Money is not fungible

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Partnership with Tatari

Why Winning DTC Brands Are Getting Pickier About Their TV Partners

If you've been eyeing TV for 2026, you've seen the flood: hundreds of platforms promising to "unlock CTV for your brand." Here's what they're not saying: who you pick determines whether TV becomes a growth channel or an expensive experiment.

Most new players are programmatic-only – limited transparency, low-quality supply, and measurement that crumbles the second you scale.

The brands actually winning on TV (Jones Road Beauty, Tecovas, Ridge Wallet, Calm) use partners who offer:

• Not just programmatic, but linear, streaming, and direct publisher inventory
• Full visibility into where ads ran
• Outcomes measurement that actually works at scale

2026 will reward marketers who are thoughtful about their TV partners. The space is crowded, but the right choice actually moves the needle.

And don't forget to gut-check those shiny offers. Free ad credits? Performance guarantees? If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Start smart or switch to a reliable partner: Tatari.tv

🫙 The Hidden Jars Inside Every Wallet

Money is supposed to be logical. A dollar is a dollar. But people do not spend like spreadsheets. They spend like storytellers.

Imagine you find $50 on the sidewalk. It feels like free money, so spending it is easy. Now imagine spending the same $50 from overtime pay. Same amount, different pain. One feels like a treat. The other feels like a sacrifice.

That gap is mental accounting.

First developed by Nobel laureate Richard Thaler, the idea is simple. People sort money into mental jars like rent, savings, and fun. And they resist using the wrong jar, even when the numbers are identical.

For marketers, the job is not to change the price. It is to change which jar the purchase comes from.

1️⃣ Make Gift Cards Feel Like Play Money: Discounts reduce the pain of paying, but they still feel like real spending. Gift cards do something stronger. They move the purchase into a guilt-free bucket. Consumers treat gift card balances like hedonic funds, separate from everyday finances, which makes them more willing to indulge and spend more. 

Starbucks is a classic example. Gift cards feel like permission to splurge on lattes, not a withdrawal from savings.

2️⃣ Bundle The Pain, Separate The Joy: Multiple payments feel like multiple jabs. One combined payment feels like one hit. That is why add-ons should be bundled into a single total price so the customer pays once. But benefits should be separated and listed individually so the value feels larger. 

Car dealerships do this well. They wrap upgrades into one price, then break the features into a long list of wins. Many subscription brands do the same. The upfront cost is one psychological ouch, then the value is delivered as repeated small victories.

3️⃣ Turn Payments Into Identity Commitments: Spending hurts less when it feels like becoming someone. When a payment is framed as self-investment, it shifts into an identity jar instead of a consumption jar. Calm does not sell access to content. It sells a personal pact, like sleeping better, living calmer, and handling life with resilience. 

Suddenly, the price feels less like an expense and more like a commitment to a better version of you. This is why payments framed as rituals work across categories, from fitness to education to creator subscriptions.

The Takeaway

People do not spend based on math alone. They spend based on mental categories. If you want more conversions, stop arguing with price and start guiding the buyer to the right jar. Make money feel like play, reduce payment friction, and reframe purchases as identity-aligned commitments.

💡 How to Build a Functional App in Minutes Without Supabase

Building an app usually means stitching together tools. Backend here. Database there. Auth, hosting, payments, and endless setup in between.

A new wave of AI builders is collapsing that entire workflow into a single prompt-driven experience.

Here is how it works with Mocha.

1️⃣ Start With An Idea, Not A Stack: Go to getmocha dot com and sign up for free. Instead of choosing frameworks or services, you start by describing what you want to build. A simple prompt like “Build a deal tracking app for business owners” is enough to get started.

2️⃣ Let Setup Happen Through Questions: Mocha asks a few structured questions around login, payments, and core features. These answers act as guardrails, helping the system understand how your app should function without you touching configuration files.

3️⃣ Get A Full App Instantly: Once the setup is complete, Mocha generates everything automatically. Backend logic. Database. Authentication. User interface. Routing. Admin dashboard. There is no Supabase, no third-party glue, and no external setup required.

4️⃣ Add Features With Plain English Prompts: Need more functionality. You do not install plugins or write code. You type what you want. Add Google login. Store user data. Insert an AI chatbot that gives personalized tips. Each feature is layered on through prompts.

5️⃣ Monetize And Publish In One Flow: To add payments, you simply ask for it. For example, add a Stripe checkout for a monthly subscription. When you are ready, click Publish. Hosting and deployment are handled automatically, and your app goes live without extra steps.

The Takeaway

AI app builders like Mocha remove infrastructure friction entirely. If you can clearly describe what you want, you can ship a working app in minutes. The bottleneck is no longer the technical setup. It is the clarity of the idea.

As we prepare more "Growthful" content, we'd love to hear your thoughts on today's edition! Feel free to share this with someone who would appreciate it. 🥰