Pot. Weed. Bud. All those bogus slang terms that the D.A.R.E program taught. Marijuana.

With the rise of the legal cannabis industry, companies are dipping their toes in bringing the plant to the general public. Despite the growing acceptance of cannabis and the increasing number of states where the plant is legal recreationally and medically, it remains illegal on a federal level. This means that advertising and marketing marijuana products is complicated and impossible in some cases. However, brands are finding creative and effective ways to get around these restrictions and get the word out about their products.

Letter of the Law

Cannabis remains illegal on the federal level. Even in states with legal medical or recreational marijuana, federal law supersedes state and local laws, meaning that the government has the final say. Even as the federal government has largely shifted its focus away from cannabis, the laws are still in place, and defying them can come with dire consequences—ranging from fines to criminal penalties.

Google and Facebook ban the advertisement of cannabis and related paraphernalia on the platform, which takes over half of the digital advertising market off the table for cannabis businesses.

Getting Creative

This doesn’t mean that cannabis can’t find a place on these platforms in the form of organic content. However, organic content can get flagged by the platform, resulting in removal or a ban altogether. Organic content cannot be geo-targeted to only legal states, meaning that marketers need to get creative with their language and shy away from direct promotion. Additionally, SEO has enabled cannabis brands to market themselves via search results without putting money behind promotion.

Programmatic advertising is an increasingly appealing option, with the ability to geofence advertising promotions to legal states and those over 21. These ads appear as banners on websites, on television services like Roku, and in mobile games. While it is platform-dependent on allowing these advertisements, many marijuana brands are finding success with this approach.

Guerilla advertising has been wildly successful in both legal and illegal states. Some well-placed stickers have led to brands achieving viral success. Recently, Bubby’s Baked made the world’s largest edible, an 850-pound brownie with over 20,000 milligrams of THC, leading to substantial earned media in major publications worldwide.

Foxy and Eaze broke into Tribeca X, the branded content showcase of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, with The Pope of Dope. The Pope of Dope, a cannabis activist biopic, premiered at the Tribeca X Film Festival. Backed by Foxy and Eaze, this is the first marijuana brand-backed project ever to make it into the Tribeca Film Festival, leading to a big surge of popularity in the brand without explicit advertising.

Success from Brands

Houseplant, Seth Rogen’s cannabis brand, has had wild success, with product launches including cannabis, lighters, and ashtrays. Houseplant is one of the first cannabis brands to get national mainstream attention. Seth Rogen’s celebrity status and weed-loving persona do a lot of the heavy lifting of their promotions, but another part of the success around Houseplant is that the brand is divided into House (which sells home goods and cannabis paraphernalia) and Plant (which sells marijuana). Advertising lighters and vases are far from illegal, meaning that the brand benefits from paid advertising from the legal aspects of the business and can avoid ever mentioning the plant aspect, as it is implied.

Often, celebrity-backed cannabis brands succeed due to their existing audience and their association with marijuana in general. Some famous stoners, like Snoop Dogg and Tommy Chong, have created and promoted successful weed businesses through their existing network and innate associations with the plant. Even celebrities that have not typically been associated with marijuana have been able to launch successful weed brands, like Jaleel White (“Did I do that?”) and Melissa Etheridge.

In recent years, influencers have also significantly impacted cannabis brand popularity— from paraphernalia to the actual strains. Formal influencer programs tend to get shut down in these spaces. However, influencers who promote these products and brands based on their personal connections are legally clear, leading to some brands exploding and achieving cult status. Blazy Susan has become a status symbol for marijuana users, with their signature pink rolling papers and rolling trays. The brand’s popularity has been attributed to super fans with big audiences on social media, like comedian Ashley Ray and other verified Twitter and Instagram profiles.

What’s Next?

The changing legal landscape around marijuana will have massive impacts on the industry beyond advertising. As more states legalize recreational marijuana, it is expected that the advertising restrictions will be loosened, and it is likely that we will start seeing paid advertising for weed. However, the industry has had success in marketing without ad spends and will likely continue to expand on these tactics—utilizing celebrities, influencers, and guerilla promotion.

How Can YMC help?

If your brand is interested in engaging with some non-traditional marketing, we’re here to help.

At YMC, we specialize in connecting brands with Gen-Z and Millennial consumers, and we’d be happy to share our wealth of knowledge with you. Contact us today!

4 Ways to Build a Word of Mouth Marketing Campaign

Word of mouth marketing campaigns are an engaging way to develop brand loyalty, trust, and conversation among potential customers. Below are four tips to kickstart your campaign and ensure that your efforts will positively shift customer perception and increase awareness of your brand.

Start with your employees

Happy employees are oftentimes your most accessible brand advocates, and therefore a reliable and valuable resource to utilize when starting your word of mouth marketing efforts. These individuals know your brand best and can inform potential customers about your products and services both digitally and in person. Further, employees can easily and thoroughly answer questions their network may have about your brand, which can increase chances of trial, purchase, or conversion.

Create a structured system to educate employees on their advocacy options and watch buzz around your brand increase efficiently and cost-effectively.

Offer an incentive

People (employees included) are more likely to take an action or share something about your brand if they receive some sort of value in return. It’s all about mutually beneficial relationships! Examples of popular action-inspiring incentives include cash, discounts on future purchases, exclusive access to upgrades or new products, gift cards, and promotional items.

Referral programs are another well-known incentive embedded into word of mouth campaigns, as they offer customers a reward when they share positive information about your brand. Airbnb is an example of a company that implemented a structured referral program to incentivize customers to spread their positive sentiments towards the brand. One of their past models encouraged existing customers to invite friends to join Airbnb by giving both the sender and the recipient a $25 travel credit when the user completed their first trip. As a result, Airbnb gained 300% more bookings and sign-ups than before the referral program was implemented. Further, their company found that the customers they gained through referral programs booked more reservations, became hosts more often, and referred more users.

With the right strategy, an incentive can help you not only reach new customers, but loyal ones, as well.

Build a close knit community

Social media is another great tool. Strong, engaging content tends to reach customers outside of your follower base through retweets, tags, shares, or reposts, which can spark curiosity, create additional brand awareness, and inspire conversation. Nike’s Twitter support account, @NikeSupport, is a great example of a brand that has successfully used their platform to make it easy for customers to engage. By consistently answering customers questions in a timely fashion, the brand’s social media platform has become a portal for building customer trust.

Engaging with platforms that host online consumer reviews such as Amazon or Yelp, or building your own, is another great way to converse with customers. 62% of consumers search online for reviews and information before purchasing a product. Further, it has been suggested that 88% of people trust online reviews written by consumers as much as recommendations from personal contacts.

Business reviews and strategic social communication can both work in tandem to help shape and bolster a company’s online reputation. By meeting customers where they are, brands can not only join the conversation, but also, listen and learn about their customers and their needs, as well.

Connect with micro influencers

Micro influencers, oftentimes doubling as student brand ambassadors, are individuals with a strong following and power to influence the beliefs and behaviors of potential customers within your key demographic. These individuals will ideally serve as the face and voice of your brand among their networks, making your products and services more accessible, relevant, and appealing.

When selected carefully, these individuals can also work to authentically support existing marketing efforts by creating on-brand social content, sharing reviews of your product offerings or services, and providing exclusive discounts to interested consumers. Research shows that 40% of people say they’ve purchased an item online after seeing it used by an influencer on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, which shows just how impactful and rewarding their presence can be. Work to establish expectations with these influencers and equip them with the tools to represent your brand, and you’re bound to gain the eyes and ears of an impressionable new audience.

In summary, whether your leveraging employees, micro influencers, or customers, you’ll want to make sure that you’re providing them with something valuable in exchange for their time. Once you’ve created a word of mouth marketing strategy to attract new customers and keep your brand advocates happy, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is for your word of mouth marketing campaign to grow to new and unforeseen heights.

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How can YMC help?

Want to launch a word of mouth marketing campaign with your brand but aren’t sure how to get started? Finding the right partner is key to your success. Here at YMC, we’ve been helping brands connect with 15- to 29-year-old consumers for two decades—we’d be happy to share our wealth of knowledge with you. Contact us today!