rich answers two key questions - why is it important to increase brick-and-mortar presence, as well as expand internationally? Rich also explains the methodology behind launching new collections, as well as a Brooklinen’s new sub-brand – Marlow.
[9:10am - 9:30am] CASE STUDY: Increase your customer lifetime value through seamless subscription commerce
Stephen Tracy, Founder, Keap Candles interviewed by Leya Leydiker, Director of Technology Partnerships, Recharge
Subscription commerce is growing 70% year over year and consumers want to find new brands with a focus on quality and ethical business practices. In this session, you'll learn about how Keap Candles uses Recharge subscriptions to increase customer lifetime value and build a loyal community of subscribers.
[9:30am - 10:00am] Scaling Your Brand PANEL: The most important lessons learned in scaling spend and expanding channels
Beckley Mason, VP, Brand, Athletic Greens + Mike Klepfer, CEO, Bloomscape + Mubarak Malik, Founder & CEO, Barcode interviewed by Nik Sharma, CEO, Sharma Brands
Here is the silver bullet for attribution modeling… just kidding! Attribution is more difficult today than ever before, with a plethora of (many experimental) channels demanding your dollars. So how are the very best brands measuring performance across each channel? How do they decide where to spend money in the first place, and scale that spend as they see results? Join our all-star panel of experts as they describe their most important takeaways from the past year of building sophisticated multi-touch attribution models in response to iOS15 and other major market shifts.
[10:00am - 10:20am] FIRESIDE: How Diane von Furstenberg is changing the way luxury brands view loyalty
Sarah Townsend, Digital Experience Manager, DVF + Jordan Gutman, Loyalty & Referrals, Yotpo
Luxury brands have long shied away from loyalty programs, believing that bringing in customers with discounts would dilute the brand and hurt retention. As Diane von Furstenberg has made the transition from brick-and-mortar to eCommerce, they have bucked this trend by launching their own loyalty program: DVF Insider. In this session, Sarah Townsend, Digital Experience Manager at DVF, shares how the brand is using their loyalty program to collect first-party data, stand out from their competitors, and attract the next generation of customers to a legacy brand.
[10:20am - 10:45am] TikTok PANEL: Create a large community and build brand awareness fast
Kat Lian, Influencer Growth Marketing Manager, Pair Eyewear + Grant Goldman, Head of Growth, Pair Eyewear + Mallory Goldberg, Sr. Director, Marketing, Glow Recipe + Yasmeen Gharnit, Head of Content, Glow Recipe interviewed by Dylan Kim, Co-founder & Head of Marketing, Brevitē
TikTok is reimagining entertainment and shopping, with incredible, once-in-a-generation shifts in discovery, community and culture. With the right strategy, your brand can reach a whole new audience and drive growth that may have once seemed impossible. Pair Eyewear, GLOW Recipe and Brevite fully leaned into the platform very early, seeing huge success through consistent content posting and pre-emptively tapping into trends that actually lead to sales. Here they share everything they learned along the way, and explain how your brand can take advantage of this huge marketing opportunity.
[10:45am - 11:05am] A Shopify FIRESIDE: Digital, data and channel evolution in a constantly changing landscape
Brendan Hastings, SVP, Engineering & Digital Product, Thinx + Jamie Levy, Head of Engagement, Shopify
Thinx has seen exponential growth over the last few years - and have had to move fast to stay ahead. Join us for a fireside conversation about managing, prioritizing and iterating on a multi-channel strategy in a rapidly evolving industry.
[11:05am - 11:30am] Supply Chain PANEL: How to overcome current logistics challenges and prepare for what’s next
Andrew Heath, Co-founder, Bombas + Adam Tishman, Co-President, Helix-Brooklyn (Founder, Helix) + Greg Hayes, Co-founder & CEO, Branch Furniture interviewed by Aaron Alpeter, VP, Supply Chain, MIRROR
75% of retailers report ongoing supply chain disruption, and things will probably get worse before they get better. Our panelists’ approaches to last mile delivery has markedly improved their logistics and helped their companies gain a technological edge over their competition - even Amazon. With more bottlenecks expected in 2022/23, this session outlines the importance of fast-tracked operational creativity and a considered approach to exploring the latest options available for alternative delivery transportation.
[11:30am - 11:50am] FIRESIDE: Meet modern shopper expectations for performance, design and brand differentiation - every time
Nick Raushenbush, Co-founder, Shogun + Ilan Levine, Head of Technology & Digital Product, Tula
Expectations for strong digital experiences in eCommerce are constantly changing and meeting those will be crucial to the growth of your online business in 2022 and beyond. In this panel, leaders from Shogun, Daring and Tula discuss how expectations for performance, design and brand differentiation are changing the way they do business online. Join in as these digitally native brands share the solutions they’ve used to exceed their customer’s expectations along with the results they’ve seen so far.
[11:50am - 12:10pm] Contextual Commerce: Building true customer loyalty with Loeffler Randall
Brian Murphy, Co-Founder & CEO, Loeffler Randall + Emma Wooley, Press & Marketing Manager, Loeffler Randall interviewed by Rich Garner, VP, Worldwide Strategic Partners, Klaviyo
As a DTC brand, personalized meaningful experiences are important in creating long lasting customer relationships. Co-founder/CEO Brian Murphy and Press & Marketing Manager Emma Wooley, discuss how Loeffler Randall uses Klaviyo to inspire their community while driving high engagement and revenue through their omnichannel marketing strategy.
[12:10pm - 12:40pm] URL to IRL PANEL: The best ways to communicate your value prop in a multi-brand environment
Suzanne Sinatra, Founder, Private Packs + Eva Goicochea, Founder & CEO, maude + Mili Dutt Reddy, VP, Brand Marketing, Skincare & Fragrance, Sephora + Krystal Walker, Director, Beauty Experience & Business Development, CVS + Abby Redick, VP, Ommnichannel, Olipop
As a digitally native brand, how important is your retail (store) strategy? What do you currently provide online vs. offline and how will that change? Join the founders of maude and Private Packs as they take a deep-dive into the importance of building an omni channel brand from the beginning, and how they successfully used that approach to get into Sephora and CVS stores. Our big box panelists also outline how they initially identify key partners and give advice on the best ways to communicate your value prop in a multi-brand environment - so that once your brand is on the shelf, it stays on the shelf.
[12:40pm - 1:00pm] Performance TV: Acquiring customers and maximizing revenue with CTV/OTT
Sophie Duncan, Sr. Director, Performance, ByHeart interviewed by TJ Sullivan, SVP, Sales, Digital Remedy
The consumer journey is constantly evolving and traditional performance channels, such as search and social, provide diminishing returns. Marketers need media that delivers performance and CTV can be a powerful channel to drive measurable outcomes. Discover how, with performance CTV, you can unlock premium inventory to engage consumers, gain insights to optimize your overall media plan, measure incremental lift to understand what’s working, and target your spend to achieve real business outcomes such as store visits, actions, online purchases, and revenue. Find out how a media plan that includes performance CTV will lower your CPA and deliver higher ROAS.
[1:00pm - 2:00pm] LUNCH N’ LEARN | Small Group Tables
Ten tables, Ten discussions. Eat lunch with these masters of strategy to discuss the challenges that keep them up at night, as well as the technology that helps them solve key problems across their business.
Stephanie Hon, Founder, Cadence
Product 101 | from design & development to sourcing, manufacturing and packaging
Andrew Neelon, VP, Finance & Growth, Interior Define
Purpose of expanding brick and mortar locations as a DTC brand | At this roundtable discussion, you will hear from Interior Define’s VP of Growth, Andrew Neelon, on how stores will always be a critical part of the customer journey, the value of priming the market with pop-ups, and how to utilize new stores to capture data and identify what customers are looking for from a brand from the lens of Interior Define’s real estate strategies and tactics.
Dee Charlemagne, Co-Founder, AVEC
Is it time to go retail? | As DTC becomes more less attractive, brands are moving from the internet to retail/wholesale channels. Is this the right move? What is working and what is not?
Luis Freitas, Sr. Director, Strategy & Transformation, Moët Hennessy
Monitoring consumer behaviors | flexibility on your business model
Jessica Anselmi, VP, Marketing, The Sill
Innovating the customer experience | Offering a quality product is expected; the best brands differentiate based on experience. Marketers are now pursuing career paths in CX, making the shift from functional leads to business leads. Join us in discussing what it means to be a customer-centric brand today and how customer experience the next wave of C-Suite leadership.
Heather Johnson + Clark Hjelmstad, Directors, Business Development, Marketing Architects
Reimagining tv advertising for DTC brands | Digital marketing has been marketing's fastest-growing line item for years. But a shift is taking place. Traditional advertising spending is on the rise for the first time in years--particularly for DTC brands. Digital marketing's rising prices, privacy changes, and ad fraud are pushing marketers back to traditional marketing channels like TV. But TV is traditionally expensive, time-consuming, and complex, making it especially challenging for DTC brands who need an immediate, measurable return from their marketing. Join this roundtable to discuss how to turn overcome these obstacles and turn TV into a growth driver for your business.
Chris Gesuladi, Head of Product + Greg Scavuzzo, VP, Product, Tagger
Market smarter, not harder | How two influencer marketers built tech they wish they previously had: discovering influencers, campaign planning, workflow efficiency & measuring success
What you're going to walk way with: Research & campaign planning - hone in on the differentiators that’ll help you win the pitch. Workflow efficiencies - how to leverage tech to save time & resources. Measurement - which KPIs you should track in order to measure success
Stephen Cohen, Senior Consultant, Dotdigital
How to use marketing automation to grow your brand
Jabari Washington, Managing VP, Commercial Sales, MNTN + Madeline Curto, Senior Manager, Brand Partnerships, QuickFrame by MNTN + Jesse Miller, VP, Growth at Goodlife Clothing
Growing your brand with video in the era of ad fatigue | Even Cannes winning creative will inevitably suffer from ad fatigue, but if you can spot the moment fatigue sets in, you have the chance to stay agile so your next campaign won't bloom and wilt in record time. Join Jesse Miller, VP of Growth at Goodlife Clothing, MNTN’s Jabari Washington, Managing VP, Commercial Sales, and QuickFrame by MNTN’s Madeline Curto, Senior Manager, Brand Partnerships for a roundtable where they’ll discuss the life cycle of an ad creative–from social media to Connected TV–to give you clues on how you can strategize your next growth marketing campaign to beat back ad fatigue. They’ll also explore how social and CTV video assets working in tandem have the potential for an explosion of growth that your competition won’t see coming.
Conor Doyle, Managing Director, Veritone One + Hilary Ross, VP, Audio & Video Influencer, Veritone One + Lauren McConnell, Head of Influencer Marketing, Hello Fresh!
Audio & video influencer scale through automation | Audio and video influencer marketing are fast growing ROI generating media, but because of a variety of challenges from discovery to verification three quarters of brands are working with fewer than 50 influencers, leaving dollars on the table. This is precisely why we created the Navigate app – to help advertisers through AI and automation discover and partner with the best fit and best performing influencers across audio and video. This industry defining app aggregates billions of data points across more than 30,000 creators while leveraging AI to unlock audio and influencer metadata and campaign insights to realize better ROI.
[1:10pm - 2:30pm] LUNCH + DJ Session ft. Jamie Rosenberg | Food trucks presented by The Vertical Collective
FOUNDERS STAGE
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FOUNDERS STAGE 〰️
Join the C-level trailblazers on our afternoon “FOUNDERS” stage as they open their playbooks to share critical, tried-and-tested customer acquisition secrets at a strategic and operational level.
[2:30pm - 2:55pm] IMPACT PANEL: Understand and proactively respond to the behaviors of socially-conscious consumers
Ryan Babenzien, Founder, Jolie Skin Co. + Andy Chiu, General Manager, Krave Beauty, interviewed by Ronny Sage, CEO, ShoppingGives
Social impact is driving shifts in consumer behavior, which means that brands are having to re-evaluate their marketing strategies to find opportunities for value-alignment with their customers. In the era of purpose-driven commerce, positioning yourself against the competition with lower prices is no longer enough to stand out— today’s socially conscious consumers are demanding that brands do more to positively impact society. This panel will dive into the patterns and trends of socially conscious consumers, and how brands can leverage social impact to better engage consumers and keep up with purpose-driven commerce.
[2:55pm - 3:15pm] Black Friday Playbook: How Fabletics Used TV Ads to Drive Sales and Lower CAC
Juhi Pikale, VP, Performance Marketing, Fabletics + Sam Joachim, Director, Client Services, Tatari
Fabletics is the largest digitally-native activewear brand in the world. In this session, Juhi Pikale, VP of Performance Marketing at Fabletics, gives you an inside look at how they leveraged TV ads to drive full-funnel success on Black Friday/Cyber Monday. You’ll see a breakdown of their pilot campaign, creative executions, and how they have applied their learnings to scale in 2022.
[3:15pm - 3:40pm] DTC FUNDING PANEL: How to approach debt. vs equity funding in an emerging retail company
Lydia Gilbert, Co-founder, Dia & Co + Maya French, Co-founder, Koia/Joydays interviewed by Leslie Ghize, EVP, Doneger TOBE
Most DTC brands use a combination of debt and equity financing, but there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to both. So what’s the best way to fund, based on the experiences of founders who have already been there, and learned lessons the hard way? Plus size clothing brand Dia&Co raised $40m in Series C in 2018, while snack brand JoyDays, Maya's second venture, is currently tackling fundraising head-on in today's market. Nadia and Maya explain how the capital supports product innovation and expansion. And you’ll learn the right ways - and wrong ways - to go about raising capital, to ensure your financial structure is set up for long term success.
[3:40pm - 4:00pm] CASE STUDY: How PuppySpot Turbocharged Conversion with One-Click Checkout
David Horowitz, Chief Information Officer, Puppyspot + Hilary Neve, VP, Communications, Bolt
Conversion is a massive issue for online retailers–representing $1T in loss sales annually in the U.S. alone–and capturing every last dollar is becoming even more essential as market headwinds emerge. Shoppers expect the convenience and seamless checkout experiences they are accustomed to from centralized players such as Amazon, so online merchants have to bet big on targeted opportunities to improve their existing eCommerce infrastructure. In this session, learn how PuppySpot gave up their unreliable, repeatedly broken, and fraud-laden solution in favor of Bolt, a reliable, modern, tech-agnostic offering. Now is the time to tackle conversion head on: saving time and seeing sales soar along the way.
[4:00pm - 4:25pm] CASE STUDY: Custom-fit communications with Sene
Ray Li + Mark Zheng, Co-founders, Sene interviewed by Joe McCarthy, Director, Brand Activations & Influencer Marketing, Klaviyo
Hear how Sene leverages their first party data to create hyper-personalized messages for their customers that drive revenue. Co-founders Ray Li and Mark Zheng share the audience insights behind this size-less clothing brand rooted in AI.
[4:25pm - 4:45pm] INTERVIEW: Disrupting disruption with email
Howie Zisser, Head of Marketing, PublicRec + Adam Boardman, SVP, Sales, LiveIntent
D2C brands have disrupted retail markets by diversifying the traditional customer experience. But with today's volatile market, D2C businesses now also face disruption. Cookie deprecation, rising inflation costs, marketing channel saturation, and traditional brands adopting D2C models are just a few of the obstacles D2C businesses must contend with these days. To overcome, D2C brands must continue disrupting and diversifying — email can help.
Join us to learn how savvy D2C brands are leveraging email to:
Achieve precision targeting and attribution pre and post cookiepocalypse
Improve their customer acquisition efforts in today's competitive and saturated market
Build brand awareness while driving customer engagement and acquisition
[4:45pm - 5:05pm] FIRESIDE: How to consciously build both a sustainable business and a sustainable company culture
Caroline Danehy + Jake Danehy, Co-founders, Fair Harbor + Hitha Herzog, Associate Professor, Parsons School of Design
Siblings Caroline and Jake Danehy founded their sustainable apparel brand, Fair Harbor, in 2014 as an homage to their childhood beach community on Fire Island. Since then, the label has transformed more than 27 million recycled plastic water bottles into comfortable, well-made, and durable clothing and evolved into one of the fastest-growing sustainable beachwear companies in the United States. In 2021, the Danehys earned the prestigious EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Reuters Responsible Business Award. Recently, Fair Harbor gained Certified B Corporation status. Fair Harbor is sold online, in Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and more than 250 specialty retailers around the country.
[5:05pm - 6:05pm] HAPPY HOUR | Open Bar & Cocktails
GROWTH STAGE
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GROWTH STAGE 〰️
Growth marketers take a deep-dive into areas of their business that saw the greatest changes over the past year, and explain how you can tackle similar challenges head on during our afternoon “GROWTH” sessions.
[2:30pm - 2:55pm] DEEP DIVE PANEL: How to Unlock Value & Growth With Subscriptions
Shane Pittson, VP, Growth, quip + Jeremy Goldman, Director, Marketing & Commerce Briefings, Insider Intelligence + Thomas Marks, SVP, Marketing, sticky.io
Direct-to-consumer brands must make better shopping experiences a priority to turn one-time customers into lasting fans. Learn how the subscription model is a powerful tool to deepen customer relationships and build loyalty, all while adding recurring, predictable revenue to your bottom line.
[2:55pm - 3:15pm] CASE STUDY: Reducing decision fatigue with guided selling – a Signet story
Craig Kistler, Director, Personalization & Experimentation, Signet Jewelers
Consumers crave tools and services that can save them the mental hassle of researching and picking items. Long why Signet's in-store experience has reigned supreme, its trained staff of jewelry experts guide shoppers through the journey of what to buy for their loved ones. But when the company moved its massive inventory of products online, that level of curation fell prey to a static and templatized site that could not answer the distinct needs of each customer. In this session, hear from Craig Kistler, Signet's Director of Personalization & Experimentation, on how his team has been able to create a more thoughtful and impactful online experience per each of the company's banner stores: Kay, Jared, and Banter.
[3:15pm - 3:40pm] PAID ADVERTISING PANEL: Measuring the effectiveness of your online media mix
Chip Malt, Co-founder & CEO, Made In + Tracy Heller, CMO, Universal Standard Interviewed by Mark Drapeau, Editor in Chief, Data Catalyst Institute
Retail competition and macroeconomic changes continue to increase ad costs, making it harder to calculate CAC and determine what is reasonable across your campaigns. Our expert panelists walk you through their latest approaches to ad spend diversification, ad funnels that work and their tried-and-tested approaches to converting cold audiences - across Facebook, Google, TikTok, Twitter and other channels. And in light of the latest privacy restrictions, they explain how to meet with your highest value customers at key points across your marketing funnel, through personalized content and an ad creative formula that works (almost) every time.
[3:40pm - 4:00pm] CASE STUDY: Why you need a strong attribution foundation to scale, a conversation with Mockingbird
Sara Livingston, Head of Customer Solutions, Rockerbox + Eric Osman, Founder & CEO, Mockingbird
As your DTC brand grows, the marketing analytics and attribution infrastructure that you’ll need to support scaling spend, diversified sales + distribution channels, evolved KPIs, and a growing team need to evolve as well.In this session you’ll hear from Eric Osman, CEO and Founder of Mockingbird Strollers on how having an attribution foundation has enabled them to scale—fast. From pushing into “Big Box” retail, building out digital partnerships, and evolving their marketing channels, Mockingbird has leaned into data-driven decision making, all while ensuring the underlying measurement and analytics are in place to understand cross-channel and DTC-to-retail impact. Mockingbird, along with 150+ other DTC and ecommerce companies leverage Rockerbox to provide a holistic approach to marketing measurement. With Rockerbox, DTC brands from launch to IPO have the infrastructure, data, and resulting analytics needed to run a data driven marketing organization without requiring internal engineering resources.
[4:00pm - 4:25pm] COMMUNITY BUILDING PANEL: The true definition of community in the rise of DTC and how to sustain engagement as your brand grows organically
Racheal Brown, SVP, Marketing, Floyd + Jessica Granata, VP, Growth Marketing, Andie interviewed by Nora Ali, Co-host, Business Casual by Morning Brew
The term community is thrown around a lot today but if you're not fostering connections between your customers, you don't have a community, you have an audience. Many DTC brands have excelled at fostering community by leveraging social media and using tools like Discord to connect with their most loyal customers. But in an ever-shifting, competitive landscape, how can DTC brands continue to foster community? And how will technological innovations like Web 3 change the definition of community?
[4:25pm - 4:45pm] CASE STUDY: Loyalization to further your brand’s mission
Heather Dougherty, VP, Customer Success, Lexer + Caroline Homlish, SVP, Direct-to-Consumer, Supergoop!
Supergoop! is changing the way the world thinks about sunscreen. Their mission is to make wearing SPF a daily habit—365 days a year. With consumer demand for sunscreen peaking during the summer, Supergoop! had to transform its growth strategies to move away from seasonality and toward year-round demand. Caroline Homlish, SVP Direct-to-Consumer at Supergoop!, and Heather Dougherty, VP Customer Success at Lexer, will discuss the revolutionary brand’s latest insights into their customers and the replenishment and retention strategies they’re using to maximize sales year-round.
After this session, you’ll learn how to apply these tactics to your business to understand:
Who your most loyal high-value customers are
What products are they buying and how often
How to engage them with creative that motivates them to re-purchase from your brand time and time again
[4:45pm - 5:05pm] CREATOR + INFLUENCER PANEL: Treat creators like your brand revolves around them
Geoff Miles, Chief Growth Officer, Bev + Drew Todd, Co-founder, Feals + Steven Vigilante, New Business Development, Olipop Interviewed by Phillip Jackson, Co-founder, Future Commerce
The creator economy is changing the marketing landscape and giving content creators, influencers, curators and community builders a huge amount of power to launch and build their own brands. Due to the shift in consumer attention from companies to people, DTC marketers are in a unique position to tap into the creator economy by partnering with creatives to spread brand awareness in unique and authentic ways. So what is working? And what is not working? Join leaders from Bev, Feals and Olipop to learn exactly how creators are impacting eCommerce in 2022, and walk away knowing the top 5 most valuable data points you need to use in the discovery process when deciding which creators to partner with in your influencer marketing campaigns.
[5:05pm - 6:15pm] HAPPY HOUR | Open Bar & Cocktails
Wednesday July 20, 2022 | Knockdown Center 52-19 Flushing Ave | New York
[7:15am onwards] FREE Lyft rides courtesy of Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash
[7:30am - 9:00am] Registration presented by Rebuy + Breakfast presented by LettrLabs
MAIN STAGE
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MAIN STAGE 〰️
Hear from the biggest-name brand founders and tech platforms on how they are maximizing online revenue. FREE to attend for retail brands, IN-PERSON. All times in ET.
[9:00am - 9:30am] SUSTAINABILITY PANEL: How to approach the concept from the ground up and introduce it into your manufacturing and ad campaigns
Joaquin Arce, Chief Growth Officer, Bearaby + Yijia Wang, Co-founder & Brand Director, Advene + Zi Xuan, Co-founder, Advene interviewed by Ann Cantrell, Associate Professor, Fashion Business Management, FIT
Sustainability is more important than ever, and today’s consumer is quick to evaluate the accuracy and intent behind a brand's promises. The real question is whether sustainability is a greenwashing myth or an attainable goal. DTC brands are certainly in a unique position to shape the future of sustainability and develop the “circular economy”, defined as proactive design and manufacturing principles that reduce waste and ensure apparel (in particular) can be remade again and again. But while circularity has become a marketing tool that allows big brands to put a recycling bin in their store while continuing to rely on outdated supply chains, Advene and Bearaby approached the concept from the ground up. At GROW NY, the founders open their circularity playbooks and share innovative ways to introduce it into your own supply chain and ad campaigns - from designing a product or packaging from discarded materials and using renewable resources to creating upcycling programs, training your team, educating your customers and more.
[9:30am - 9:50am] CASE STUDY: Essential mobile commerce tactics; the ladder of loyalty
Van Oakes, Founder & CEO, Goat Media interviewed by Zach Nyborg, Director, Brand Awareness, VIA
How do you connect more personally to your customers with so much noise today? Speak to them where they are. Do you feel stuck battling algorithms to connect with your customers? Turn your rented audience into an owned audience.Social media is not the same as email, email is not the same as SMS. Grow your marketing audience using the Ladder of Loyalty. You will see examples of how to grow your SMS Subscriber list from your current marketing channels like social media and email, and how best to speak to them with specific SMS campaigns that are working right now.
[9:50am - 10:10am] FIRESIDE: The intersection of brand and growth
Hamid Saify, SVP, Digital Retail at Liquid Death interviewed by Hunter Sunrise, SVP, Head of Marketing, Postclick
Start-ups and hyper-growth companies often focus their efforts into performance marketing models without dedicating time to develop their brand. Liquid Death seems to have powered their growth by leaning hard in the other direction: A dynamic brand at all levels, supported by skillful growth, placement, and wholesale strategies... For Liquid Death Mountain Water, bold authenticity is the fuel they’ve needed to engage audiences, transform clicks into customers, and achieve continual growth.
[10:10am - 10:35am] CASE STUDY: How Saatva shifted from a pure-play, e-commerce company to an omnichannel brand
Ricky Joshi, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Saatva interviewed by Rachel ten Brink, Co-founder, Scentbird & Founder / General Partner, Red Bike Capital
Not only do shoppers want an omnichannel experience, but approaching hybrid retail the right way lets businesses take the pulse of different shoppers, understand their preferences and build lasting relationships. The key is leveraging behavioral data to anticipate their needs during every interaction. In this exclusive case study, Ricky explains how his $300m bedding brand Saatva has grown from a pure-play DTC company to an omnichannel brand in a thoughtful, measured way. Ricky shares his playbook for omnichannel success, outlining the factors that influenced his decision to go instore in the first place, and the ongoing challenges that his team faced and successfully overcame along the way.
[10:35am - 10:55am] Unlocking Headless: Increase your brands revenue and transform your customer experience
Brian Anderson, CEO, Nacelle + Jay Chinthrajah, VP, Engineering, Boll and Branch
In a nutshell, Headless is one of the most significant advances in online shopping as it gives teams the flexibility to quickly create custom, front-end experiences without changing the back-end. This new approach to architecture offers brands freedom of expression to build whatever and however they want and most importantly, enables companies to enrich the customer experience. But do these benefits outweigh the initial costs of making the switch? Whether you're a founder, growth marketer, product marketer, or just plain curious about headless commerce, this deep-dive conversation with Nacelle explains the main advantages of headless and explores whether it is right for you - or not - in 2022.
[10:55am - 11:20am] BRANDING / CREATIVE PANEL: Lessons from the leaders
Emily Simmons, CMO, July + Max Kislewitz, Co-founder, Bala + Natalie Holloway, Co-founder, Bala + Melissa Duren Conner, Managing Partner, JBC
How do you stick out in an ocean of brands? Getting the spotlight on your brand can seem hard, but with the right creative foot forward, it's definitely possible. Learning where/how to reach your audience, positioning yourself in the market correctly, and so much more, all go into organically building a brand. In this panel you'll hear from July and Bala, trailblazers in mastering the art of brand positioning and storytelling.
[11:20am - 11:45am] STORE OPTIMIZATION PANEL: Tried-and-tested tactics that are guaranteed to boost conversion
Coral Chung, Founder & CEO, SENREVE + Sally Pullman, VP, eCommerce, Rhone + Michael Wieder, Co-Founder, President & CMO, Lalo interviewed by Mark Drapeau, Editor in Chief, Data Catalyst Institute
In this no-fluff panel, our group of trendsetting panelists teach you everything you need to know about optimizing online store navigation - based on a deep understanding of how customers actually think about your products (which may not be the same way you do). If you're trying to create a more consistent and cohesive message throughout your conversion funnel, new ways to talk about benefits rather than features, and the latest tactics for selling bundles and offers, this is the discussion for you.
[11:45am - 12:05pm] FIRESIDE: Tackling TV Streaming Performance with Zocdoc
Michele Sutker, Senior Marketing Manager, Linear TV & Streaming, Zocdoc interviewed by David Katz, Senior Manager, Performance Advertising, Roku
Hear Zocdoc’s Senior Marketing Manager of Linear TV & Streaming - Michele Sutker - discuss the role TV streaming plays in Zocdoc’s marketing strategy and how the biggest screen in the home is driving new customer acquisition. She is joined by David Katz, Roku’s Senior Manager of Performance Advertising.
[12:05pm - 12:30pm] Creating a soulful brand: Authenticity and trust for longtime customer value
Victoria Eisner, Co-founder, Chief Creative Officer, GLAMSQUAD interviewed by Colin Daniels, Digital Editor, Adweek
Having a social media presence has never been more important than now as more than half of the world are active users across numerous platforms. In this talk, Victoria will go in depth of how she uses Instagram and Tiktok to elevate her brand and build a more personal, authentic, relationship with her audience.
[12:30pm - 12:50pm] CASE STUDY: Lessons learned from scaling the fastest growing ecommerce brands across Google Shopping
Dr. Ingvar Kraatz, COO, Bidnamic
Learn how to maximize revenue and profitability from Google Shopping with Bidnamic’s advanced machine learning and deep human expertise.
[12:50pm - 1:10pm] Web3 & DAO PANEL: Actively exploring the bridge between Web3, DAO and the consumer
Ophelia Chen, CEO, Bobblehaus + Kal Freese, Co-founder, Taika + Atlanta de Cadenet, Founder, Lushious World interviewed by Johnnie Yu, Investor, Listen Ventures
Interested in the intersection of consumer culture, blockchain and community building in the virtual space? Want to learn more about how retail brands are currently experimenting in Web3, and how it may/may not fit into your own business strategy? Ophelia, Kal, Atlanta and Johnnie explore the magic that Web3 can bring to consumer experiences, drawing on first-hand implementation experience from their own trendsetting online brands - Bobblehaus, Taika and Lushious World.
[1:10pm - 1:30pm] CASE STUDY: Fueling growth and the fulfillment of ambitions, through the democratization of warehouse automation
Magne Hatteland, VP & Head, Pio
Many are those who have experienced the hustle and the struggle associated with warehouse logistics and the uneven competition with the giants. We will address this fact and present a solution. A solution that will be a game changer.
[1:30pm - 2:30pm] LUNCH N’ LEARN | Small Group Tables
Four tables, Four discussions. Eat lunch with these masters of strategy to discuss the challenges that keep them up at night, as well as the technology that helps them solve key problems across their business.
Alex Fine, Co-founder & CEO, Dame Products
The power of earned media and branding
Rachel Luo, Growth Manager, Pattern Brands
The challenges of data tracking in a post ios 14.5 world | Just over a year ago, we could follow a potential customer throughout the funnel and pinpoint exactly where they dropped off. Then in Q1 of last year, we were hit with ios14.5 updates — effectively obscuring the level of data transparency we’d become so accustomed to. In this discussion table we’ll share learnings, troubleshooting tips, and some of the data questions we’ve all been asking in the last year.
Alison Ehrmann, CMO, Nom Nom
Successful subscription marketing in a DTC world
[1:30pm - 2:30pm] LUNCH + DJ Session ft. Jasmine Sabio | Presented by The Vertical Collective
TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE
July 19 - 20, 2022 | Knockdown Center | 52-19 Flushing Ave, Queens, NY 11378
In-person tickets are FREE for retail brands.
The event is now AT 50% capacity (as of 05/23/22)
“GROW provides me with so much growth and value as a founder. Sincerely, it is the best eComm conference I’ve been to”
Lynn Le, Founder, Society Nine
"Since being a part of GROW I have met LITERAL best friends. The kind of friends I talk to, get advice from, and problem solve with on a daily basis. I have had some of the most in-depth and intellectually stimulating conversations and been introduced to events, happy hours, meetups, and other communities I would have never found or heard of if I wasn't part of GROW. It exposes you to friendly, open, supportive, and driven individuals that want to learn, grow(LOL), and be something bigger. If you are a founder, marketer, growth hacker, developer, or just want to learn from some of the smartest people in retail, go to GROW"
Amelia Coomber, Growth Marketing, maude
“Absolutely amazing... I’m super grateful to have been a part of this! Truly spectacular”
Leif Frey, Co-founder, FREY