Ecom with Jon

I write stuff here: www.jonivanco.com/newsletter

I talk about ecommerce, call out the bullshit, and use data to back up my opinions.

Founder

Formtoro

We're building out a new category of signups that allow for live data collection that are aligned with the modern customer journey. We're huge fans of building experiences that benefit both the customer and the company to reduce guessing.

More at formtoro.com

Co-Founder

Boon Road

boon
/bo͞on/ (noun)
1. a thing that is helpful or beneficial
road
/rōd/ (noun)
 1. a wide way leading from one place to another
 2. a series of events or a course of action that will lead to a particular outcome

Parent Company to Formtoro.

LatticeWork

Direct support to the CMO and CEO. Tasked with working internally with various teams to streamline communication, product road map, and go to market strategy.

Latticework is envisioning the future of data privacy.

CX Advisor

Cryptopal

Advertising is changing, blockchain is taking over and adblockers now rule the internet.

It's time to make the experience a bit more personal without sacrificing consumer privacy.

Strategic Advisor

LIFX

Redefined efficiency across our support team.

Developed end-to-end self help flows that resulted in greater than 70% reduction in tickets.

Aggregated data from all tickets to understand trends and provide feedback to design and engineering team to integrate into the product and apps.

Introduced non-standard KPIs to track progress across the Support Team, Engineering Team, Sales, and other teams correlating Support with value add.

Consistently use best in practice information delivery to create customer experiences that get results and better help internal teams to process the information as it comes in and react and inform customers in a more timely manner.

Achieved a 0 new ticket balance at a rate of 100% outside of holiday periods and greater than 92% overall including holiday periods.

Director of Customer Experience

Successfully launched 10+ products over 2.5 years across 80 countries.

Partnerships with Apple, Google, and Amazon through co-marketing efforts and branded integrations lead to continued growth into new regions and across the whole of the Smart Home Market.

Experience working with strategy, roll-out, and other positioning to fuel continued growth in an increasingly competitive industry.

Played a key role in increasing revenue by double digit multipliers, consistently.

Director of Product Marketing, Partnerships, and PR

AffinityLive

- Second sales hire at emerging startup in workplace automation space
- Demoed and engaged with customers of all sizes sub 5 to more than 2000 employees
- Cross functional role, account executive, solutions consultant, and sales engineer from trial request to close with some implementation throughout
- Proficient and expert level in our complex and expansive platform encompassing four areas: Sales, Project Management, Service Desk, and Retainers
- Operationally, worked to refine sales process, build tools, and video library to connect with customers at all hours including implementing extensive automation via triggers
- Closed in excess of 20 account multiple months with average sales cycle of 45 days
- Received more than 6000 page views on video library where I recorded more than 140 videos
- Consistently went above and beyond for clients on six continents and multiple time zones
- Worked with marketing on content development and outreach
- Assisted customer service with escalated calls

Solutions Consultant/Account Executive

RGI Consultants

•	Small business consultant to numerous startup and technology companies as well as non-profits
•	Integrated within organizations to learn product, company culture, and goals
•	Prioritized goal structure and built out roadmaps for accomplishment
•	Evaluated the strengths of team members, worked with management to better delegate and direct their workflow to promote improved organization through lean process methodology
•	Introduced collaboration tools to improve communication between employees
•	Created surveys and outreach to understand customer and client needs
•	Designed sales plans and evaluated effectiveness of current materials
•	A/B testing of sales and marketing materials to increase effectiveness
•	Advised on the implementation of new technologies to improve efficiency
•	Trained, supervised, and taught new staff through presentations and on the job learning
•	Analyzed market trends and created a plans recommending adjustment
•	Tracked financial modeling to ensure that targets were met and productivity was improving
•	Created and facilitated proposed expansion into new markets through presentations and lectures to business owners on behalf of clients
•	Advised on social media creation and content to assist clients in gaining web presence and connecting with their customers
•	Evaluated existing procedure and wrote protocol for better information management
•	Familiar with process, activities and tools (DMAIC) utilized in lean process efforts

Small Business Consultant

UCSF Medical Center

•	Experience in high volume, fast paced, team oriented healthcare environment with staff that exceeded twenty people in one unit.
•	Handled in excess of two hundred and fifty phone calls daily while multitasking in other departmental duties including assisting Neurologists and Neurosurgeons with transcription of medical orders and prescribed therapy.
•	Proficient in medical terminology and medical procedure terminology with knowledge in scheduling hospital procedures and tests.
•	Experience working with automated purchasing and materials management system and other computer based programs and office hardware.

Hospital Unit Service Coordinator III

Formtoro.com - Zero Party Data Ecommerce Strategy

Helping ecommerce companies understand the difference between a Customer Journey and Company Journey.

We're changing the future of eCommerce one company at a time through quantitative and qualitative data.

Always up for a chat about the industry: calendly.com/jonivanco

You should sign up for my newsletter at www.jonivanco.com/newsletter that's where I drop all my hot takes.

I love zero party data and data analytics and a good debate around them.

🏌🏼‍♂️Jon Ivanco

Jake Abrams

I help 7-9 figure DTC brands with revenue & CAC | I write The Process, a newsletter about modern growth marketing | Sold 100K+ personal cooling devices

Consumer Marketing & Growth Leader.  

Brands I've worked with:

Caraway
Jones Road Beauty
Skylight
Canopy
Insurify
Naked Wines
Rugiet
Sundays For Dogs
Momofuku
Sunday Lawn Care

100+ others

Book a discovery call in the featured section below 👇

The lean DTC growth marketing partner that I wish existed when I was an in-house marketing lead. 

At Odyssey, we help 7 & 8-figure DTC brands increase revenue & ROAS by finding the right combination of:

- Messaging
- Audience targeting
- Media channel allocation
- Creative

https://www.growodyssey.com/

Over the last 90 days, I built a brand from scratch: category research, product formula, name, brand design, packaging, and website.

I used AI for probably 85% of the process. 

But here's what nobody talks about: the other 15% required humans. And that 15% made all the difference.

So I documented the process, and I'm giving away the breakdown for free.

What's inside:
- How I used Claude as a thinking partner for category research
- The naming process (including 2 failed brand names)
- How I used AI to develop the actual product formula
- Where AI's "yes-man problem" almost killed me
- The top 1% designer conversation that changed everything
- Why I spent 30+ hours on packaging with AI and still needed a human to finish 
- How I used Nano Banana Pro to generate my product imagery
- Where I'm drawing the line on AI-generated content vs human content

Bonus: A usable framework for knowing when to push AI harder vs. when to bring in a top 1% human to help.

I've been in DTC marketing since 2017 and run a creative agency working with 50+ brands. This doc is everything I learned the last 90 days trying to build my own thing with AI as my primary collaborator.

Want the full 2123-word outline and 16-minute Loom video?

Like this post and comment "BUILD" and I'll send it over 👇

♻️ Like & repost if this would help someone in your network ♻️

Creative-led growth for 8-9 figure consumer brands | Writing about AI & advertising | Sold 100k+ personal cooling devices

My 81 favorite BFCM/holiday ads from the past few years. 

This is not another "inspiration board" with random creatives.

It's a curated Foreplay.co collection of ads that actually work during peak shopping season.

Here's what makes these different: 

→ Written for people actively shopping right now 
→ Designed for bottom-funnel audiences hunting for deals 
→ Built for comparison shoppers evaluating your product vs. competitors 
→ Crafted for buyers comparing your solution vs. failed alternatives

PROBLEM THIS SOLVES: 
Most brands don't realize that BFCM / holiday creative is a completely different category of advertising.

Your audience isn't browsing. They're hunting. They're comparing. They're ready to buy but need the right specific reason to choose you.

Meanwhile, many brands are running the same top-funnel creative they use year-round, wondering why it fails. 

WHY THIS IS CRITICAL: 
The next 35 days aren't really about awareness or consideration. Your audience is in active shopping mode.

They're not asking "Do I need this?" They're asking "Should I buy this one or the other one?" and "Is this actually a great deal?"

So I built a Foreplay board with 81 of my favorite ads. Including a bunch of formats you could make with footage you're already sitting on.

Want the Foreplay board link?

1. Comment "BLACKFRIDAY" below
2. Like this post
3. Make sure we're connected so I can send the link

P.S. I'm sending the link to anyone who comments by Friday

We're hiring for multiple creative strategist roles (junior through senior). 

Honestly it’s because our strategists keep landing incredible roles at amazing brands that they can’t turn down (I’m proud of them).

Our people have been hired by Athletic Greens, Gruns, and other best-in-class DTC brands. 

You're a good fit for this if:
- You have a feel for making TikTok's that get lots of views
- You can work across data, taste, and creation
- You believe the next winning ad is 1 deep insight away
- You're AI native & use it as a strategic / operational partner

What we offer: 
- 100% remote work
- Make ads for best-in-class brands & build an elite portfolio
- Cutting edge creative strategy: AI, elevated shoots, native content
- In-person team event in January in Miami
- Insane growth potential, we promote fast

Links in comments 👇

JSESSIONID

(58) High Scale: People | LinkedIn

li_at

Talks about #dtc, #careeradvice, #growthmarketing, and #digitalmarketing

Matthew McConaughey's 'private LLM' idea is actually what every creative strategist needs in 2026. 

The people who are making fun of him for it are totally missing the point.  

My agency ships 2000+ video ads / month across 40+ brands.

Broad AI creative strategy tools are a waste of time. All they do is make it faster to generate a higher volume of mediocre content. Nobody needs that. 

What CS's actually need are narrower context kits:

- AI trained on ads they actually won, and why they won
- AI with vision into their ad account data
- AI that analyzes that data like an expert performance marketer
- Agent that knows exactly how to analyze customer reviews
- Micropersonas specific to the brand they are writing for
- Voice, and messaging guidelines specific to brand they are writing for

So that when a CS asks "how do I improve this skincare ad," the answer is actually valuable and based on a competitive advantage specific to them / the company they work for. 

McConaughey gets it. He wants an AI that thinks like him, not like everyone.

That's what we need as creative strategists.

I've been playing with Octo the last few weeks, and they are seriously onto something within this category of AI tech.

Dropped the link to the tool in the comments.

Need to hire a freelance TikTok Shop / Affiliate strategist. 

You're a good fit for this if:

- You've grown multiple TikTok shops to over $100k a month
- You're an operational psychopath who enjoys wrangling hundreds of affiliates
- You have an innate feel for making viral TikTok content
- You can build an incentive structure that drives creator participation 
- You're AI native & use it as a strategic / operational partner

I don't care about resumes. Just send me a well-written DM with the names of 2-3 specific brands you've grown on TTS and the exact role you played in making the growth happen. I'll double check your work on Kalodata.

21 ways to find your next $100K spend ad:

1. Build an Airtable database that organizes all of your existing winners, making it easier to turn 1 win into 10 wins.

2. Use N8N + Apify to capture TikTok creators who are consistently hitting 100K+ views in your category, then scrape their email addresses to do outreach.

3. Set up Claude Desktop and use that as your primary writing zone, with all of your data flowing into projects that are specific to each part of the creative process. 

4. Mine Amazon reviews with AI agents to find the exact trigger events customers use before buying, then turn those into hook concepts.

5. Use Wispr Flow to voice-note analyze every ad that made you stop scrolling this week b/c your subconscious knows what works.

6. Make it a habit of writing down the specific creators that you see amazing partnership ads from, and have a $10/hour offshore person do systemic outreach.

7. Use Motion (Creative Analytics)'s Social Listening Agent to process 500+ customer reviews in 3 minutes and extract the psychological frameworks that drove purchase

8. Start your ads mid-moment. 

9. Analyze your top-performing ads with the Audience/Angle/Offer framework.

10. Put your best 4-5 creators on $1K-$5K monthly retainers instead of chasing new talent. Make it easier on yourself.

11. Use Octo to analyze groups of ads together, and automatically build storyboards for new ads to make based off of the undeniable proof in the ads that worked. 

12. Just launch your ads as partnership ads, stop playing Meta on hard mode. 

13. Use Adology.AI's "god view" to watch every signal related to your brand on the internet.

14. Use Arcads to make a comedic podcast related to your product, using Nano Banana to place your product onto one of the podcasters.

15. Actually allow a good thought to pop into your head, write it down, then talk through it with Wispr Flow into Claude.

16. Take something that's already a winner and do format multiplication: normal UGC becomes a staged moment, podcast version, street interview version.

17. Give open-ended briefs to strong up-and-coming TikTok creators via TikTok Shop affiliate program - let them run wild with commission-only structure and cash bonuses. 

18. Use Sora 2 Pro to generate beautiful cinematic b-roll that allows you to create brand new concepts with existing footage. 

19. Build an agent that analyzes your customer support tickets for recurring pain points, then creates creative concepts that address those specific objections.

20. Create a systematic workflow where you feed viral TikTok transcripts to Claude and have it help you do script re-writes that don't suck.

21. Start posting TikToks yourself. You'll learn the importance of writing incredibly specific caption hooks that break through.

TLDR:
- AI workflow = a competitive advantage 
- Human taste = your strategic filter 
- Outrageous operating speed = market domination

so we're all just ignoring the fact that...

1. you can have AI analyze the top 1% of content in your niche and extract the exact frameworks, hooks, and structures that actually get engagement.

2. you can voice-record your thoughts with Wispr Flow and have Claude turn them into polished LinkedIn posts, Twitter threads, and newsletter drafts.

3. you can upload a single piece of winning content to Claude and prompt it to take that same idea and put it into 8 different formats. 

4. you can have AI watch viral videos in your space and give you detailed breakdowns of why they worked, then help generate similar concepts for your own story and area of expertise.

5. you can feed AI your best-performing posts and have it generate 100 variations in your voice and style.

6. you can turn any industry report, podcast transcript, or article into 20 pieces of original content with your unique take.

7. you can create custom GPTs trained on your writing style.

8. you can generate post-ready thumbnails, graphics, and visual assets without touching Photoshop.

9. you can take one 60-minute conversation and have AI turn it into 2 week's worth of content: posts, threads, newsletters, video scripts.

10. you can have AI analyze your audience's comments and engagement to identify exactly what topics and formats resonate most.

11. you can rip the structures of high-performing creators (in your niche or not) and plug in your own ideas and perspectives

12. you can literally just pick up your phone, record a TikTok with your raw thoughts, and TikTok will basically just handle the editing and captions.

13. you can have AI scrape viral content in any category and automatically organize it into your Airtable database with full analysis of what made it work.

14. you can set up N8N workflows that automatically find trending topics in your space and generate content briefs before anyone else catches on.

15. you can have AI agents specialized for different content types: one for LinkedIn thought leadership, another for TikTok scripts, another for newsletter storytelling.

16. you can take any boring industry insight and have AI help you find the contrarian angle that gets people talking.

Now is the single greatest time in history to join the 5% of humans who actually create content, instead of mindlessly consuming it. 

What are you waiting for?

My $1.2M BFCM disaster nearly got me fired from an 8-figure brand. 

So I created a 103-item checklist to make sure it never happened again. Drop a comment on this post and I'll send you the entire checklist. 

Now back to the story....

I was so obsessed with our Black Friday email campaigns.

But I ignored the 3 flows that drive the bulk of BFCM revenue:
→ Welcome flow 
→ Cart abandonment 
→ Browse abandonment

Be honest with yourself: When's the last time you locked yourself in a room and made every single email within those 3 flows as strong as possible?

Omnisend data shows that:
- Email automations account for just 2% of email volume but drive 37% of email sales.
- 87% of automated orders come from just these 3 flows

Most brands haven't touched them in months.

Looking back, I was leaving a massive pile of on the table because I wasn't making optimizations likes these for BFCM:

- Making our Black Friday offer crystal clear ATF in every email
- Ensuring cart abandoners saw their exact products + our discount
- Adding urgency with clear deadlines to every flow
- Personalizing welcome sequences based on how people signed up

Inbox competition during BFCM is brutal.

The time you spend making every single email within these 3 flows perfect is so much more important than forcing your team to take another design pass at your campaigns.

Omnisend is great for DTC operators & agency owners b/c it makes it simple to nail these 3 flows:

- Email + SMS + push all working together
- Dynamic product recommendations that actually work
- $68 ROI for every $1 spent

Your BFCM campaigns will get opened once. Your automations work 24/7.

Focus aggressively on the 2% of volume that drives the bulk of your sales. 

---

👉 If you want to try Omnisend for 30% off for your first 3 months, check the link in the comments. 

---

And to grab my 103-Item BFCM Preparation Guide:

1. Comment "BFCM" below
2. Like this post
3. Make sure we're connected so I can send the link

P.S. I'm sending the link to anyone who comments by Monday

#Omnisendpartner

99% of creative strategists confuse looking busy with real insights:

→ They group ads from different channels together
→ They compare testing campaigns against proven winners
→ They set identical CPA targets across Meta / TikTok / YouTube

Because of this, the "analysis" ends up being meaningless.

They're comparing apples to oranges to bananas.

→ Conversion campaigns mixed with awareness campaigns
→ New channel performance held to mature channel standards
→ Creative tests evaluated against scaled winners

The result is bad decisions based on weird data.

"This ad failed" - no, it was a test in a testing campaign.
"TikTok doesn't work" - no, you expected Meta-level ROAS on day one.
"This format underperforms" - no, you compared video views to conversions.

To actually generate insights, evaluate creative within its own context:

1. Group by objective first. Conversion campaigns together. Video views together. Awareness together. Never mix them.

2. Separate testing from scaling. Your testing campaigns should have 10-25 ads where you're taking big swings. Don't compare those against your proven winners running at scale. Different purpose, different benchmarks.

3. Adjust expectations by channel. A new TikTok test won't hit your Meta ROAS targets immediately.

This is why a media buying foundation is so critical for creative strategy.

And why I'm willing to pay for tools like Motion, because it makes it simple for junior / mid-level CS's to build these segments with filters and actually evaluate the creative properly.

The strategists who understand this will always out-analyze the ones just making pretty decks.

P.S. Motion is hosting a 2026 Ad Creative Trends event in a few weeks. If you want to stay ahead of what's coming, link to register is in the comments.

How to survive and thrive as a DTC brand in the age of AI:

First off, ruthlessly copying what works is a strategy. I'm not going to pretend it doesn't work. AI makes it way, way easier. 

If a competitor's hook is crushing, study it. Rip it. See what happens. "Lift & Shift" can be a percentage of your creative output. 

But if 100% of your strategy is copying, you're screwed.

The brands I see actually breaking through right now aren't the ones who copy best. They're the ones who push past the baseline from a point of originality.

TikTok is the cultural tastemaker for the internet right now. The brands I constantly see in my TikTok feed aren't playing it safe.

Hismile. Underbrush. Hiyo. Pete's Pasta. Stan Store.

These companies aren't ignoring what works. They're paying attention to proven ad structures and formats, but injecting something unmistakably theirs. 

People can sense the difference. They can sense the difference between a brand with a genuine point of view and one that's trend hopping.

The AI age makes copying easier than ever. Which means it's easier for anyone to make content that is "competent."

But that means the gap between "competent" and "extraordinary" is widening every single day. 

Brands that win in 2026 will have a portfolio approach.

Don't make copying 100% of your strategy.

2026 will be the best time in history to be a Creative Generalist. 

Because AI makes it possible to get your vision to 85% done, and as long as you have the network to take it the remaining 15%, you are unstoppable.

Don't let anyone tell you that you need to "pick a lane."

The future belongs to the people who can see the big picture and make it become a reality insanely fast.

Built an AI owl podcaster in ~20 minutes with Arcads & Nano Banana Pro.

Used Nano Banana Pro to generate the owl + podcast setup:

“A wise owl sitting at a podcast table in a cozy moonlit library, warm ambient lighting, vintage microphone in front of the owl, owl wearing this exact black sleep mask, leather-bound books in background, intimate podcast studio setting, cinematic lighting with soft golden shadows, professional yet cozy atmosphere.”

Then I used the Sora 2 in Arcads to make the 8-second demo video. Provided the script and some subtle motion notes.

Is it ridiculous and unserious? Yeah, and that’s the point. 

This is the category of AI-produced content I’m actually excited about. You can think of a wild idea, and then make a demo in like 20 minutes. AI tools like Arcads remove so much of the friction.

Comment "PROCESS" and I'll send you the exact tool stack and step-by-step process I used to make this demo. 

---

P.S. Arcads is running a BFCM promo where you get 50% OFF all annual plans, so now’s a good time to sign up and try this workflow for yourself. Link in first comment. 

#ArcadsPartner

70% of your creative time should be spent on the first 3 seconds.

I always knew that the hook mattered. But after growing my own TikTok from 0 to 19.2K in a few months, feel like I have a different level of understanding now.  

The hook actually is EVERYTHING. 

And the hook is 3 related elements, all working together:

1. The written caption
2. The voiceover
3. The visual action

Most people are lazy and make the caption the same thing the person is saying. 

The best creative strategists connect all 3 elements to make something that people won't scroll past. 

Seeing our team pay attention to the details and put this into action makes me feel awesome.

1,358 people commented on a STOLEN viral post about AI Kobe Bryant.

I jumped in to offer my perspective, as someone who writes about AI every day but also worked in real sports marketing with pro athletes. 

I don't love dunking on people, but here's the problem I had with that viral post:

First off, the guy stole the content word-for-word from someone on Twitter. It's not his video. It's not his workflow. It's not even his hook.

Now onto the content itself (which wasn't even his):

Even if Kobe Bryant were still alive, there is a 0% chance Nike would ever make a consumer-facing ad like the one this guy posted (that he didn't even make himself). 

The video was useful as a prototype video, but if they were actually launching something like that it would probably tank their stock price.

The writing was AI slop, it made no sense.
The voice tried to sound like Kobe, but didn't.
AI Kobe was dribbling and dunking all weird. Super glitchy.
People hate the AI-ification of everything.

In reality, here's what would actually happen if Kobe was still alive:

Nike would organize a shoot with the real Kobe Bryant. 
It would cost a lot of money. 
The writing would have soul. 
He would dribble and dunk like Kobe, because it would actually be Kobe. 
He would sound like Kobe, too, b/c it would be his actual voice.

The AI process that the poster described is actually a massive unlock for the pre-production process. They could use the prototype video to pitch a campaign to Kobe. Way more powerful than a storyboard + 3rd party references.

But the real Kobe Bryant would HATE the video that he posted. The team responsible for it would be fired immediately.

So to me: when someone writes a post about text-to-video replacing consumer-facing Nike ads with real NBA stars is disingenuous.

I'm laughing tat my desk right now b/c there are so many layers to this latest LinkedIn grift:

AI Overhype + Stolen Content + "Fire Everyone" Hook

- Marketer & massive NBA fan

388k people have watched my TikTok about why a brand backed by the Paul Brothers, Mr. Beast, and other massive influencers is totally failing.

Here are the spark notes for why I believe the sales are so underwhelming:

1. If your positioning is wrong, nothing else matters. It's a shaky foundation. Better ads, more spend, bigger influencers...none of it will fix a broken core message.

2. Celebrity without trust doesn't worked like it used to work. People are smarter now, and they value authenticity over pure celebrity influence.

3. You can't do problem-based marketing when the problem is an insecurity nobody thinks they actually have.

Follow me on TikTok for more breakdowns like this. Link in comments.

taplio

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The Battle

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