For Elizabeth Banks, Entrepreneurship Is Like Acting: Unconventional Is The Only Way

0:10Hello friends, I'm Ray Latif and you're listening to the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage, taste radio. This episode features an interview with actress, director, and producer Elizabeth Banks and entrepreneur Marian Leitner, the co-owners of fast-growing canned wine brand Archer Roos. A bold and carefree woman, a living embodiment of human adventure, a confident explorer known to travel the world atop a moose, Archer Roos, the fictional character that Marian Leitner created to represent her wine brand in name and label design, is all of those things. One could say the same thing, except for the moose part, about Elizabeth Banks, the Hollywood multi-hyphenate known for acting roles in the films The Hunger Games and Love and Mercy, and as the director of comedies Pitch Perfect 2 and Cocaine Bear.

1:05Aligned in personality and passion for life, a pairing of Elizabeth and Archer Roos was made formal in May of 2021 when the former joined the wine company as a co-owner and chief creative officer. The partnership came seven years after Marion and husband David Waldman launched Archer Russe, a brand developed to, quote, deliver a better, luxurious glass of wine in a conveniently portable, sensibly portioned, and environmentally conscious package. Archer Russe markets six varieties of wine, including Sauvignon Blanc, Malbec, Pinot Grigio, and a bubbly rosé, each packaged in 250 milliliter cans and sold individually and in four packs.

1:46The brand is represented in thousands of bars, restaurants, and retailers across the U.S., including Target, Sprouts, and Total Wine and More. Archer Roos is also the exclusive wine brand on JetBlue flights and in March partnered with Regal to bring its bubbly and Malbec cans into over 100 theaters nationwide. I recently sat down with Elizabeth and Marion for a conversation about the origins of their relationship and how they built rapport, trust, and set expectations for each other. They also discuss how they incorporate a sense of adventure, breaking rules and relatable humor into Archer Roos' marketing strategy, and why entering Target meant being able to swing at a pitch they could hit.

2:32Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am honored to be sitting down with Marion Lightner and Elizabeth Banks, the co-owners of Archer Roos. Marion, great to see you. Great to see you. And I'm excited to see you've got some cans next to you, which means we'll be drinking during this podcast. I will definitely be drinking during our conversation. Elizabeth, I hope you have some cans too. You know, now I feel a little left out. I mean, they're right across the room and I am thinking about standing up and grabbing one, but it's 10 a.m. where I am here in L.A. Yeah, I slightly frowned upon to be drinking wine at 10 a.m.

3:07Yeah, Saturday morning, maybe I'd be getting away with it, but I probably won't get away with it today. What if you just close your curtains and pretend like you're in Europe? Then you could drink and have no problems. Are you in my brain? That's where I'd like to transform myself to most mornings. Well, I got to tell you, I feel like we're on the same wavelength, Elizabeth. And people who are listeners of this show know that my dream job is and will always be to host Press Your Luck. And I grew up idolizing Peter Tamarkin. Yeah. And when I saw that the show was being turned into a modern version of the show with you hosting it, I was like, this is incredible.

3:46And the fact that you're sticking to the same format as the original, not like that whammy thing that came in like the mid 2000s, that was not good. No, the real Press Your Luck. That's right. And it's so near and dear to my heart. And I hope you I know you enjoy it. It's actually one of my favorite jobs ever, ever, ever in Hollywood. You know, it's, it's, um, first of all, I love, I loved the original as well. I love hearing from fans who loved the original. I loved Peter rest his soul. I feel so fortunate because his family reached out to me to say that they were really happy with the reboot as well, which meant the world to me.

4:23And, um, I just have so much fun doing it. You know, guess what? We get to bring people into Hollywood from all over and hopefully hand them life-changing money, you know, and they have fun doing it. And I tell you, our producers do the best job. All the contestants go through contestant bootcamp and they really become very close. Like they hang out after, like it's, anyone who comes becomes part of the Pressure Luck family. That's the thing I think I'm most proud of is that we've really created like the entire family, Everybody loves it. It's everyone's favorite job. It is an amazing... Thank you for bringing it up.

5:00And we drink a lot of Archer Roos behind the scenes. Well done. Yeah. I think, you know, giving away loads of money, making people happy and creating, I guess, lifelong relationships among your guests. What could be a better job than that? Other than being a co-owner of Archer Roos. You're not wrong. Having a wine company is pretty fun too. Yeah. Yeah. Marion, you know, when I first saw the video that announced Elizabeth as the uninvited house guest and also the new spokesperson for Archer Bruce, it's kind of weird. The first thing that came to mind was Fight Club, because I kind of thought about Marion as this sort of upstanding, organized citizen, as the Ed Norton character.

5:47and Elizabeth has this sort of chaos causing Brad Pitt. You're both Tyler Durden, but just different versions of that person. I love that comparison. Which one am I though? You're Brad Pitt. You're the - Okay, good. Oh, good. Yeah, I'm the chaos machine in this whole thing. I think that's a really fun comparison. Marion did not need me. I will say this. like she when I met her I was like oh I just want to be in business with this woman I mean she had she had a lot of plans she's got an incredible drive and she knew what she was doing I mean I really just I was so impressed I meet a lot of fancy people and I was exceedingly impressed by Marion by the business plan by what we wanted to do in this category with canning the wine how we were going to make it still taste great, how it was like a lifestyle brand.

6:46You know, she sent it to me. This is all during the pandemic. I was living in Utah for part of the time. I had cans of wine like floating down the river with me. And I was like, I get it. I get why this is going to work for people. I just thought she was the bee's knees. So I will happily be her Tyler Durden. And I feel like Fight Club is a really great analogy for what's happening in the wine industry today, which is like, I kind of been joking that we've been predicting this wine apocalypse for a long time and now it's kind of here. And Archer Roos is ready for it because we have been ready to bring, like recognize that like the old way of doing things is done and we need to embrace a whole new outlook on the industry, way to reach out to consumers, bringing in that agent of chaos to like make this industry more fun and accessible.

7:40and like there is nobody I mean literally from the get-go it's always embarrassing to say this but like before Elizabeth even knew of me or even knew of canned wine I was like she would be the best business partner ever and it's honestly been that way so just really lucky to be on this journey and uh our knuckles are only a little bloody right Elizabeth a little yeah no it's mostly we're we It's us against the world, Marion. That's what you meant to say. That's exactly what I meant to say. Honestly, I think this is just a real opportunity to reshape the industry to be consumer oriented and recognize that the trends that exist today are about how can I control my consumption?

8:25How can I control what I put in my body? Wine is already a great fundamental product when it's low intervention and there's high quality and a great story. But what's missing is delivery, like both how we market to the consumer and educate the consumer. And then, of course, how we allow them to only have just a glass of wine, because fundamentally, most of us can only really as much as I'd love to be able to have a bottle of wine every night. I can't. And so being able to just have that glass, that's fundamentally what alternative packaging is all about. I'm going to have a glass right now of your rosé.

9:02Well, it's in a can. I don't have a glass, as I told Marion prior to hopping on the mic, so I hope that's okay. Yeah. We always love to say that Archer Roost tastes best out of a glass, but it's in a can for a reason, so you can drink it wherever you want. And also, Ray, if what you're really telling us is that you take your bottle of wine directly to the face, we don't judge that either. I haven't done that in a while, but, you know, I'm not going to frown upon that either. This is the rosé. I hope it's chilled. It is chilled, of course. Of course, yes. These have been sitting out for three, four days and I just wanted to get, no, I'm just kidding.

9:39Nothing better than a tepid rosé. For sure. For sure. I'm sure some of our listeners are going to be like, okay, wow, Marianne and Elizabeth have this great partnership, amazing relationship. They're both working together to change the wine industry. But how did Marianne meet Elizabeth? How did Elizabeth sign on, you know, to become part of this? And how does this relationship work? Let's be honest here, right? Like there is a graveyard filled of celebrity alcohol partnerships. And I knew from the get-go that that's not what we wanted to build. So ever since we were an itty-bitty brand, you know, just around our dining room table, trying to build something that could be a better glass of wine, we knew that we wanted to build something where we were really brand first.

10:23And rather than kind of romanticize and have images of bucolic vineyards, we instead really focus on our values. So quality, because honestly, it doesn't matter if the format's convenient, if there isn't a replacement pour, we wanted it to be transparent so that you had all the ingredients listed on the back. There was no unnecessary additives that you also had the story of the people, place and practices behind the wine. But fundamentally, we also just wanted to talk to consumers differently. And we wanted to build a craft wine brand. And that's really where Elizabeth has kind of always sat in the back of like, as we were building this brand, we wanted to create an icon, an image that was memorable.

11:09Because how many of us have had a bottle of wine, said that we loved it and then never find it again because you can't remember what it's called, right? And this way we wanted to have an image that you would always remember and would stick in your brain and that we could then translate into a whole philosophy of how we talk about consumers. So be a little whimsical, be funny. And frankly, there's only one person that combines like the sophistication and that whimsy with also an unimpeachable sense of humor. That's Elizabeth Banks. And so I always knew like, this is it. Now, how do I make this happen?

11:47And what I was so thrilled about was that she wanted to come on board and take this journey with us. There was a real confluence of things that happened, to be honest, on my side of it as well. One was that I recently refound this, Marianne, and I'll send you a photo of it. But I had gone on like a women's weekend pre-pandemic with some friends and we were all talking about, okay, like we're getting to middle age. Like what is the next, you know, part of our life going to look like? And we literally all made vision boards, okay? So we made vision boards and I am really proud to say it's one of the things that I put on my vision board was smart water, which was I thought like I was like, okay, this is like celebrities got involved with this brand.

12:33They've all made a lot of money, but like I just had it on there. I was like, I knew there was something out there for me that was meant for me. That was more specifically like meant for me to be a part of, but I knew that I wanted to have something. And, you know, it's so funny because then when canned wine comes across the, you know, your transom here and you're like, okay, this is exactly who I am, which is what Marion is saying. It's like, I like high quality things and I'm, you know, I'm learning to be a little fancier in life, but that's not how I grew up. You know, and I like things that are convenient.

13:12And I also, I don't want to, I want things to have a little bit of attitude. I want to break down some doors. I want to have incredible female partners. Like this just checked tons of boxes for me. And the product is great. And it really sort of does feel like a representation of who I am as a person, which is let's take the product really seriously, but also let's not take any of this too seriously because life is short and let's have fun. And I just love that that was the attitude Marian wanted to bring to building this company because we knew that if we did it ourselves, it would translate to our consumer, that they would feel the energy that we're trying to put into this brand, that they would want to join us on the journey of like, yeah, let's have fun when we're drinking wine together.

13:57We all have these like wine clubs and the book clubs and the mommy wine thing and the bloggers. And it's like, it is fun. There's a reason that all exists. It's connecting women and it's connecting people together. That's what a great glass of wine does. It like brings out a really fun time for people. That's what I was here to get behind. It was very, it's been very exciting. One of the words you use is so intrinsic to how we feel about things, which is we like to say where we're fancy meets schmancy. Yes, that's right. And it's in that like we do take our wine really seriously. We've been partnering with the University of Cornell and Anardis for more than seven years on research around canned wine, because I think we should all acknowledge like we've all had terrible canned wines.

14:44And I think one of the misses of the first wave of that the industry kind of, as they dipped their toe into this arena was that they didn't take the time to really understand how do you optimize the perfect pour from a can. And that's what we've been doing. And our research has now been recognized for that. And so that you couple that replacement pour with the ability to then say, we're going to place this in your life. We're going to film a commercial about Elizabeth Banks folding laundry and drinking a glass of wine, because that's something we can all relate to. And it's about being able to really translate this to your life, as opposed to an ideal that feels very far away.

15:32I'm not the kind of person who folds laundry. I hate folding laundry. But I will say when I do sweep the floor or mop, I will typically have a glass of wine or something else in my hand. And now that I have some archer ruse, I feel like this is going to be even easier for me to do those tasks. It's interesting when I go back to the question of how did you meet and the fact that Elizabeth has this sort of multi-hyphenate vibe about her. You're a director, you're an actor, you're a comedian, you do all these different things. Did you want to be a consumer brand owner as well? Was this something that you were looking at?

16:06You're like, I would love to own a brand or own part of a brand? I was. I was actively looking for things that I could invest in, get behind, stand with, and not just as the face. You know, that was also what I loved about this opportunity was I really felt like Marion was inviting me in as a partner, as someone who had like a say, a seat at the table, if you will, you know, and who understood that like I've been building brands, whether it's the Pitch Perfect movies or Cocaine Bear, you know, every time we put together a movie or a TV show, like we have to then figure out like, who's the audience?

16:44How do we get it to them? What's the distribution? You know, there actually were some really interesting crossovers here. And I did want to sort of expand myself, you know, I I've been building a relationship and a trust with an audience for 20 plus years. And I did feel like, what else could I do? I mean, I just never want to be put into boxes. You know, I never want to feel like anybody knows what I'm going to do next. I love surprising people. I like surprising myself. And I love the continued learning that I'm doing as an adult businesswoman. And I love the fact that like Liz is a real businesswoman.

17:21And like, I get to learn from that piece. And it's really challenged us around how we think about partnerships. So a great example of this is Regal. So we were just announced as the new wine in their concessions. And Liz really said, like, this is not just a placement. This now needs to be a example of how we're going to create true partnership activation. And so we're doing screenings, you know, with them across the country. And we are, you know, creating cool events that people can come together and get excited about going to the movies again. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think prior to Archerus getting into Regal, I mean, what was the wine available?

18:08I don't want to name names, but it wasn't very good. No, you know, but it's also that I really believe that I think we've all had this experience of Marion, you mentioned it before, like you, you find a great wine when you're having a great time and you want to be able to remember it. And so I just love the notion that people can be at the movie theater, having their Friday night out, have their glass of wine while they're watching their movie. I want to replicate Netflix and chill at the movie theater because I still think leaving the house is really fun and important. And I think that sense of community is especially around movies is something that I, I love and I want to, you know, make sure that we continue to find ways in the film business, but also what a great crossover here to like bring people to the theater and give them a great time.

18:58And I just felt like this was such a perfect partnership to create like an on-premise experience for people with a wine that then they'll go home and go, what did we have it when we saw Dune? Oh yeah. It was that the Moose one. Great. Let's buy it at Target. Exactly. The Moose one. I'm glad that you brought that up. Archerous moose, the moose, yeah. The moose, but it's a steampunkish moose. I feel like the whole vibe of Archerous is very steampunkish. You got the top hat. I mean, are you going to wear a monocle and like ride a unicycle on a future video? Or is, I mean, I think that would be appropriate, right?

19:36That has been in the paperwork at times. Okay. A hundred percent. It's actually, it's very hard to find a trained moose. We've tried. They're very hard to find. But keep looking. In fact, I'd like to use this platform as a casting call. If you happen to have one, please reach out. This is the right platform for this. So definitely good call there, Marianne. No, I think that would be kind of fun. I mean, at least have a, you know, forget about the moose. You got to have the monocle. The monocle is key. If you're flying a dirigible, I mean, that'd be even better, but like. Oh, great word. Yeah. A dirigible, love it.

20:13Yeah, it's all from the, what's the name of the gin brand that I'm blanking on? And Hendrix, Hendrix has a very similar kind of vibe as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, look, it's, it's that sense of adventure and of breaking rules, right? Well, another confluence of just things, this is so random, but my college thesis project was this Eric Overmeyer play called On the Verge, which is about three intrepid female explorers in Victorian times who like go try and find a Yeti and like, you know, and so when Marion was talking to me about Archie Roos and who she was and this character that, you know, is at the heart of the adventure, seeking wine lover.

20:56But I was like, this is, I wrote an entire thesis about women like this. Yeah. It was literally one of these things that was like, this is meant to be because that's a lot of what we're actually doing is world building here. And the whole reason why we have this icon is yes, because it's memorable. And so you can go and look up moose wine and it will pop up even if you can't remember Archer Roost. But it's also a story. It's a character that we've created that's this boundary pusher and rabble rouser who is traveling the world because we offer a global portfolio, but we are obviously an American wine company and a moose is a truly North American animal.

21:37So she travels the world and each one of these wines is like a postcard from the places that she's traveled. So it allows the consumer, we hope, to have greater sense of empowerment in the wine aisle because they'll try new things and reach for a new varietal and explore a new country because they know that with Archer Roos they'll always get a high quality, low intervention, fruit forward, dry glass of wine. And that's the goal. And to be clear, the mousse is on the front of every can. The mousse and the rider of said mousse is on the front of every can. And you both seem to understand, obviously I would think you would have to, the inherent feel, value, aesthetic, everything about the brand so well.

22:21And I feel like you both understand each other so well. How long did it take before you really felt like you had trust, rapport, that you could finish each other's sentences? I mean, when did that start to happen? So we talked a lot over the phone and via Zoom during the pandemic, But the first time we met was when we shot on Invited Guest. And I remember just saying, like, please, please maybe she be as cool as I think she is. And she showed up 15 minutes early to this shoot. So 15 minutes before call time. During COVID, she reached out to every single one of the crew members and she knew their name instantly.

23:01She remembered their name. And after that, I was just like, we're going to be fine. this woman just knows what she's going to do what she's doing and like she doesn't phone in anything she shows up 100 of the time and so that she just had my trust from there on out so that was it for me you know we have a lot in common the massachusetts thing also helps i mean i'm very partial to all my you know family friends that's where i'm from i'm from western mass and i love that this you know she was based there and i've been to visit her it's been great you know i think that also just there's this like a get to it, you know, take it seriously, do the work and have fun while we're doing it.

23:41I mean, that's really what it comes down to for the two of us. I mean, Liz, you held my baby before like most members of my family did. That's true. Yeah. That's that's definitely how you develop rapport. Was it your first child, Marion? It was my second child. Okay. What I can tell you was that my house was a mess and Liz literally showed up uninvited and then just did the dishes. Did that really happen? That really happened. Yeah. He did the dishes. I was in Boston on some other stuff and I had my son with me and we had time before we were going to the airport and I was like, I'm coming over.

24:18I want to meet the baby. I want to meet the baby. But like, this is something really cool because you don't meet a lot of people who are as accomplished and established and hardworking as Elizabeth, then like you get to know her pretty quick and you learn like Elizabeth has friends that go back to like in utero that she's still like cares about, actively talks to, like she, she's a relationship person through and through, but that they show, you know, that show up to their business partner's house and like, you know, just do their dishes and like, make sure they're okay. Postpartum like that to me is like pretty awesome human being right there.

24:57To be fair, I mostly just did the dishes I used and then my kid used and you had a couple of leftovers, but there was not a lot of dishes that needed to be done. I was not going to leave more dirty dishes. Well, by the end of this story, we need to build a mythology here. Yes, I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm breaking it down. I just, I don't want to, I don't know. I'm feeling shy. Were they wine glasses? Were any of the dishes wine glasses? I wonder, I would think so. Or are we just drinking straight out of the can at that point? What else do you do? What else do you do? Indeed. The pump and the dump.

25:30You know, I'm from Massachusetts. I don't think I'm nearly as funny as some folks from Massachusetts, Elizabeth included. I grew up in Auburn, Mass., but I do appreciate the blue-collar vibes of places like Pittsfield and Auburn and Boston, you know, to a certain extent. And I also find that these folks are incredibly funny, the people that live in these towns. They're able to, you know, share stories that are really dry and sarcastic, but, you know, not offensive. And I feel like that's all incorporated into the marketing and communication of Archer Roos. We have given away live snakes. That's true.

26:05We've given away live snakes. I had to carry live snakes in an entire, you know, a whole day of snakes. Well, I saw that. I saw that press release. And then there was another one that came out immediately after this that said that this is all, well, you apologized for giving up. It turns out I sometimes have terrible ideas. And the real issue, to be honest, I still think it's a great idea, is it's very difficult to ship snakes. You know, you just, you don't trust the shipping at this point. There were a lot of supply chain issues when it came to snakes. Very true. But also, like, Elizabeth has such a unique voice.

26:43It's so important that, like, we amplify that. And so we work with a fantastic Boston-based creative agency called Colossus that we have since day one where ride or die with them. And, you know, together, I think, again, this all comes down to this idea of, for us, the vision that Liz and I share about the industry is let's create a truly consumer-focused brand that's based off of a better glass of wine. And how do we tell stories around this in a way that people know that everything about the way that we're approaching this industry is different? And sometimes that involves giving away snakes.

27:24And sometimes that involves like leaning into stuff that, you know, just as Liz mentioned earlier, like book club. I mean, that was one of, I think, your more brilliant ideas, which was, well, sure, everybody has a book club. But let's be honest about what we do at this book club. That's right. We just get together and drink wine. And gossip and talk about our kids. And gossip and talk about our kids. Sure, sure. I mean, they go hand in hand, all of those things for sure.