'Next to Stok'd' is campaign that outsmarted Meta, worked around Google's sophisticated filters, passed the watchful eyes of a Canada's largest OOH media company and then created a firestorm of PR that the cannabis industry had never seen before with respect to marketing

- all while setting record sales for a local chain of stores that is competing against hundreds of other cannabis stores within a highly regulated industry that makes it near impossible to stand out.

Cannabis sales in Canada have been legal for years. It's become as common as alcohol sales with literally stores on every corner. But cannabis advertising is highly regulated - to the point of being almost impossible.

While many use cannabis for recreational use, a significant amount of Canadians use it for health and wellness benefits to treat things like: chronic (back) pain, sleeping problems, anxiety, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Whatever the use case, cannabis in Canada is widely accepted and completely legal.

Situation:

Cannabis sales are legal in Canada and have been for years. Cannabis advertising? Not so much. In fact, the entire industry is highly regulated. Furthermore, social platforms (such as Meta and Google) and other media channels (OOH/radio) have sophisticated filters in place to screen out any advertising that promotes cannabis.

So how does a regional cannabis chain promote their stores?

Objective:

Drive traffic to the Stok'd site and in-store, as well as the neighbouring stores, and at the same time create a brand personality that connects with consumers to choose Stok'd over other cannabis retailers.

Advertising cannabis in Canada is illegal and social platforms/OOH companies have sophisticated filters that screen cannabis ads out.

Idea:

When you can’t advertise your store, advertise your neighbours.

Creative launchpad:

Bookstores, nail salons, etc actually have a lot more in common with cannabis retailers than you would first think, in what they offer customers.

The plan:

Create a disruptive geo-targeted/adult-gated, multimedia campaign partnering with neighbouring stores to promote BOTH their store and Stok’d. By using shared language/benefits while also promoting the proximity to each other, Stok’d could find an unconventional way to tell customers about their location, products/experience.

By partnering/collaborating with neighbouring stores, Stok’d would be able to outsmart the media company’s sophisticated filters that block cannabis advertising. The ads all finish with a CTA to visit the neighbouring business, which is located ‘Next to Stok’d’.

Target/Plan/Approach

The social media planning/strategy was to build upon the creative idea of 'neighbourhood' stores. So the campaign promoted Online Videos (OLVs) to within 5km of the stores.

Since cannabis is only legal for sale to 21+, we ensured the OLV buys was age-gated.

Finally, the target are those open to a more liberal lifestyle so through the social platform buying tools, we made sure this was a key psychographic.

While promoted posts were the start, because the campaign was so unexpected and playful, the social sharing also became an important part in which the campaign reached even more of our target. Consumers reposted the ads because of their intrigue at the cannabis references/innuendos, and of course the drive to the store "Next to Stok'd".

For 4 weeks, the campaign ran across multiple mediums:

- On social platforms of facebook, Instagram, and Youtube (geo-targeted and age-gated)

- Digital transit shelters in the evenings nearby the stores

- Late night local news radio

The videos had over 40,000 paid views to those within a 5km radius of the stores.

If PR launched while the campaign was in market, we knew that the media companies would likely shut it down. So, the PR (phase 2) only began AFTER the media buy was completed. In effect, the campaign had a entire second life through earned media. This is when the cannabis industry saw it and blew the story up and shared with Canada (and the world).

Impact:

The campaign reached the target living 5kms from the Stok'd stores, but through the PR in phase 2, the brand and campaign was featured in dozens of publications, podcasts, blogs etc. including ALL the top cannabis ones to further help differentiate from all the other cannabis retailers. Featured stories, lead stories, and positive POVs were paramount to help the PR campaign snowball into a major cannabis and business/advertising story.

Results definitely changed behaviour, getting new customers to try Stok'd -

Compared to the same period last year:

26% increase in-store customers

29% increase in new online customers

12% increase in revenue

Here are a few from top cannabis publications (who reached the target we were aiming for):

"The most creative marketing I've ever seen" - Cannabis Marketing

"Masterstroke Campaign" - Aggressive Organics

"Brilliant" - One World Cannabis

"Genius workaround" - Hobby Grower

"Unmatched ingenuity" - Joint Craft