2021 Could Usher in a Golden Age of Cannabis Advertising
3 min readIf there had been ever any uncertainties that the cannabis marketplace could prosper throughout the pandemic—there ended up, feel it or not—let the next success show just how improper the skeptics were and how substantial the category flew this 12 months.
Us citizens invested practically $18 billion on legal weed in 2020, a 67% bounce from the past calendar year, in accordance to investigate from Leafly. Potential buyers broke records during the initial lockdown-linked green rush in March and once more close to well known holidays like 4/20 and Green Wednesday. In 9 states, together with Arkansas, Illinois, Florida and North Dakota, income more than doubled yr around yr, Leafly reported.
Election 2020 logged a five-point out sweep for weed legalization, exactly where voters in even conservative strongholds overwhelmingly authorised ballot measures for health-related and recreational gross sales. At the very same time, the movement for decriminalizing hashish and other previously verboten substances picked up steam.
The market ends the yr in the strongest posture of its young lifestyle, with Greg Butler, chief professional officer of Cresco Labs, likening it to “a roaring wave—it can’t be overlooked any longer.”
Towards that backdrop, leaders in the class predict a golden age of weed advertising and marketing in 2021, one that normally takes a webpage from standard client packaged goods but with a canna-centric twist.
“The time to possess the hashish narrative is now—to make model recognition, build have faith in and tell the entire world who you are,” mentioned Jason White, CMO of Curaleaf, a leading-tier participant that operates 95 dispensaries in 23 states. “The window to lead is closing and only followers will continue to be.”
Loyalists and beyond
A lot more than 111 million People, about 33% of the populace, now have or will soon have entry to lawful flower, tinctures, edibles and infused beverages where by they dwell. (Cannabis is lawful in some form, both for health-related or recreational product sales, in 47 states and Washington D.C.).
That signifies the market has the option to tout their products to longtime or lapsed admirers and also to new likely buyers like cannacurious females, millennials, Child Boomers and other coveted demographic teams.
A internet marketing surge, even though not with out its regulatory hurdles, would provide quite a few functions, this sort of as chipping absent at the beneficial illicit marketplace and combating some lingering misconceptions about the group, mentioned Cory Rothschild, svp, brand name advertising and marketing, Cresco Labs, a multi-point out hashish operator and the premier weed wholesaler in the place.
“There’s still a very heavy carry on education and learning, and the classification has a ton of baggage,” he mentioned. “But what if you can be the initial manufacturer that would make folks truly feel comfortable with the group?”
The area is crowded and competitors will be even more fierce heading forward, Butler reported, so “driving awareness and building details of differentiation will be critical. Powerful models issue in a commodity enterprise.”
Creativeness will blossom
Substantially of cannabis marketing has graduated from previous-faculty pot leaf imagery and psychedelic shades, preferring to consider the route of California-centered Island, which recently unveiled a rebrand that experienced been in the works because early this year.
“I believe stoner society and tropes have retained hashish in a dim alley,” stated Lindsay Berg, Island’s vp, advertising. “Those associations can be really polarizing and unrelatable. We want it to come to feel additional desirable and available to the masses.”
Refined packaging and branding that mimics mainstream (but hip) buyer products and steers distinct of jargon that only weed connoisseurs would fully grasp “is a crucial action,” she said. And the item demands to be Instagrammable and worthy of “bringing to a meal get together or maintaining in your purse or pocket.”
