Interactive Advertising Bureau Names Top 250 Brands to Watch

NEW YORK — The trade group Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has unveiled its third annual list of the most disruptive, influential Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brands. More than 3,500 brands were analyzed before IAB narrowed the list to the most important 250 direct-to-consumer products. This year, for the first time ever, 100 service companies were added.

“These brands epitomize the growing disruptor brand economy, representing the leading edge of business development across the U.S. and globally,” says IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg. “We watch these brands because their business model, personalized relationships with consumers and go-to-market strategies are transforming how brands are born, how they are advertised, and what consumers expect. Traditional brands aspire to their nimbleness and engagement. If they want to understand the future of the consumer economy, there is no better model to follow than the IAB 250.”

New “to watch” in 2020 includes consumer brands such as Andie, BodyArmor and Wander Beauty, and services like ClassPass, Le Tote and Lyft.

“Consumers and distribution channels have changed. Brands go to market faster, with marketing that’s focused on stimulating conversation and ensuring powerful one-to-one customer experiences. At the core of everything is a continuous stream of first-party data. Brands that don’t adapt, will not survive,” explains Sue Hogan, SVP Research and Analytics, IAB.

According to IAB research data, a scant 11 percent of IAB 250 DTC brands are VC backed. There aren’t a lot of DTC brands on Sand Hill Road. Just 11 of the 87 companies on the list in California are VC backed. And 10 of the 62 in NYC are backed.

The implication? There are still plenty of funding opportunities out there. However, VC funding is not mandatory.

Social Footprint and Media Diversification Correlates to Sales
For DTC brands, their social footprint is critical to driving business. If no brand is dominating the social conversation in a given category, there is significant room for a major DTC brand to take hold and thrive. There’s no question that digital spend and social footprint are correlated. But scaling social alone will not get a DTC to the next level of growth.

IAB research has identified many opportunities for media diversification, including exciting new advertising units.

In Q4 2019 Pinterest launched “Shop the Look mobile ads” enabling retailers to feature up to 25 products in a single ad on mobile devices and direct users to their own retail site. Other features for better UX and engagement are continually being created to ensure growth and relevancy in this growing Image Search space.

TikTok is beta testing shoppable short‐form videos which will allow viewers to click on the in‐app video and be taken directly to the creator’s store without leaving TikTok.

Small wonder that the referral share of traffic that social provides e-commerce sites grew 20% from 7.6% to 9.1%; this is the largest growth seen since 2016.

In the early days, you could be excused for dismissing DTC brands as minor niche players driving tiny amounts of revenue. No more.

No less than seven disruptor IAB 250 brands have revenues of over $100 million.

Apparel/Fashion: Stitch Fix
Food and Beverage: Home Chef
Health/Wellness: Peloton
Hobbies/Lifestyle: Loot Crate
Home and Appliance: Casper
Personal Care: The Honest Company
Pet Care: Chewy

IAB research has also revealed that the verticals yielding the highest revenue in the shortest period of time are in categories like personal care, health/wellness, baby care/parenting, and pet care.

More than Half of DTC Founders are Women
Among the many changes wrought by the rise of DTC: it appears to be democratizing entrepreneurship. More than half (53 percent) of DTC brands have female founders. The first wave of DTC brands with female founders included female apparel brands like ThirdLove and cosmetics brands like Glossier. In 2020, female DTC founders aren’t just competing in “women’s” categories, they are battling for share in nearly every category imaginable.

Here is the list of 250 direct brands to watch and 100 direct brand services.

	250 Direct Brand Products to Watch 2020 *By Category; Sorted Alphabetically by Revenue Tier	100 Direct Brand Services to Watch 2020 *By Category; Sorted Alphabetically by Revenue Tier
	Alcohol/Beer/Wine	Apparel/Fashion
	1. Flaviar	1. Anomalie
	2. Glass Vodka	2. Knot Standard
	3. Hopsy	3. Le Tote
	4. MobCraft Beer	4. Poshmark
	5. Rebel Coast Winery	5. Wildfang
	6. Strike Brewing Co.
	7. VineBox	Baby Care/Parenting
		1. Greenlight Financial Technology
	Apparel/Fashion	2. Tinkergarten
	1. Stitch Fix	3. Wonderschool
	2. Adore Me	4. Bark Technologies
	3. Untuckit
	4. Allbirds	Education
	5. Allume	1. Codecademy
	6. Anatomie	2. Coursera
	7. Away	3. Duolingo
	8. BaubleBar	4. StudySoup
	9. Draper James	5. AdmitSee
	10. Eloquii	6. Classkick
	11. FabFitFun	7. CodeMonkey Studios
	12. Flint and Tinder	8. ELSA
	13. Grailed	9. Explain Everything
	14. Moxie Jean	10. Motion Math
	15. MVMT	11. Pear Deck
	16. Outdoor Voices	12. PicMonic
	17. Stadium Goods	13. Preply
	18. 1Atelier	14. PsychArmor
	19. Acustom Apparel	15. SoloLearn
	20. American Giant	16. Study Edge
	21. Andie	17. Studypool
	22. Armarium	18. Testive
	23. Atoms
	24. BABOON	Finance
	25. Birddogs Shorts	1. PeerStreet
	26. BOW & Drape	2. Stash
	27. Briogeo Hair Care	3. Brigit
	28. Closet Candy Boutique	4. Rare Bits
	29. Cubcoats	5. Trim
	30. CUUP
	31. Ellie	Food and Beverage
	32. Enflux	1. Caviar
	33. Enso Rings	2. Instacart
	34. For Days	3. Postmates
	35. For Love of lemons	4. Doordash
	36. Glyph	5. Favor
	37. Good American Denim	6. Waitr
	38. Hari Mari	7. Chowbus
	39. Harper Wilde	8. EatStreet
	40. HATCH Collection	9. Gobble
	41. Haute Hijab	10. Butler Hospitality
	42. Honeybum	11. Good Uncle
	43. Hylete	12. Goodybag
	44. Illuminative	13. Local Crate
	45. InstaNatural	14. PlateJoy
	46. Islide
	47. Ivory Ella	Health/Wellness
	48. Kiki La’Rue	1. Soothe
	49. Koio Collective	2. Aaptiv
	50. Lems Shoes	3. Blink Health
	51. Lizzy James Inc	4. Calm
	52. Local Eclectic	5. ClassPass
	53. Mented Cosmetics	6. Infinite Recovery
54. MeUndies	7. Zeel
55. Neighborhood Goods	8. Aura
56. Nomad	9. Grokker
57. Nomatic	10. Happify
58. Parks Project	11. Learn to Live
59. Phat Buddha Wear	12. Nutrimedy
60. Pop & Suki	13. Obe
61. ROOLEE	14. Shine
62. Rowing Blazers	15. Ten Percent Happier
63. Sarah Flint	16. Whoop
64. Schoola	17. iCouch
65. Shinesty	18. LARKR
66. Summersalt	19. nOCD
67. Super Heroic	20. Prescribe FIT
68. ThirdLove
69. TrackSmith	Hobbies/Lifestyle
70. Trendy Butler	1. Cambly
71. Tuckernuck	2. Glamping Hub
72. United by Blue	3. Jubel
73. Universal Standard	4. OpenBazaar
74. Vie Active	5. Twigtale
75. Villageluxe.com	6. Vimbly
76. Western Rise	7. YogaTrail
77. Westward Leaning	8. MeetMindful
78. WONE	9. Siren Marine
79. Ash & Erie
80. Dagne Dover	Home and Appliance
81. Markhor	1. Grove Collaborative
82. Original Stitch	2. Havenly
83. Spruce
84. Swet Tailor	Personal Care
85. Tipsy Elves	1. Core Wellness, Inc
	2. Mayvenn
Baby Care/Parenting
1. Osmo	Pet Care
2. Bitsbox	1. Wag
3. codeSpark
4. Coterie	Travel
5. Please And Carrots	1. Lyft
6. smilo	2. Domicile
7. Willow	3. Domio
8. Tactical Baby Gear	4. Eightydays
	5. KEY Concierge
Consumer Electronics	6. Remote Year
1. Awair	7. Sonder
2. LuminAID	8. Turo
3. Nonda	9. AllTheRooms
4. Wynd Technologies	10. AtYourGate
5. Embr Labs	11. Chimani
	12. Journy
Food and Beverage	13. Kimkim
1. Home Chef	14. Mozio
2. Thrive Market	15. Outsite
3. ALOHA	16. Recharge
4. Daily Harvest	17. Suiteness
5. High Brew Coffee	18. ViaHero
6. Kill Cliff	19. Tesloop
7. Misfits MARKET	20. VacationRenter
8. New Age Beverages
9. Suja Life
10. Trifecta Nutrition
11. Apres
12. Aspire Food Group
13. Banza
14. BodyArmor
15. Bonafide Provisions
16. Bright Greens
17. Coco5
18. Crowd Cow
19. Crunchsters
20. Death Wish Coffee
21. Drink Simple
22. Elev8 Hemp
23. Fuego Box
24. Fuel For Fire
25. Generosity Beverages
26. Grow & Behold Foods
27. JUST Goods
28. KiiTO
29. Koia
30. Laird Superfood
31. Lakanto
32. LifeFuels
33. MatchaBar
34. Oakridge Dairy
35. OLIPOP
36. Once Upon a Farm
37. Outlaw Beverage
38. Prepd
39. Protein2O
40. Raised Real
41. Revere
42. Soozy’s
43. Spero Foods
44. Tea Drops
45. TryTheWorld
46. Weller
47. Yumi
48. Zest Tea
49. Veestro
50. Your Super

Health/Wellness
1. Peloton
2. Campus Protein
3. Care/Of
4. Ample Foods
5. BINTO
6. DYLN Inspired
7. Gennev
8. HelloMD
9. Kaleidoscope Labs
10. Liquid I.V.
11. Lume Deodorant
12. Maude
13. Poplar
14. Prima
15. 253 Organic

Hobbies/Lifestyle
1. Loot Crate
2. Cratejoy
3. Eaze
4. KiwiCo
5. Alpha Outpost
6. Bespoke Post
7. Elevate Accessories
8. FringeSport
9. Greetabl
10. Groove Life
11. Healthy Bees
12. Litographs
13. Moment
14. Myro
15. OpenSea
16. Printabowl
17. Priority Bicycles
18. The Sill
19. Tower Paddle Boards
20. Fanchest

Home and Appliance
1. Casper
2. Touch of Modern
3. Chairish
4. Parachute Home
5. Artlifting
6. Backdrop
7. Barn & Willow
8. Blackdove
9. Buffy
10. Clare
11. Cleancult
12. Dering Hall
13. Dormify
14. GlobeIn
15. Great Jones
16. iDro
17. Kaiyo
18. Mirror
19. Outer
20. Stikwood
21. Suitely
22. Thuma
23. Year & Day
24. Ruggable
25. Tushy

Personal Care
1. The Honest Company
2. BeautyCounter
3. Curology
4. Eargo
5. Follain
6. Glossier
7. Hims
8. Athena Club
9. Boxycharm
10. By Humankind
11. Cora
12. Felix Gray
13. Function of Beauty
14. GLOW
15. Kosas Cosmetics
16. L.
17. Modern Fertility
18. NaturAll Club
19. Public Goods
20. Rael
21. Thrive Causemetics Inc.
22. Wander Beauty
23. Winky Lux
24. Youth To The People
25. Act+Acre
26. BioClarity
27. Facetory
28. Joylux
29. LOLI Beauty
30. Ogee

Pet Care
1. Chewy
2. Boxed
3. Ollie
4. PetPlate
5. PupBox

“Brands that rely on old supply chains, have a smaller social footprint, and are costly and perhaps already losing retail market share, have the most to lose – or the most to gain, depending on how you react to the changes,” says Sue Hogan, SVP Research and Analytics IAB. “Someone will take your category to the next level. It can be you, or a DTC founder. It all depends on how early or late you choose to react.”

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