Trailblazers with Tony Kwon of Sensi Brands Inc. & Kadence World

This week’s Trailblazer is Tony Kwon, who has been behind brands such as RIFF and FUME, now a partner at Kadence.World, an agency in the world of Arts + Culture and Interim VP of Marketing at Sensi Brands Inc where he helped launch Station House.

Questions with a Cannabis Industry Trailblazer

When did you first become involved in the cannabis industry and why?

Early 2018 – it started with a DM on LinkedIn. I was working as a brand manager in the beverage/alcohol industry at the time and Aphria’s Marketing Director hit me up with an opportunity to join their team. Legalization was about 8 months out and cannabis brands were slowly popping up here and there. For me, the opportunity to build a weed brand from scratch was too good to pass up – and after a few weeks of back and forth, I was on a flight to Leamington – about to see more weed than I’d ever seen before in my life.

I worked on RIFF (like a lot of cannabis companies at the time, Aphria wanted a “hypebeast” brand) a cannabis brand that was co-created with the creative community. It was the pre-legalization days when we had a lot of budget to play with – so we had this really ambitious brand strategy where we formed a creative collective / incubator called the CO.LAB and we would collaborate on different creative projects – events, music videos, apparel, content, our own publication – nothing was really off the table.

It was a really interesting time for me – building and launching RIFF helped me build on this idea of community-based marketing – and led to me joining Kadence.World to help other brands – cannabis and otherwise – to do the same.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced when working with cannabis companies/brands?

Obviously the restrictive and regulated nature of cannabis marketing is challenging in itself. One of the most complicated things to navigate is how different companies interpret these regulations – the so-called “grey area” – when it comes to marketing.

I’m looking forward to seeing how brands will continue to push the boundaries in order to get in front of consumers. As far as brand loyalty goes in the cannabis space goes – it’s a free-for-all right now – so the brands that continue to push the envelope and just do different, interesting things will win out in the long-term – at least that’s my guess.

I’m looking forward to seeing how brands will continue to push the boundaries in order to get in front of consumers. As far as brand loyalty goes in the cannabis space goes – it’s a free-for-all right now – so the brands that continue to push the envelope and just do different, interesting things will win out in the long-term – at least that’s my guess.

If you could change one of the current Canadian or American marketing restrictions on cannabis, which would it be?

I think loosening some of the packaging regulations in Canada would be a great place to start. I remember when I first started working in the cannabis industry a lot of execs were saying “3-5 years and the regulations will loosen up” – seems funny now we’ve moved in the other direction.

In a way, the restrictions encouraged collaboration. Brands really had to work together with their creative counterparts to be authentic and more subversive with the branding versus just taking over. This dynamic paved the way for some genuinely cool collaborations and now serves as a great model for any brand looking to collaborate with artists or creatives.

In your observation, what marketing techniques or channels have been most effective for cannabis companies looking to connect with consumers?

Right now, it seems like great product design is what’s doing it – look at Ace Valley’s products – vapes, pre-rolls, edibles – they’re all super functional, look great and the brand ties it together with this really cool, laid back vibe – I’m a huge fan of everything they’re doing.

When the Sensi Brands team and I launched Station House Pre-Rolls it was product-led and a major departure from my experience launching RIFF.

By the end of it, we knew we had a great product on our hands that smokers wanted and would be easy for budtenders to sell.

I don’t think it’ll be this way forever, eventually, the market will mature and people will develop brand loyalties. Whether these brand loyalties will be driven by genetic offerings, THC %, or pure brand appeal, still remains to be seen.

Are there any other Trailblazers in the cannabis industry that you follow?

My good friend Talal Rshaidat (@trshaidat) the CSO at Fume Labs is like Bill Nye of dabbing.

Greg Pantelic, CEO of Ahlot (@ahlotofficial), is always doing interesting things – I really respect everything he’s done and built.

And Wedge (@wedgestudio) who are behind the brand identity for some of the best-looking brands in the space.

What is one tip or piece of advice you would give to marketers looking to enter the cannabis industry?

Don’t be a bullshitter. Work with good people – and on the flip side of that – be a good person, too.

A big thank you to Tony for participating as this week’s Trailblazer! Stay tuned for another interview with a cannabis marketing Trailblazer next Thursday in the ADCANN blog.

Interested in working with one of these talented cannabis marketers? Check out our Agency Directory for a list of all the agencies that specialize in working with cannabis companies.