New markets are strange. Cannabis marketing agencies will tell you three years of existence is not a lot of time for a new industry. It can go quite quickly. Laws change, perceptions change, people change. In Canada, it’s federally legal but the marketing laws change and evolve. In the United States, legalization was promised at a federal level, but it is yet to come. Companies are forced to limit their work to legal states. And it hurts cannabis consumers the most.
Cannabis marketing has been in constant flux. It’s a genuine challenge. Questions like “is this compliant?” and “did the laws change?” are conversations cannabis marketers are too used to having. These conversations are forced to happen alongside “how do we delight the customer?” and “how do we tell the brand story in a meaningful way?”.
Here are the finalists for ADCANN’s best marketing agency of the year.
Zerotrillion
Zerotrillion is a global creative advertising agency with offices in Toronto and Amsterdam. Not specific to the cannabis industry, Zerotrillion handles brand strategy, identity, advertising, and product design for companies of all kinds. You may know them from their work with Flowr, Canntrust, Under Armour, or AirBnB.
Zerotrillion was born out of contempt for a rampant acceptance for mediocrity. They strive to capture the best and help brands overcome their limitations and challenges.
Detonate
Detonate Group is a print and design agency for the cannabis industry. They do print and design for cannabis events, trade shows, pop-ups, and in-store interiors. They work with LP’s, processors, retailers, and cannabis companies of all kinds. Their mission is to tell interesting and engaging brand stories through the use of physical space.
Since 2015, they’ve served the cannabis industry from Markham, Ontario. Their motto is design, print, build. Their brand, One to One recently threw Bud Bash, an excellent event for Toronto budtenders and cannabis brands.
Cruel
Cruel is a marketing and advertising agency from Toronto that works in a variety of industries. This is a group of creatives who design meaningful connections between the digital world and the real world. They specialize in branding, content and experiential marketing. Cruel exists to simply marketing chaos and spread positive messages. Cool right?
You may recognize their work with Schweppes, Wagners, and Clamato. This agency teaches us you sometimes have to be cruel to be kind.
Marigold Marketing & PR
Based in Oakville, Marigold Marketing and PR is a female-owned and operated agency specializing in cannabis, tech, and social good. Awesome, right? Marigold specializes in branding, social media, integrated marketing, and pr & publicity for Canadian licensed producers and national cannabis brands of all kinds.
You will probably recognize Marigold for their work with AHLOT, CanMar recruitment, HiBnB, and Shatterizer among many others.
The Entourage Collective
Vancouver-based, The Entourage Collective has nothing to do with the HBO show. The Entourage Collective is a marketing agency that specializes in marketing cannabis and psychedelics. They provide branding, marketing, and activations services for retail, farmgate, cultivators, brands and cannabis products.
The Entourage Collective is dedicated to social good and harm reduction. There’s quite a bit of talk about BC bud, but what about BC brand builders?
PufCreativ
This agency, PufCreativ is a full-scale cannabis marketing agency out of Denver, Colorado. They create modern, strategic, compliant campaigns for cannabis companies of all kinds. PufCreativ provides social, photography, branding, logo, web and packaging design for cannabis companies. You may recognize their work with The Last Prisoner Project, Greenscreens, or Fire Station.
PufCreativ was also voted Best Agency of the Year 2020 in last year’s ADCANN awards!
HIGHOPES Design
Our next agency, HIGHOPES Design, is a design and marketing agency based out of Seattle. HIGHOPES designs websites, marketing, branding, and marketing of all kinds for cannabis companies in the medical and recreational space. Their mission is to help cannabis businesses of all kinds unlock their full potential while increasing recognition and reputation.
You may recognize HIGHOPES for their work with Have a heart, Nuvata, and Vidacann. HIGHOPES are one of many agencies working to push cannabis perceptions and attain legalization federally.
Garden State Greenhouse
There’s only one garden state, the state of New Jersey. Much like Bruce Springsteen and Tony Soprano, Garden State Greenhouse hails from the great state of New Jersey. GSG is a full-service cannabis-specific agency that works with retailers, cultivators and processors of all kinds. Their work has been featured in Rolling Stone, Weedmaps and Esquire.
You may recognize their work with Garcia Hand Picked, Liberty dispensaries or Cannaceutica. GSG has a deep knowledge of cannabis customers across all formats and markets. They’re experts at speaking directly to your customer.
Mattio Communications
Mattio Communications are different from the organizations mentioned above. MC are experts in press placement. They can get your brand in Vice, Dope Magazine, Rolling Stone, Bloomberg, they even have connections with Oprah Magazine. You get a press placement, and you get a press placement. Everyone gets a press placement! They’re the Oprahs of getting people mentioned by Oprah. Too meta?
Mattio isn’t limited to the cannabis industry. Based in New York, they’ve worked with brands such as Terrascend, Gage Cannabis Co, Ipsy, and Money on Honey.
Qonkur Media
Qonkur Media is Michigan’s #1 Cannabis marketing Agency. Qonkur supports a range of services for cannabis clients. These services include websites, packaging, SEO, branding, influencers, initial renders, OOH, social media, and much more.
You may recognize Qonkur media for their work with House of Dank, Seed Junky, and Ivy league Cannabis.
If you haven’t had a chance yet, go vote for your favourite Cannabis Marketing Agency!
VOTE IN THE 2021 ADCANN AWARDSLast Updated on December 14, 2021 by ADCANN
