For example, virtual influencer Noonoouri starred with Chinese actor Li Xian in a campaign for luxury menswear brand Ermenegildo Zegna, and Luo Tianyi has endorsed major consumer brands including Gillette, KFC, Pizza Hut, Tide, beverage brand Vitasoy, and local cosmetics company Pechoin.

Consumer packaged goods giant Procter & Gamble not only produces inclusive campaigns for its brands—including Gillette, Tampax, and Tide—but it also uses its corporate platform to elevate diverse voices about important topics related to identity, inequity, and exclusion. P&G doesn’t shy away from difficult or controversial issues, either.

“You'd expect an HP or an Intel to get behind esports because they have gaming business units, but when you see Sephora backing a European esports professional tournament last year, or Gillette, or other nonendemic brands, it shows that the everyday, mainstream consumer is interested in esports,” Hand said.

Men’s personal care brand Harry’s is pushing sleek holiday razor gift sets as it continues to encroach on market leader Gillette. And D2C beverage startup Haus released a seasonal Bitter Clove aperitif. “D2C brands are savvy and innovative marketers that find ways to stand out amid the noise, and there’s no more noisy time than the holidays,” Lipsman said.

Simple and to the point: The Gillette razor blades you’re used to buying, behind lock-and-key at the store, are unnecessarily expensive and a hassle to buy. Ours aren’t. Though we didn’t realize it at the time, this brand and this video mapped out a challenger strategy that has become infused into the DNA of so many D2C brands we see today. Undercut on price and emphasize value? Check.

Men’s personal care brand Harry’s is pushing sleek holiday razor gift sets as it continues to encroach on market leader Gillette. And D2C beverage startup Haus released a seasonal Bitter Clove aperitif. D2C brands are savvy and innovative marketers that find ways to stand out amid the noise, and there’s no more noisy time than the holidays.

A common example of one such successful D2C brand is Dollar Shave Club, which is taking on giants like Gillette and winning. Another is smartphone manufacturer OnePlus. In 2014, the Chinese startup launched its first handset, the OnePlus 1, with no marketing budget and no warehouse inventory to speak of.

“My daughter will ask me for the iPad, she’ll throw on something about slime, and she gets a Gillette commercial as part of her content.”. The Screen Time Issue Won’t Go Away. Kids’ screen time was already an issue when the screen was a black-and-white contraption showing Howdy Doody. With more options nowadays, kids make the most of them.

Simple and to the point: The Gillette razor blades you’re used to buying, behind lock and key at the store, are unnecessarily expensive and a hassle to buy. Ours aren’t. Little did anyone realize at the time that this challenger brand sending a shot across the bow to one of the biggest and most prominent consumer brands marked the beginning of the D2C movement.