Allbirds Goes All In With Stanley Tucci Dinner Party Series

Can you imagine being immersed in a party in a cottage in the countryside with your dream dinner guests? Thanks to Allbirds and Stanley Tucci, that dream is becoming a reality.

Today, Allbirds premiered Cards on the Table, a four-part series where actor and host Stanley Tucci throws a dream dinner party with various notable guests.

The series, an extension of the “Allbirds By Nature” campaign launched last year, was developed by Allbirds in partnership with OBB Pictures and Salt Productions. The 20-minute episodes air weekly through distribution from Rolling Stone and on YouTube, with content also streaming on the brand’s site and social media channels.

In each episode, Tucci gathers a diverse lineup of guests for a “dream dinner party” that unpacks each person’s unique nature and uncovers surprising commonalities through personal and unscripted stories. The discussion is driven by a deck of cards—curated by psychoanalyst Dr. Orna Guralnik of Showtime’s Couples Therapy—to push the conversations deeper.

Featured guests include TV host and designer Tan France; Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz; singer-songwriter Mel C; actors Henry Golding, Sophie Turner, and Molly Ringwald; and more.

Kelly Olmstead, Allbirds CMO, said when the company was in the process of developing the series, they wanted to build on the campaign’s idea of creative inspiration from mother and human nature, with sustainability at the core.

“One of our core values at the company is curiosity, and so this idea of bringing together people that inspire our brand, inspire the people that are running our brand, and just asking questions and getting to know what makes people tick—what’s in their own unique nature—was the impetus behind extending that into a content series,” Olmstead told ADWEEK.

Olmstead said with more noise and competition than ever before, the brand wanted to figure out new, innovative ways to connect and share content with consumers but also give them something that was valuable.

The Allbirds CMO added that the series is all a part of the brand’s digital marketing strategy, which focuses on long-form content. Though All Birds has released short-form content in the past, this will be the first long-form series the brand is releasing, and the company is looking for it to help fuel a “larger digital ecosystem” across platforms, according to Olmstead.

“Putting out 20 to 25-minute episodes is a swing, and we’re excited about that,” Olmstead said. “It’s different. It’s a deeper, longer conversation. It’s going to be a bigger, more lasting exchange with our brand.”

Elias Tanner, svp, strategy & growth at OBB Pictures—which has previously worked with brands on long-form projects such as Old Spice and Kevin Hart’s Cold as Balls and Rhode and Hailey Bieber’s Who’s In My Bathroom?—said he worked closely with the Allbirds leadership team, which included Olmstead, CEO Joe Vernachio, and Adrian Nyman, chief design officer, to bring the series to life.

Though multiple directions were considered, Tanner explained that Vernachio’s idea of a dream dinner party kept coming to the forefront.

“It felt like the most natural, relatable setting for the Allbirds audience to dig into these questions about human nature,” Tanner said. “At the best dinner parties, you’re having a laugh, maybe learning something new from someone new, but you’re also letting your guard down and getting to be your most comfortable self—all of which is key to the Allbirds brand.”

According to Tanner, though the series was new territory for the brand, Allbirds wanted to “swing for the fences” with the dinner party concept and a host like Stanley Tucci.

“They trusted us,” Tanner said. “Because we all knew we had a shared understanding of the brand ethos and were working out the right way to bring that to the audience.”

By launching its first long-form series, Allbirds continues the ongoing trend of non-entertainment brands getting into the space and releasing content and programming of their own.

For example, Chili’s recently premiered a 15-minute short TV romcom on Lifetime in honor of National Margarita Day. Meanwhile, Fox’s ad-supported streaming service Tubi also worked with Mischief to create movie trailers for brands like e.l.f cosmetics, Nerds, and Poppi, announcing that the trailers could be developed into Tubi Originals during Super Bowl 59.

“I do think the reason that you’re seeing more of this—and from probably unexpected places—is because people respect consumer choice, and we know that in order to earn that view from a consumer, it has to be something of value to them,” Olmstead said.