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The balance of power in the sneaker industry is shifting as legacy brands like Nike and Adidas face fresh challenges from upstarts. As newcomers including Hoka and On gain market share, Allbirds \u2014 among the category\u2019s original fleet of direct-to-consumer disruptors \u2014 has contended with slumping sales.\u00a0Now, it\u2019s looking to change the narrative with a revamped marketing strategy.<\/p>\n
Founded a decade ago, the San Francisco-based company first rose in popularity thanks to its comfortable designs and a sustainability minded ethos. Once deemed the \u201cit\u201d shoe of Silicon Valley, Allbirds saw its fortunes turn following an IPO in 2021 and overexpansion into retail. Net revenue dropped 26.8% in Q2 2024, partially due to the closure of 10 stores, though the company narrowed its losses.<\/p>\n
Allbirds this year has shaken up leadership, promoting Chief Operating Officer Joe Vernachio to CEO in March and appointing new product leads. It has debuted new shoe models that are gaining traction with consumers. The latest offering, the cushy, minimalist Tree Glider, is the biggest launch of the bunch and a key piece of a return to stronger brand building, kicking off a larger \u201cAllbirds by Nature\u201d platform.<\/p>\n\n\n
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\nAllbirds CMO Kelly Olmstead<\/p>\n
Permission granted by Allbirds<\/p>\n
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An ad campaign created with Sid Lee that landed Tuesday has a dreamy quality as people walk around in Tree Gliders before floating into the air. Messaging emphasizes the dual meaning of \u201cnature\u201d in relation to both the Earth and intrinsic human qualities. A partnership with Melissa Wood-Tepperberg, a wellness influencer and founder of Melissa Wood Health, rounds out the effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited about building a platform that can sustain us through the lens of consistency, repetition and investment, hopefully for the next five-plus years,\u201d said Kelly Olmstead, who took on the chief marketing title at Allbirds in December.<\/p>\n
Olmstead\u2019s prior roles include nearly two decades at Adidas, where she helped lead brand, retail and digital marketing for North America. Below, sister publication Marketing Dive spoke with the executive about tapping into a cult following via customer relationship management and what marketing tactics are catching her interest this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Editor\u2019s Note: The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nMARKETING DIVE: You\u2019ve been in the CMO role almost a year now?\u00a0<\/h4>\n KELLY OLMSTEAD<\/strong>: We\u2019ve been in the midst of this brand reset. I joined as a contractor and I wasn\u2019t sure about coming back to a footwear brand. I came in and just fell in love first with the people here and the spirit, we say a lot: \u201cHigh horsepower, low ego.\u201d\u00a0I was really disarmed by that. I stayed because I do think Allbirds is poised for a strong return.\u00a0<\/p>\nOne of the things that struck me out of the gate was this perfect storm of opportunity. We have an incredibly high [Net Promoter Score]. Coming from this industry, to be north of 90 on an NPS means people that know us love us. But we have very small and steady awareness, around 15% to 17%, that is hard to move. It\u2019s about telling more people about the brand and getting more people to try us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What was missing from the past marketing strategy that didn\u2019t connect those dots?\u00a0<\/h4>\n We\u2019re nine years old. Marketing takes time. What I\u2019ve been excited to do with Joe [Vernachio], with [Chief Design Officer] Adrian [Nyman] and with our agency partner, Sid Lee USA, is formulate a campaign and a platform that will endure. It has the breadth to allow us to dimensionalize great products and what\u2019s special about those products, but also can flex into this more aspirational brand space.\u00a0People that choose Allbirds are making a conscious choice for something that is a little lesser known. It\u2019s kind of counterculture,\u00a0it\u2019s not the mainstream.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How have the cross-organizational aspects of the brand changed since you joined? Did it used to be more siloed?\u00a0<\/h4>\n Joe was with the company for a few years. In assuming the CEO role, he comes in with a wealth of knowledge, not only in Allbirds, but also Mountain Hardwear, The North Face, Nike. He\u2019s done it all. He\u2019s not necessarily a CEO by trade. With this whole \u201chigh horsepower, low ego\u201d\u00a0[idea], he has really gone out and tried to break down silos.\u00a0I can\u2019t speak to what it was before but certainly now there is a spirit of all of us getting on the same page and getting a clear plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a challenging time for the business.\u00a0How are you balancing launching this new marketing with that contraction?\u00a0<\/h4>\n There\u2019s been a lot of great work done to get Allbirds to a more operationally healthy place.\u00a0What I am feeling, not only from the executive team but the board, is the willingness to invest in brand. It\u2019s the view that it has the potential to be a 100-year brand. That\u2019s a shift of the way that we market, the KPIs we\u2019re looking at. Having been at some brands that have been around for a lot longer, that\u2019s how you weather storms and downturns.\u00a0<\/p>\n\nThe balance of brand building versus performance marketing is a bigger theme I\u2019ve covered. Allbirds is natively DTC. How is the organization thinking about media differently?\u00a0<\/h4>\n There\u2019s been changes in terms of operations. Performance marketing used to sit with e-commerce, now it sits with marketing. We\u2019ve been able to look at the performance of assets and stories and react to those to get to the best work. That\u2019s been a huge benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a more modern way to look at a platform, whether it\u2019s YouTube or Netflix or even TikTok, to entertain, to give the consumer something valuable so that you earn their attention. If not, they\u2019re done in 3 seconds. We\u2019re hoping to articulate the Allbirds story, which is unique and not something you\u2019re going to get in 3 seconds. We\u2019re looking at longer-format content, where Allbirds may not be the first thing you see, but hopefully you get a lot of value out of what we\u2019re putting forward.<\/p>\n
You mentioned a couple of platforms, like Netflix and TikTok. Are you advertising on those platforms?<\/h4>\n We\u2019re on YouTube with this most recent campaign. We\u2019re on TikTok and all of social. What\u2019s coming in Q4 is still not baked, but we\u2019re looking at what the right platform is to build a more robust story for Allbirds. In the space of footwear, it\u2019s such an emotional purchase and there\u2019s such high consideration that you have to do the work.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an interesting time for footwear, generally. Nike and Adidas have both struggled with challenger brands. Do you think of yourself as being within that set?<\/h4>\n Absolutely. Allbirds was one of the first to come in and disrupt. I was sitting at Adidas and saying, \u201cWho are these guys?\u201d\u00a0Allbirds was really at the forefront of challenging the big dogs and doing it in a way where they walk the talk. Very few brands will open source some of the secrets that make them great. That was my first exposure [to Allbirds]. We did a collaboration between Allbirds and Adidas on what was, at the time, the most sustainable shoe on the market.\u00a0There is a real opportunity that Allbirds helped to create.\u00a0<\/p>\n\nI think of shoes as being bucketed into streetwear, sports performance and comfort. Is there any one of those or a mix of them that you\u2019re looking for Allbirds to have a bigger stake in?<\/h4>\n In the last couple of years, we\u2019ve really put forward this story around sustainability because that is a leadership space for us.\u00a0The \u201cAllbirds by Nature\u201d\u00a0campaign realizes that nature is a much bigger, more aspirational position.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEffortless by nature\u201d\u00a0is the line that we are associating with the Tree Glider. You see this maximalist, overdone viz tech [from other brands]. The Tree Glider is really interesting in its ability to be comfortable but it has the confidence to not have an overt logo. That was an intentional design choice from the inception. There is a real opportunity to have a more sophisticated take.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tell me more about the Sid Lee relationship. Is this their first work for you?\u00a0<\/h4>\n It is. Both Joe and I, separately, had a relationship with Sid Lee before.\u00a0We brought in Sid Lee and it was a true collaboration. When we got to \u201cby nature,\u201d it was so simple but it does have breadth. You can articulate product benefit, aspirational human benefit and style benefit. It\u2019s the consistency that we need. We\u2019re too small to be telling different stories all the time.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re in the thick of back to school and holidays are coming up. What\u2019s your plan for H2?<\/h4>\n The Tree Glider launch will be our biggest push, certainly since I\u2019ve been here. We\u2019re excited to be back in streaming, TV and true awareness channels to articulate what Allbirds is about and do it in a more distinctive, ownable way. Going into Q4, we\u2019re looking into deeper stories we can tell and maybe more longer-format content in addition to everything we do on social and within the digital and retail space and with influencers. It is, we believe, a story we\u2019ll be telling well into Q1. We see this as the first step and the hope is, by Q3 of next year, that we\u2019re in a rhythm in terms of marketing and investment.<\/p>\n
Is there anything new tactically or in terms of technology in 2024 that you\u2019re particularly excited about?\u00a0<\/h4>\n We haven\u2019t been at a place where we can push into awareness-driving efforts, so partners, influencers and awareness channels. That\u2019s certainly not a new tactic, but it\u2019s something that we haven\u2019t been as invested in. For the launch of the Tree Glider, we partnered with Melissa Wood-Tepperberg. I don\u2019t believe she partners with brands she doesn\u2019t truly believe in because her credibility is at stake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We have a pretty exceptional CRM program that we own [called C360]. It\u2019s the ability to have almost too clear of a picture. More data is not necessarily better. Just recently, we brought in new team members that have helped us build a solid strategy around how to unlock that, how to prioritize what we do with it. They are thinking about how to use personalized marketing and CRM in a much stronger way that helps us put the right products in front of customers at the right time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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