April 20th has become one of the best sale days of the year for Canadian cannabis retailers. In order to capitalize on the hype around the holiday, licensed producers and retailers promote their brands using 4/20 marketing campaigns. If you’re a cannabis business and not doing something to celebrate the day, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.
While many of the best marketing campaigns this year came from bigger brands in the industry, creativity isn’t limited to those companies with big marketing budgets. Here are some of the best 4/20 marketing campaigns of 2021 from Canadian cannabis brands and retailers.
Ace Valley
Who said colouring books are just for children? Ace Valley celebrated 4/20 this year by creating a colouring book for adults. Each page features a perfect 4/20 activity with a surreal twist and asks participants to share their final coloured pages on Instagram and tag @acevalley.
Ace Valley partnered with cannabis retail stores to distribute the colouring books, helping them to give customers a reason to come into the store to pick up their creativity booster along with their post-sesh activity.
FIGR
Masks have officially worked their way into being considered swag now and FIGR ran a 4/20contest on Instagram to make sure their followers can be decked out in their gear from head to waist. “Like christmas, but for cannabis. At FIGR, we’re celebrating by making sure you have some gifts to go with your trees.”
Prizes included T-shirts, sweaters, toques, fanny packs and masks for those who entered by following FIGR, commenting on the Instagram post and tagging a friend. The contest resulted in the post receiving over 500 likes and 700 comments.
San Rafael ’71
Fifty years ago, a group of friends began meeting every day at 4:20 pm to search for a mythical patch of weed in San Rafael, California. They never found that hidden crop, but the spirit of their search has grown into the movement, turned shorthand, turned holiday, that we know as 4/20.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this searching spirit that inspired generations of partakers around the world, San Rafael ‘71 ran a 4/20 contest. The contest, which used their website to collect email addresses and their Instagram to grow their following, offered a chance to win one of 50 prize packs featuring a special edition t-shirt and other prizes. Across the three Instagram contest posts, they received over 1900 likes and 2900 comments.
Flowr
Flowr underwent a vigorous campaign in time for 4/20 calling on Canadian spokesperson and pop star Justin Bieber to help change the pardon laws in Canada. This campaign is off the heels of Justin’s latest song ‘Peaches’ where Justin sings, “I get my weed from California.” Tom Flow, co-founder of Flowr wrote in his open letter to Bieber, how he is “absolutely ashamed” of how poorly Canada has treated the issue of pardons. The federal government requires Canadians to actively work for their pardon instead of having their cannabis conviction automatically expunged.
To that end, Flowr committed to donating $100,000, with matching donations of $100,000 from directors, officers, and employees, to Pardons Canada. A not-for-profit organization, Pardons Canada assists Canadians in pursuing (among others) cannabis-related pardons. Further to this, Flowr set up a petition for Canadians to sign through Change.org asking the government to address the expungement of non-violent cannabis convictions. Although the hope is for Justin Bieber to see the campaign and use his voice to pressure the Canadian government, the goal for Flowr is to bring awareness to this issue and get as many Canadian advocates as possible to use their voice and sign the petition.
Dutch Love
Dutch Love is offering their customers a chance to “take a ride on the magic school bus” with their Field Trip campaign. “This field trip doesn’t need a permission slip. We’re taking a trip down memory lane and paying tribute to how 4/20 all started. From weekly giveaways, to special guests, greenhouse tours and more.”
As part of the campaign, they published an article with 10 facts and myths about 4/20 and ran social media giveaways of camping gear from @woodscanada, a Reversible Napsack from @polerstuff, limited edition @fieldnotesbrand notebooks, a Kanken No. 2 Backpack from @fjallravenofficial and $420 to spend at Dutch Love.
Stash & Co
Inspired by the golden ticket contest from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Office, Stash & Co promoted a contest where all purchases of $75+ received a doob tube and the tube with the gold papers wins a prize.
They advertised $25,000 in discounts and prizes such as a Chromebook, Airpods and a Solostove outdoor fireplace, a list of prizes enticing enough to spend over $75, more than the average basket size.
Is this contest compliant? Let’s hear from our friend Chad Finkelstein, cannabis lawyer and registered trademark agent of Dale & Lessmann LLP.
Superette
Speaking of golden tickets, Superette reminded us of Ontario’s failed cannabis retail lottery as, “opening up a weed store in 2018-2020 required a golden ticket from the Ontario retail operator lotto. After much booing, Ontario got rid of this flawed system, and now weed shops are budding in every neighbourhood.”
To celebrate Canada’s third legal 4/20, they created this Sup lotto t-shirt to make everyone feel like a winner this time around. Superette has always had some of the best merch in the industry and this Lotto 649 inspired t-shirt is an awesome addition to the collection.
Grow Your Brand in the grnhouse
As the Canadian cannabis industry continues to develop, the competition is only going to get tougher and if you want your brand to stand out from the crowd, why not enlist the experts. As a one-stop-shop for Canadian cannabis retailers and licensed producers, grnhouse can help grow your brand, better connect with your customers and provide them with the best cannabis shopping experience possible.
Last Updated on April 26, 2021 by ADCANN
