Amid an Industry Squall, Is Cannabis Having Its 'Bubba Gump Moment?'

Mary Jones, the cannabis-spiked sibling of Jones Soda that debuted in June, will soon have its own publication, dropping at dispensaries across California next month. The print project, cleverly named Mary Zine, profiles budtenders—also known as weed retail employees—who are skilled at photography, music and other creative pursuits. The pages also contain do-it-yourself activities and tips for readers. It may not be a traditional marketing tactic for the category, but it’s one way the nascent brand is trying to reach existing consumers and potential buyers while capitalizing on the distinctive personality of its flagship drink. “We’re trying to really remind people that this is the brand you know,” Bohb Blair, CMO of Jones Soda and chief brand officer of Mary Jones Cannabis, said at the recent MJ Unpacked conference. “We’re building out that brand ethos through behavior, celebrating the trade and playing with our consumer. Basically we’re using our marketing to have a damn good time.” Blair’s comments came during a session dedicated to brand building at the three-day Las Vegas event. He spoke alongside Punit Seth, CEO of pre-roll maker Toast, who agreed that budtenders are a vital piece of the communications puzzle. “They’re essentially influencers,” Seth said. “Marketing to 1,000 budtenders is an achievable audience” versus trying to reach a broad customer base, considering the legal restrictions on cannabis advertising, not to mention the cost. Fellow panelist Brandon Dorsky, CEO of edibles company Fruit Slabs, often taps into brand ambassadors as an efficient way to amplify his message. He said he relies on relationships with musicians, performers and chefs to provide the brand with “a bigger, more visible footprint than our limited marketing dollars would otherwise give us.” Bohb Blair, CMO of Jones Soda ‘Chasing their share’ The discussion came on the heels of a study that found marketers are generally working with shoestring budgets, nearly half of which are less than $50,000, per the New Frontier Data summer report titled, “How cannabis marketers are chasing their share of a $32 billion market.” Meantime, more than 80% of those polled said they have trouble getting the right message to the right target, often focusing on social media and top-of-the-funnel brand awareness campaigns. The former is problematic because of frequent shut downs and shadow bans, and the latter doesn’t translate directly to sales. These and other pressing issues—legacy states struggling, inflation raging and wholesale prices cratering, to name a few—were topics of conversation at MJ Unpacked, a curated gathering of investors, retailers and brands that drew about 1,800 attendees last week. Weathering the storm “It feels like a bit of a Bubba Gump moment,” George Jage, co-founder and CEO of MJ Unpacked, told Adweek, using Forrest Gump’s squall-at-sea and survival scenes as metaphors for the current state of affairs in cannabis. “People in the industry have tremendous resilience, but it's so important to be in a room with your peers who are facing the same problems and be able to talk about different approaches and ideas.” In its third outing, MJ Unpacked added a venture capital summit, so money players could compare notes, to go with its trade show floor of 100-plus brands and Shark Tank-like pitching stage for companies to attract investors. The goal is to become the kind of national forum for weed that the Consumer Electronics Show is for gadgets or the Natural Products Expo is for food, Jage said. MJ Unpacked previewed a particularly busy fourth quarter for cannabis professionals, with established events like Hall of Flowers, Trailblazers and MJBizCon still to come. Though MJ Unpacked happened in Sin City—there’s also a New York version in the spring—there was no cannabis consumption on-site at the MGM Grand. That’s verboten on a gaming property. But there was a mechanical bull to ride, which would’ve been a mechanical blunt if suppliers had cooperated, and a massive gong for people to hit when they closed a deal. There was also plenty of product on display, revealing some ongoing and budding trends. Read on for a few standouts. Catering to cannaseurs While a tremendous amount of chatter and interest has focused on the cannacurious demo—from Gen X lapsed users coming back into the legal ecosystem to millennials and Gen Z dipping their toes in for the first time—the legacy consumer still drives the bulk of sales. Brands like Heavy Hitters and Kosmik are preaching to the cannaseur choir with high-potency products. For instance, a single-strain distilled cannabis tincture from Heavy Hitters, definitely not meant for amateurs, comes in a sleek black 1,000 milliliter bottle that costs nearly $300. “We wanted to compete with high-end, premium alcohol and get a lot of attention, even if we didn’t intend to sell a lot of it,” Megan Miller, COO, told Adweek. “We think it’s a beautiful, elevated experience, and the flavor really highlights the terpenes.” Shifting legal regulations, a constant hurdle for industry execs, will result in some tweaks to the product, Miller said, but it’s expected to roll out soon beyond its California home. Kosmik, an Oklahoma-based company that distributes to Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada and California, began with conventional 10 milligram and 25 milligram edibles in flavors like meteor melon, pulsar peach and galactic grape. But executives boosted the bottom line when they took a consumer insight from medical patients—including one with severe autism—and created The Black Hole and The Abyss, with 1,000 and 2,000 milligrams of THC per package, respectively. “We made our name on these high-milligram gummies—it started out with a few small batches, but the response was overwhelming,” A.J. Johnson, head of sales, said. “The Black Hole is now our best-selling product in the country.” As consumers try to stretch their dollars for the upcoming holiday season, industry analysts expect to see an increasing number of both medical and recreational users opting for potent buzz-for-the-buck products. Driving foot traffic Brands like Jeeter have built their reputation on stoking some serious FOMO with product intros that mimic sneaker drops. (Translation: fans camp out for the chance to spend money on premium product). Others have followed suit, like the recently announced RCVRY flower line, a collaboration between FaZe Clan co-founder FaZe Rain and The Parent Company that had a successful single-day debut last month. Attendees at MJ Unpacked foresee more of the same, especially for the end of year green rush. The idea behind the tactic is to whip up enough excitement to drive consumers into stores on certain days, offering them one-time-only goodies that must be snapped up IRL. “We’ll probably see more limited-edition products that are only available for a specific period of time,” Joyce Cenali, COO at Sonoma Hills Farm, said, noting that her company will release a Three Wise Women flower blend for holiday. “And also brands will be putting out special product for a certain dispensary or chain, so it’s available nowhere else, all around that concept of exclusivity.” US Cannabis Sales Predicted to Reach $42 Billion by 2026 Despite Lagging Legacy Markets

Cannabis

Amid an Industry Squall, Is Cannabis Having Its 'Bubba Gump Moment?'

Some 1,800 people and 100-plus brands gathered at MJ Unpacked to share insights in challenging times

T.L. Stanley

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

T.L. Stanley