4/20 Marketing Welcomes a Wider Audience

To mark April 20, the dankest day on the cannabis calendar for fans and retailers, the Wana Brands foundation plans to donate $140,000 to nonprofit groups combating hunger in local communities across America. With its #4ward20 program, the Colorado-based edibles maker is encouraging consumers to join the fight against food insecurity by giving to Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen & Pantry in Massachusetts, Health in the Hood in Florida, Three Square in Nevada and other organizations. When they do, Wana will reward them with discounts on the brand’s gummies, tarts and tinctures. The charitable effort may not have been possible even a few years ago when philanthropies hesitated—or refused—to take money from cannabis companies, according to Wana CMO Joe Hodas. The continued normalization of cannabis and the spread of legalization to 38 U.S. states have paved the way for such partnerships, which aim to expand the meaning of 4/20 beyond its old-school, party-hearty reputation. “This is an opportunity for us to celebrate the legal market and think about how we got here. We have reason to be thankful,” Hodas said. “Not that we don’t want people to party, but we also want to engage them in something we care about.” From tongue-in-cheek to tentpole Wana’s “Weed Out Hunger” initiative is part of an evolution in cannabis marketing around 4/20, which traces its roots to Northern California stoners in the 1970s. Coded messages that only insiders would understand once ruled 4/20—with a tone that Brightfield Group managing director Bethany Gomez diplomatically called “fairly tongue-in-cheek.” Now, the day has become a tentpole event that borrows liberally from the traditional CPG industry. “There will never be fewer people celebrating 4/20 than there are today, and cannabis has become a lifestyle category,” said Allison Disney, partner at Chicago cannabis marketing agency Receptor Brands and former Energy BBDO exec. “Brands and retailers will target the loyalists, but we’ll also see programs that are more inclusive as a way to appeal to first-timers and lapsed users.” Still, there’s plenty of work to be done to make the holiday more welcoming, in particular to people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, older demos and women, according to Christine De La Rosa, co-founder and CEO of The People’s Ecosystem. “The history of 4/20 is definitely dominated by dude-bro culture,” De La Rosa said. “That ignores the fact that women control 85% of the spending in the U.S. We need to be the champions [of more diverse marketing].” Because 4/20 is the Black Friday of cannabis—with a record-breaking $111.8 million in U.S. sales in 2021, per Akerna—dispensaries release a flood of in-store stunts like pop-up shops, live entertainment and doorbuster discounts. While those nuts-and-bolts moves have become table stakes, the level of sophistication continues to amp up, with longer promo windows and more elaborate activations. Purpose-driven programs At the same time, brands have more than 20% price drops on their minds, increasingly embedding social justice advocacy and federal legalization pushes into their communications. They’re also leaning more heavily on paid media (though it’s still strictly and confusingly regulated) programmatic buys, out of home and festival sponsorships as engagement builders. Weedmaps’ Tumbleweeds with Killer Mike will feature stand-up sets with comics. Some advertising, meanwhile, may not look like advertising at all. Weedmaps, shifting gears from its livestreamed music shows of the past two lockdown years, will premiere an original series with Vice Media Group that mixes travel, food and comedy with peeks into cannabis culture in San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas and Chicago. Tumbleweeds with Killer Mike, created by Wheelhouse Labs for a 4/20 debut, will feature stand-up sets with Jocelyn Chia and other comics, visits to cannabis retailers and hot spots, and interviews with influential artists such as Fab 5 Freddy. A tie-in with AmVets aims to raise funds for the veteran-dedicated nonprofit. High time The last time cannafans could gather for large-scale cannabis-themed parties was April 20, 2019. Since then, seven more U.S. states have legalized adult-use sales—Illinois, Arizona and New Mexico, among them. In-person street fairs and regional events are set to return in force this year, on and around 4/20, from the famed Hippie Hill in San Francisco to Colorado’s Mile High 420 Festival to The Roll Up in Massachusetts. In the run-up to the holiday, Brightfield Group polled 3,500 cannabis users, finding that the pandemic has spawned “a new crop of heavier, more frequent cannabis consumers.” That spells opportunity for brands to “show up and show off” to a wide array of buyers, no matter how they choose to commemorate 4/20. Among the study’s data points: 89% of cannabis consumers are aware of 4/20. 49% of cannabis consumers celebrate 4/20. 40% of cannabis consumers report “using more cannabis than usual” to celebrate 4/20. 47% of women cannabis users plan to take advantage of dispensary deals. 73% of users say price is the most important purchase factor. Heavy cannabis use is higher since pandemic lockdown—62% of consumers report “daily” or “multiple times daily” use, up from 44% in 2019. The goal of the four-part show, with bonus content available via the brand's app, is to continue demystifying cannabis and educating mainstream audiences about the plant, according to Weedmaps COO and CMO Juanjo Feijoo. Because it’s “not overly produced or structured,” Feijoo said, the venture has a loose, natural vibe, with no in-your-face branding. “We have to market weed before we can market Weedmaps,” Feijoo said. “We’re at a point now—past taboo and cliches—where we can talk openly about cannabis and show people that there’s nothing to be scared about.”

Cannabis

4/20 Marketing Used to Wink to Cannabis Insiders. Now It Welcomes a Wider Audience

Retailers borrow CPG tactics for the Black Friday of weed, while brands lean in to purpose-driven programs

T.L. Stanley

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T.L. Stanley