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DNVB: Our second look at the David's focuses on a curated selection of over 200 brands across five key categories: fashion, accessories, beauty, wellness and home. By definition, our Davids were founded, launched and nurtured online and our curation is centered on those which we believe are ones to watch. The 200+ are at varying stages of maturity and scale, but on average, through anecdotal evidence, we believe they are each generating an estimated $10 million in sales or $2 billion in total. 

Capstone: All the major digital players like Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram have developed ad offerings that start to bridge the gap between retail and media, in the form of shoppable ads or swipe-up-to-purchase type of ads, for instance. On the opposite side, the likes of Amazon and Walmart are acting like media owners. Amazon is really making inroads into advertising, renovating its search and programmatic products. So more and more, media is being wired for retail, and at the same time, more and more retail is wired for media. It’s an interesting convergence on both sides.

Retail: Make no mistake, it has been a year of transition for all retailers — from online to brick-and-mortar and everyone in between – and it hasn't been easy. But those that stood out for the better, did so by investing in themselves — in products, stores, experiences, technology and delivery. Others, however, made headlines this year for outdated business strategies that left some stagnate and others in bankruptcy court.

Digital Media: Podcasting has always been a way for people to creatively tell stories as there’s a minimal barrier to entry and it offers a good way to find niche audiences. Last year, we saw podcasts move beyond listeners’ ears and into television and books, with writers, producers and publishers using the stories from podcasts as a way of gauging the popularity of a subject, as well as providing a jump-off point for their own content.

Digital Media: Ad buyers agree that Snapchat’s best move of the year was introducing the Snapchat Ads Manager. In May, Snapchat began allowing ad buyers to run two of the platform’s ad units, Snap Ads and sponsored filters, via a self-serve auction. The platform’s third ad unit, sponsored lenses, must still be bought through the Snapchat sales team.

Content: Unmetric, a company that analyzes engagement data across social platforms, ranks posts from brands with an engagement score from zero to 1,000. Because every platform is different, and every brand has different metrics for success, Unmetric gives scores based on the idea that some metrics (like shares and retweets) have more value for brands than others such as likes or favorites.

Retail Apocalypse: Some of the most recent retail bankruptcies have been those of the traditional mall retailers, whose businesses have suffered significantly in light of fast fashion's growth. Moreover, market giants, such as Wal-Mart and Target have wiped out a number of other companies, who were unable to compete with their pricing power and general reach. And as noted by many sources, any existing retail problems only increased when Amazon arrived on the scene.

eCommerce: While ModCloth has removed the t-shirt from its site, it has not taken any further steps to rectify the situation, which very likely amounts to copyright infringement. Yes, Pardue very likely holds copyright protection in the nail polish-bearing fists design that she created, which ModCloth is thereby infringing by recreating for its own tees.

DNVB: At Away, our ultimate goal is to be known as a global travel brand—luggage is just the beginning. We know that there’s a lot that can be improved  with the current travel experience, and we want to help fix that—for Away to become synonymous with more seamless travel.  This past September over Paris Fashion Week, we created a pop-up hotel called Chez Away it was a big success and proved what our team is capable of when we think outside the box, so we are exploring similar opportunities to activate and offer an all encompassing Away travel experience for our community in 2018.

Digital Media: Along with subscriptions, commerce has emerged as a route to monetization. One of the most interesting, if unlikely cases, is with Barstool Sports, the millennial male-aimed sports comedy site.