Cakes Body's $100M DTC Brand Builds Media Arm to Own Its Audience

For retail and DTC operators, Cakes Body's shift from TikTok virality to an owned media ecosystem is a strategic lesson in customer acquisition costs and lifetime value. The brand's first 57-minute documentary on YouTube, already over 371,600 views, isn't just content — it's a top-of-funnel asset that can be clipped into shoppable moments across short-form platforms. Owning the media layer could reduce dependency on TikTok's algorithm while extending the brand's ability to convert attention into repeat purchases.

Cakes Body, a beauty brand built almost entirely on TikTok virality, is making a structural move to turn that rented attention into an owned media asset. The company launched Cakes Media last week, an internal entertainment division designed to 'operationalize virality in a way that makes our overall business more profitable,' according to co-founder and chief creative officer Taylor Capuano. Founded in 2022 by twin sisters Capuano and Casey Sarai, Cakes Body grossed $100 million in sales in three years without traditional brand marketing spend, instead relying on founder-led storytelling and TikTok videos that have drawn comparisons to viral consumer brands like Bogg Bag and Stanley. The company has appeared on Shark Tank and has become a fixture in social media feeds through a mix of its own founder content and creator content. Now, as Cakes expands its footprint, the co-founders are using Cakes Media to build social-first content and owned media designed to live across digital and streaming platforms.

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The $100 million revenue figure is impressive for a three-year-old company, but content production at scale can become a line-item drag if the link between views and sales is not carefully tracked.

The first proof point is a 57-minute documentary on YouTube that has already surpassed 371,600 views. That long-form asset is intended to be mined and clipped for short-form platforms, effectively turning one production investment into a continuous content supply chain for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. To lead the effort, Cakes hired Caley Wildermuth, a former Red Bull executive, as head of content. The hire signals a deliberate import of playbook expertise from Red Bull Media House, one of the earliest and most successful examples of a brand building its own media studio. In doing so, Cakes joins a running list of brands creating internal studios to roll out television shows, films, and microseries.

The strategic logic is grounded in control and authenticity. Capuano told Digiday that 'to have that humanness and personality come through, it's hard to outsource that [organic social content] to an agency.' That statement reflects a broader tension in modern brand marketing: organic, founder-led content thrives on imperfection and immediacy, qualities that traditional agency processes often flatten. By bringing creative in-house, Cakes aims to preserve the raw voice that made it viral while moving beyond one-off viral moments toward a repeatable content engine. Notably, Cakes is not in-housing everything. It still outsources media buying to agency partners, keeping a hybrid model where creative ownership sits internally but paid distribution remains external.

From a market perspective, the move is a bet that entertainment has become the new price of admission for consumer attention. As the Digiday article observes, brands must earn attention by offering entertaining content, not just interruptive advertising. Cakes Media is Cakes' answer to that challenge. The company is essentially building a DTC brand's version of a media network, where long-form documentaries and episodic content serve as the top of the funnel, and short-form clips drive discovery and conversion back to its beauty products. If successful, this model could reduce dependence on third-party algorithms and lower effective customer acquisition costs over time by creating a proprietary audience.