About this episode

Matt Heckathorn discusses innovative strategies for gifting in digital marketing and the role of AI at Wolfe.

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Gifting is one of the biggest reasons people buy online, and most brands never build for it on purpose. Matt Heckathorn runs digital marketing at Wolfe, the company behind Gift Card Granny, PerfectGift.com, and GiftYa. His ICP is close to everyone, which kills the usual narrow-audience playbook and forces a different approach to growth. What you will learn: How a bottom-of-funnel team moved into CTV, programmatic, and out-of-home without losing measurement Why CTV retargeting outperformed what Matt expected, and how scale made brand channels measurable How Wolfe uses second-tier DMAs to test incrementality before spending up How gift card fraud actually works at the physical retail level, and why it shapes the product Where Wolfe is drawing its AI line: creative and fulfillment yes, fully agentic media buying not yet The cost problem almost nobody is planning for as AI usage scales Who this is for: DTC operators and growth leads working top of funnel, anyone selling into gifting, and marketers thinking through where AI fits in a real team. What to steal: The second-tier DMA incrementality test, the recipient-first product…

People in this episode

Guest: Matt Heckathorn

Topics covered

• gifting
• digital marketing
• CTV
• AI in marketing
• incrementality testing
• growth strategies

Keywords

• gifting
• digital marketing
• CTV
• AI
• incrementality
• growth
• gift card fraud
• programmatic
• out-of-home

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wolfe, Gift Card Granny, PerfectGift.com, GiftYa, DTC Newsletter

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