Hot Sauces & Future Commerce v2: Conspiracy TheoryThe Killers have released a hot sauce collab, each named after one of their albums.Phillip used to listen to conspiracy theory radio as a child and was exposed to conspiracies about the X-Files being a vehicle to desensitize us to alien life.Elements of Disney’s The Mandalorian could be seen as a conspiracy theory: Baby Yoda, being cute in his vehicle by The Mandalorian’s side, could be allowing us to normalize putting our children in pandemic-proof bubbles.What Is Mixy?“It’s a place to get your brand out in front of new people.” - Daniel DixonMixy is a marketplace that helps DTC brands get their brand discovered by new consumers and incentivize those consumers by saving them money.Daniel came from the DTC world from an omnichannel sports nutrition brand. Mixy came from working inside of a brand and working as a consultant for brands—trying to solve the problem of encouraging consumers to try new brands.Mixy provides consumers with five $20 gift cards under the stipulation that they can’t spend it all in the same place, which encourages them to try new brands.Mixy solves challenges in DTC by bringing like-minded brands together and benefits customers in the form of discount without brands actually discounting.Mixy is bringing bundling, which has been done in the digital product space, to physical products.The Future for MixyAs for now, Mixy is only integrated with Shopify and would like to expand to new platforms.“When [consumers] think of gift cards, they think of Nike or Amazon… They’re not thinking of gift cards for great small to medium sized DTC brands.” - Daniel Dixon on how Mixy is getting consumers comfortable with using gift cards for smaller brands.Mixy is looking into expanding their product selection, currently adding one brand every week. These brands are curated and fit together to be mutually beneficial to brands and consumers.LinksCheck out Season Four of Step by Step, where we talk about competing with big brands as a smaller DTC brand.Read Phillip’s article on dead celebrities: Insiders #059: “Virtual Influencers Killed The Dead Celebrity”.Check out Future Commerce Episode 29: “Body Data is the Next Revolution”Subscribe to our new weekly newsletter, The Senses. If you have any comments or questions about this episode, you can reach out to us at hello@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels. We love hearing from our listeners! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.