Warby Parker. Everlane. Casper. MVMT. Bombas. Harry’s. The list of these digitally native, direct-to-consumer (DTC) challenger brands goes on and on — and incumbent consumer brands have taken notice almost as quickly as consumers themselves have turned to these up-and-comers for the products and services they need.

But questions abound about what’s driving the increased supply and demand for these new brands across nearly every industry you can think of. Why are consumers flocking to try them? Are they primarily driven by product quality? Price? Convenience? Company values and cutting out the middleman?

And for the challenger DTC brands themselves: Can they scale their businesses enough to truly compete with major multinational brands? Do they even want to? And what does it mean that, while their launch strategies are a sharp departure from the extremely expensive and extensive launch strategies of old, many of these brands are now adding TV ads, celebrity endorsers, and retail locations to their influencer-rich marketing strategies?

Yes, there’s a ton of excitement around the new wave of DTC brands, and they’re taking enough market share to demand being taken seriously. But it’s important to get beyond the hype and truly understand what’s driving this trend so that both the nimble DTC companies and their much larger established competitors can make the best decisions about how to sustain and grow their businesses in the future.

And that’s exactly what this year’s Consumer Marketing 2019 Forum is all about. Join us April 2–3, 2019 at the New York Marriott Marquis, where we’ll explore all angles of the DTC revolution with hot-off-the-presses data and analyst insight. We’ve already confirmed some incredible industry speakers who you won’t want to miss, such as Luke Droulez, CMO of Parachute, Jennifer Goldfarb, cofounder and executive chairwoman of the board at ipsy, and Josh Wolff, VP of customer at ThirdLove.

We hope to see you there! You can register now.