Cannabis Has Grown Up. It’s Time To Ditch The Stoner Jokes
For those brands still debating a 4/20 strategy, what are the rules to follow
The biggest day on the cannabis calendar is upon us. The swift approach of April 20 meant, for product marketers and social media teams across CPG brands, what’s now “4/20 season” has been in full swing for at least a month.
Brands large, small and entirely cannabis-unrelated are cooking up ways to associate themselves with weed—but in a good way. That is, responsible and fun, while also brand-conscious and clever enough to rise above exhausted puns to resonate with cannabis consumers as authentic—all while ideally going viral and looking cool.
It’s a trickier feat than you might think, as countless wreckages of previously failed 4/20 stunts demonstrate. But this marketing exercise also presents a unique opportunity for brands to exercise their creative muscles and have fun with their audiences, and even other brands, while contributing to and aligning themselves with positive social change. Marijuana legalization is just as much a social and criminal justice corrective as it is a commercial and tax collection opportunity, after all.
And as more Fortune 500 companies experiment with cannabis messaging and court an ever-growing demographic of cannabis consumers, 4/20 is as much a marketing holiday as it is a day out for consumers lured by BOGO doorbusters.
That said, this still isn’t for everyone. A 4/20 campaign isn’t something T. Rowe Price is likely to do, but it’s almost de rigueur for, say, Doritos. We’ve come to expect it.
So what tweet or ad will go viral this year for the right and wrong reasons? And for those brands still debating a 4/20 strategy, what are the rules to follow?
To Read The Rest Of This Article On AdWeek, Click Here
