Former AOL chief Tim Armstrong is joining the chase for direct-to-consumer brands’ marketing budgets with a new venture called Unbox that will help DTC companies hawk their products.

Unbox will offer technology, marketing capabilities and events that clients will be able to use to find, track and communicate with customers, Mr. Armstrong said.

An early item on the agenda is to host pop-up events across the country, starting this September in Ohio, and later in Indiana and Michigan. At each stop, Unbox trucks will host programming promoting DTC brands throughout the day—experiences that fit into an exercise and diet theme in the morning, perhaps, and entertainment in the evening.

Unbox is part of Dtx, a company recently formed by Mr. Armstrong to invest in DTC startups.

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Unlike the social-media platforms where most DTC brands find their first customers, Unbox will give marketers access to the consumer data it collects, Mr. Armstrong said. The information might include email addresses from consumers who consent to data sharing when they download the Unbox app, or details of how a user interacted with the brand at an event or after seeing an ad.

“Unbox is really the evolution of our direct-to-consumer strategy,” he said. “Brands want lower customer-acquisition cost. They want ownership of data.”

“One thing we’ve seen with direct-to-consumer, which we think is going to be very big as a future part of the internet, is the ability to move from the platforms to ecosystems where there’s a lot more direct connectivity [with consumers].”

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The group will promote clients’ brands through Unbox-labeled content and ads on TV, billboards and digital media. The ads will have codes that can be scanned with a smartphone to redirect consumers to a brand video or e-commerce site. Unbox also plans to publish catalogs of DTC products.

Clients will pay a one-time “commitment fee,” in addition to payments based on performance metrics such as website visits through an Unbox channel or code.

Mr. Armstrong’s new venture comes as traditional marketing channels, like TV networks, make a play for the growing budgets of popular direct-to-consumer brands that grew up online. Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, for example, is offering DTC brands TV advertising packages that include creative support and measurement, in partnership with ad agency Giant Spoon.

Such efforts aren’t likely to usurp the social-media platforms, whose size, technology and data have propelled sales for both startups and large brands in recent years.

“If you looked at the platform companies overall, they’ve been very successful and we expect them to keep being successful,” said Mr. Armstrong. “We think that by directly connecting consumers and brands, it’s giving them the ability to unbox that relationship and have a direct connection.”

As well as the Unbox launch, Dtx announced several executive hires: Paul Cappuccio, previously general counsel of Time Warner, as vice chairman; Jennifer Deason, former executive vice president at Sotheby’s, as chief financial officer; Rich Przekop, former product executive at Jet.com, as chief product officer; and Jim Norton, former chief business officer and president of revenue at Condé Nast, as chief revenue officer.

The company is also planning to create a “National DTC Day” on Nov. 15 to spur sales for DTC brands.

Write to Alexandra Bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com