For all their trendiness and disruptive rhetoric, most direct-to-consumer brands do nothing new, and ultimately rely on traditional marketing and retail channels to scale and grow.

If you have a big budget, it makes little sense to leave the most effective medium out of the mix, as Gap has done by rejecting TV for its Christmas ad.

The outspoken marketing pundit, who's in Toronto for a thinktv event next week, also spoke about the importance of code-ifying ads.