Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

SPECIAL GUEST!! Wunderkind's Daniela Cubillos ⏰ STOP Discounting, START Gating the Clock | Ep. 580

October 23, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Discount Trap: Why Black Friday Shoppers Are Gaming Your System

Daniela Cubillos, from the performance marketing powerhouse Wunderkind, drops a sobering reality on marketers preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday: the tactics that worked for years are now backfiring. Wunderkind, which analyzes over 9 billion devices and 1 billion consumer profiles annually, has released a new BFCM shopper report that challenges several sacred cows of holiday marketing. The data reveals that consumers have adapted to standard promotional strategies in ways that quietly drain marketing budgets.

The Retargeting Paradox

Retargeting remains the single biggest spend category for most marketers, but Cubillos argues it has become a "leaky funnel." The core problem is technical: brands have a minimal 24-hour window to track a shopper and bring them back to a site. When a consumer switches devices or browsers—starting a search on iPhone but checking out on desktop, for example—that cookie window disappears entirely. Marketers end up spending more money to reacquire the same customer they already had.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Intro & Guest Welcome** - Jay introduces Daniela Cubillos from Wunderkind and the new BFCM Shopper Report.
2 (01:35) **Retargeting is the Top Spend, But It's Leaking Budget** - Daniela explains why retargeting campaigns are underperforming despite being the #1 investment.
3 (02:21) **The Fix: Audience Suppression, Not Just Inclusion** - A tactical pivot from who to target to who to exclude.
4 (03:40) **Integrated Audiences & Cross-Platform Suppression** - How to operationalize suppression across channels.
5 (04:08) **40% of Shoppers Game the Cart Abandonment Flow** - The old discount-based cart recovery tactic is breaking.
6 (05:03) **Stop Discounting, Start Gating the Clock** - The core psychological shift: FOMO via time pressure, not price cuts.
7 (06:20) **Identity Resolution vs. Fake Emails & Cross-Device Shopping** - Why tracking the person, not just the email, matters.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

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Download Wunderkind’s free report, The Battle for the BFCM Shopper, and connect with Daniela Cubillos on LinkedIn.

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Holiday shoppers have gotten very good at gaming brands, and a lot of the classic Black Friday playbook is quietly paying for it. Jay Schwedelson digs into fresh Wunderkind data with Daniela Cubillos to find where holiday budgets are leaking and what gets someone to buy when another discount won’t. If your BFCM plan is basically bigger coupons and more retargeting, this one is worth your time.

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Best Moments:

(01:45) Retargeting eats the most budget, but a tiny 24-hour window leaves a leaky funnel

(04:04) 40% of holiday shoppers abandon carts on purpose and wait for the discount email