Attachment_IV_Real_California_Cannabis_Campaign_Final_Report.pdf

Date October 2024

Prepared for Department of Cannabis Control

Document Final Wrap Report

Contact sara@swellinc.co 603-759-0514 mailto:sara@swellinc.co

DCC - REAL CA CANNABIS WRAP REPORT

SWELLINC.COSwell Inc.

Contents

Appendix

Section Table of Contents

Campaign Strategy

Section 01

Section Campaign Strategy

To run a successful campaign, we had to both educate cannabis consumers on the benefits of shopping legal and drive them to use the Real CA Cannabis search tool before they buy.

It takes a combination of building consumer knowledge and incentivizing behavior change alongside enforcement to truly make a dent in the illegal market. Utilizing both awareness and conversion advertising tactics, we were able to inform, educate and drive user engagement with our toolset.

With the official launch, we had three advertising goals:

1. Educate cannabis consumers on the importance of buying legal

2. Drive cannabis consumers to use our search tool

3. Engage cannabis influencers to understand and support the campaign

Section Campaign Strategy

AUDIENCE INDUSTRIES PLATFORMS AUDIENCE SIZE

California Cannabis KOFs Legislative and regulatory leaders and staff members, advocacy and nonprofit executives, business owners and academia leaders, and the media

Facebook, Instagram, Google Display + Search, Politico, CTV, Radio, OOH

~6,000

Cannabis consumers Likely cannabis consumers 21+ (using cross-tabbed interests to target potential consumers)

Facebook, Instagram, Google Display + Search, Reddit, Spotify, Politico, CTV, Radio, OOH, Leafly

~8,000,000

Audience targeting

SWELLINC.CO

Swell Inc.

First-Party Targeting First-party data helped us balance getting the right message to the right people a meaningful amount of times without wasting impressions or your budget. We used two primary methods:

1. Atlas audience of CA cannabis opinion leaders, including legislative and regulatory leaders and staff members, advocacy and nonprofit executives, business and academia leaders, and the media.

2. Politico first-party data which will target key policy influencers

Section Campaign Strategy

BUSINESS & ACADEMIA

ADVOCACY & NONPROFIT

LEGISLATIVE &

REGULATORY

MEDIA

CA CANNABIS OPINION

LEADERS

MEDIAMEDIAMEDIA

Swell Inc.

Section Campaign Strategy

1. Health & Wellness

• Includes soul explorers, Cali-enlightened, and relief seekers.

• All of these audiences use cannabis as a way to enhance their lifestyle:

replacing alcohol with cannabis, consuming for their mental and physical wellbeing, connecting to their inner selves.

2.Creatives

• This audience is very similar to the health & wellness audience, though they may use cannabis more for performance-enhancement reasons.

3.Tourists & Travelers

• We consider this audience to be one of our easiest to convince audiences.

They’re coming to try California cannabis because it’s legal and has become renowned.

PRIMARY

Audiences

4.Cannabis Curious

• Also considered low-hanging fruit, these are either folks who aged into a legal market or are considering trying cannabis because it’s legal.

Section Campaign Strategy

The following KPIs will help us measure the success of our campaign month-to-month.

CANNABIS CONSUMER KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

• Frequency + Reach: to ensure that people will recall the ads

• For content creators, reach is estimated with the follower size

• Engagements: to see how many people are sharing, liking, and commenting on the ads

• For content creators, we’ll also be using engagement rate

• Sentiment analysis: to better understand the sentiment of the engagements

• Conversions: to see how many people are using the search tool

TIMELINE

January 18, 2024 - September 24, 2024

AMOUNT SPENT

$1,800,140.86

KOF KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

• Frequency + Reach: to ensure that people will recall the ads

• Notable Engagements: to see who is interacting with the ads

• Sentiment analysis: to better understand the sentiment of the engagements

• Clicks: to see how many people are showing increased interest in the campaign

ADS

$1,110,140.86

CONTENT CREATORS

$690,000.00

KEY

MILESTONES

1/18: PHASE 1

LAUNCH

2/5/24 OFFICIAL

LAUNCH

3/31 MOVE INTO

SUSTAIN PHASE

9/24/24 WRAP

CAMPAIGN

PODCAST

RADIO

OOH

LEAFLY

POLITICO

DISPLAY

OTT/CTV

PAID SOCIAL

SEARCH +

DISPLAY

JANUARY FEBRUARY

MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER

TIMELINE PLEASE NOTE THE DARKER THE BAR, THE HIGHER THE LEVEL OF SPEND.

Summary of Results

Section 02

Delivered over 260,000,000 impressions and 9,291,500 video views across all platforms

Section Summary of Results

One of our leading goals was to educate and raise awareness around the issue of exclusively shopping at licensed retailers among cannabis consumers and key opinion formers (KOFs). We managed to get a significant number of impressions and 3+ second video views among our key audiences. And not only did we reach a lot of people, but interactions were strikingly positive— garnering nearly 10 million engagements, including post reactions (99% of all reactions on ads were positive)*, video views, and clicks.

On Meta, we reached nearly 8 million people who saw the ad an average of 17 times throughout the campaign while on Spotify, we reached nearly 1.2 million people who heard the ad an average of 3.3 times.

Continuing with this campaign would allow us to further build brand recognition and brand trust with our audiences.

*FOR CONTEXT, PUBLIC SENTIMENT OF NY’S “WHY BUY LEGAL NEW YORK” CAMPAIGN WAS HIGHLY

NEGATIVE, REFERRING TO THE CAMPAIGN AS “SCARE TACTICS”, “CAP”, OR “PROPAGANDA”

Cannabis consumers visited our site over 300,00 times and performed 212,623 searches for retailers using the map

Another goal was to drive cannabis consumers to shop legal using our tool. This is the first step to changing cannabis consumers’ habits.

Over the course of the campaign, map searches increased month over month, showcasing how much of an affect our campaign had on increasing consumers’ knowledge and motivation to ensure they were going to a licensed retailer.

Summary of Results

Section Summary of Results

KEY INSIGHTS

With our boundary-pushing creative and effective targeting, the Real CA Cannabis campaign has been able to drive awareness around shopping licensed retailers and start influencing the habits of cannabis consumers to shop licensed only.

Throughout the 9-month campaign encompassing both Phase 1 targeting KOFs and licensees and the official launch in Phase 2 targeting both cannabis consumers and KOFs, we discovered:

1. Updating creative every few months (3 flights) that was tailored to the platform and target audiences (and including influencer videos) helped us keep audiences engaged.

2. Google and Reddit were our top performing platforms for cannabis consumers—driving the most amount of searches on our tool. We also outperformed all of Reddit’s benchmarks due to the effectiveness of our creative for that platform.

3. Adjustments to the way we measured interactions on the RCC map were necessary in order to capture the full user experience, allowing us to see map engagements like location sharing and zooming in/out.

4. Our Spanish language creative on Meta performed amazingly, garnering the lowest CPA of the program on the platform ($2.76). We should invest more in this audience moving forward.

5. Deploying a storytelling approach with our influencer program was an incredibly successful organic tactic; 159 pieces of organic content were generated by 144 creators across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

6. Due to our dedicated KOF strategy, we engaged with influential state government and cannabis business leaders directly on

Politico, Google, and Meta, driving 128 notable engagements on the latter.

Swell Inc.

Recommendations Run a continuous evergreen campaign & expand the target audiences

We should continue building awareness throughout California, expanding our audiences to include some of the stickier consumers (such as Gen X’ers who are used to buying from a dealer). It will only be through a continuous, evergreen campaign over years that we will effectively change consumers’ behavior.

We also recommend partnering with specific influencers consistently to have them reiterate the importance of shopping legal and checking the map.

We also recommend investing more in our Spanish speaking audience and consider integrating Spanglish into the creative.

Build relationship with local regulatory agencies

Build on our relationship with local regulatory agencies similar to our partnership with Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation, using our Real CA Cannabis tool as the premier search tool throughout California.

Iterate on the search tool based on user behaviors

We should continue iterating on the map functionality and build more tools for consumers to easily find relevant licensed retailers.

Given the findings from user interactions on the site, there are several updates we should make to improve user experience, including cleaning up the equity retailer data field and enabling us to use the latitude and longitude coordinates to pinpoint whether a user is in state. We also recommend cleaning up the licensee data as much as possible to ensure our tool is trustworthy.

We also recommend building an app for users to more easily & habitually use the search tool. Instead of needing to remember the website url, they can easily pull up the cannabis app on their phone.

With our findings, we have developed three primary recommendation for continuing to move the needle on public education.

Summary of Results

Awareness

Section 03

Swell Inc.

Beginning with Awareness The awareness part of the campaign aimed to educate and inform cannabis consumers about the importance of purchasing legal cannabis from licensed retailers. The goal was to build general awareness of the campaign and introduce the Real CA Cannabis search tool across multiple platforms, including media platforms, OTV, audio, social media, and out-of-home (OOH). A key focus was to engage cannabis users and key opinion formers, using tailored messaging to appeal to different audience segments. By driving broad recognition and repetition, the awareness phase successfully reached millions of users through various channels, fostering positive sentiment and engagement around legal cannabis consumption.

Awareness

Section Awareness

Audio Ads: Spotify & Radio All of our audio ads were great awareness and education builders for different audiences.

On Spotify, we could target 21+ Californias who were potential cannabis users using interests (Spotify users were largely under 45). Approximately half of Spotify ads were clickable—this largely depended on how the user was listening (with the app open or not), and we saw a frequency that was repetitive enough for users to remember but not badger the user. As an awareness tactic, we don’t expect a high conversion rate but with a frequency of 3.3, we’re thrilled to see 895 searches by Spotify users on the map.

From the official launch through June, we simultaneously ran a public radio campaign across California to target older consumers and KOFs. We ran on Sacramento - KXJZ, San Francisco - KQED-FM, Los Angeles - KCRW, and statewide NPR.

SPOTIFY-CONSUMERS

6,322,967 Impressions

2,310 Clicks

Conversions

3.3x Average frequency

RADIO-CONSUMERS

1,800,200 Impressions

RADIO-KOF

87,600 Impressions

REAL CA CANNABIS - MAY ADS REPORT

Section Awareness

8,739,483 Estimated impressions

San Francisco Oakland

Los Angeles Sacramento

Billboards During the first six weeks of the official launch, we used out-of-home (OOH) billboards to drive broad awareness of our campaign. While most billboards were supposed to be taken down in March, we managed to have one in Los Angeles run through May and one in Palm Springs run through April (being up for both Coachella weekends and Stagecoach). All placements included:

• Oakland

• San Francisco

• Sacramento

• Palm Springs (x2)

• San Diego (x2)

• Los Angeles (x2)

Section Awareness

Leafly Ads Leafly is the only place where we directly reached cannabis consumer audiences actively searching for dispensaries. Our objective was to use awareness and education messaging to target these consumers via display which launched in April, emails which launched in April & May, and a sponsored article which posted on May 30th. In total, we saw over 5.8 million impressions from these engaged cannabis consumers, resulting in over 11,256 clicks to the Leafly dispensary search and Real CA Cannabis search tool.

We managed to get Leafly to extend our ads program through mid August for video pre-roll placements (originally set to end in June), while the other ad placements (display, article amplification display, and audience extension) wrapped on June 30th.

3,000,022 Impressions

1,432 Clicks

0.05% Click-thru Rate

DISPLAY

1,500,000 Impressions

4,872 Clicks

0.32% Click-thru Rate

DISPLAY-AUDIENCE EXT

1,007,806 Impressions

Clicks

0.05% Click-thru Rate

BOOSTED ARTICLE ADS

200,000 Impressions

Clicks

0.15% Click-thru Rate

VIDEO ADS

119,700 Total Delivered

Clicks

0.54% Click-thru Rate

EMAIL

1,467 Pageviews

0:59 Avg. Time Spent on Page

3,517 Article Link Events

BOOSTED ARTICLE

Section Awareness

Politico Ads Our objective with Politico ads was to educate and build brand affinity among cannabis consumers. We garnered over 1.8 million impressions and over 870K full PSA video views on this platform.

Our Connected TV (CTV) campaign ran from February 5th until the end of June for cannabis consumers, while CTV targeting KOFs ran through 3.18. CTV was really successful, garnering more than 95% completion rate consistently which meant a majority of viewers saw the entire PSA video.

Politico also ran a video display campaign to help us engage both consumers and KOFs—this ran through 3/18.

794,929 Impressions

766,548 Video Completes

96% Video Completion Rate

CONNECTED TV (CTV)-CONSUMER

606,062 Impressions

Clicks

0.11% Click-thru-Rate

DISPLAY-CONSUMER

109,022 Impressions

105,429 Video Completes

97% Video Completion Rate

CONNECTED TV (CTV)-KOF

303,030 Impressions

Clicks

0.13% Click-thru-Rate

DISPLAY-KOF

Our campaign leveraged peer-to-peer storytelling from micro, mid-tier and macro-influencers to highlight the Real CA Cannabis search tool. Because content creators shared their personal experiences with legal cannabis in a way that fit with their typical content, we were able to garner nearly 3.8 million video views, 200K likes, and 4K comments, resulting in a 6.75% engagement rate (the industry average is 1.55%).

The campaign featured several types of creators, including:

• Health & Wellness Creators

• Tourists/Travelers

• Cannabis Curious Creators

• Cultivated Creatives

Section

Content Creator Campaign Execution

Section Awareness

All Time Creator Metrics

DCC - REAL CA CANNABIS WRAP REPORT

ER for Videos = Total Engagement / # of views ER for IG Static = Total Engagement / Followers (please note that because of the inaccuracy of using follower account, this will be lower than the real ER) AER - Average or Weighted ER

*Industry Average ER - Based on calculated averages from the latest social media benchmark reports from Social Insider, RivallQ, Hootsuite

CONTENT TYPE PIECES OF CONTENT VIEW COUNT

ENGAGEMENTS (LIKES,

COMMENTS, SHARES)

AUDIENCE SIZE

ENGAGEMENT

RATE (ER)

INDUSTRY

AVERAGE ER*

IG Static 59 - 49,145 4,032,743 2.84% 0.63%

IG Video 88 3,213,793 102,974 11,620,144 9.26% 1.97%

TikTok Video 8 567,502 49,789 3,602,818 6.87% 3.74%

YouTube Shorts 4 3,821 306 2,078,410 9.16% -

All Time 159 3,785,116 202,214 21,334,115 6.75% 1.5%

TIMELINE

2/5/2024-9/16/2024

AMOUNT SPENT

$690,000.00*

*A reminder that we used $60K originally earmarked for influencer creative to put towards influencer ads.

Section Awareness

DCC - REAL CA CANNABIS WRAP REPORT

ER for Videos = Total Engagement / # of views ER for IG Static = Total Engagement / Followers (please note that because of the inaccuracy of using follower account, this will be lower than the real ER) AER - Average or Weighted ER

*Industry Average ER - Based on calculated averages from the latest social media benchmark reports from Social Insider, RivallQ, Hootsuite

PIECES OF CONTENT VIEW COUNT

ENGAGEMENTS (LIKES,

COMMENTS, SHARES)

AUDIENCE SIZE

ENGAGEMENT

RATE (ER)

Health & Wellness 48 298,831 40,264 5,162,528 4.93%

Cultivated Creatives 38 330,992 20,601 5,355,897 6.35%

Travel & Tourism 57 3,002,406 120,509 8,651,958 7.82%

Cannabis-Curious 16 152,887 20,840 2,163,732 9.33%

Total 159 3,785,116 202,214 21,334,115 6.75%

All Time Creator Metrics

BY AUDIENCE SEGMENT

Section Awareness

Best Performing Creative

BY AUDIENCE SEGMENT

Health & Wellness Kimmy T. | IG Reel

6.63% ER

Likes: 4,874

Comments: 107 Views: 75.1k

Followers: 204k

Travel + Tourism Kaelyn G. | TikTok

8.22% ER

Likes: 36,287

Comments: 133 Views: 448.3k Followers: 2M

Cannabis Curious Melissa D. | IG Reel

4.96% ER

Likes: 13.3k

Comments: 39 Views: 27.6k

Followers: 233k

Cultivated Creatives Paris C. | IG Reel

12.58% ER

Likes: 186

Comments: 225 Views: 1,677

Followers: 2,295 https://www.instagram.com/p/C6HVuaDPf2F/ https://www.tiktok.com/@kaelyngutierrez/video/7387495018661088555 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5KIK6cPCIM/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6HVR1uvpuQ/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

When recruiting influencers for our campaign, it was important for us to work with varying level of reach. Our strategy outlined the need to spread our message as far as possible but to also drive active engagements so we recruited macro, micro and mid-tier creators. We expected the micro influencers to have the highest engagement rate.

Macro-influencers have larger audiences (1ooK - 1M+ followers) which provide broad exposure for the campaign. Micro-influencers have more dedicated and niche audiences (2K - 20K followers) which tends to lead to higher engagement rates.

Interestingly, we found that our mid-tier creators (20K - 100K followers) had a higher engagement rate than both macros and micros. They had an overall engagement rate of 7.52%—almost a percentage point more than micros. We can infer that the mid-tier creators we worked with have smaller audiences than macros but they are considered to be more trustworthy and engaging.

Section

Mid-Tier Creators Outperformed

Section Awareness

DCC - REAL CA CANNABIS WRAP REPORT

ER for Videos = Total Engagement / # of views ER for IG Static = Total Engagement / Followers (please note that because of the inaccuracy of using follower account, this will be lower than the real ER) AER - Average or Weighted ER

*Industry Average ER - Based on calculated averages from the latest social media benchmark reports from Social Insider, RivallQ, Hootsuite

PIECES OF CONTENT VIEW COUNT

ENGAGEMENTS (LIKES,

COMMENTS, SHARES)

AUDIENCE SIZE

ENGAGEMENT

RATE (ER)

Micro 52 38,500 5,627 230,594 6.56%

Mid 42 70,378 17,041 1,135,965 7.52%

Macro - Celeb 55 3,676,238 179,546 19,967,556 6.20%

Total 159 3,785,116 202,214 21,334,115 6.75%

All Time Creator Metrics

BY CREATOR TIER

2K - 20K FOLLOWERS

20K - 100K FOLLOWERS

100K - 1M+ FOLLOWERS

Section Awareness

Micro Creator Paris C. | IG Reel

12.58% ER

Likes: 186

Comments: 225 Views: 1,677

Followers: 2,295

Macro Creator Kaelyn G. | TikTok

8.22% ER

Likes: 36,287

Comments: 133 Views: 448.3k Followers: 2M

Mid-Tier Creator Ken L. | IG Reel

14.01% Likes: 63

Comments: 18 Views: 614

Followers: 79,626

Best Performing Creative

BY CREATOR TIER

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6HVR1uvpuQ/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.tiktok.com/@kaelyngutierrez/video/7387495018661088555 https://www.instagram.com/p/C-qecNAJFyq/

Audience Sentiment

Swell Inc.

Sentiment & Awareness Awareness is a collection of KPIs that we gather to help understand what campaign awareness could be, but without direct feedback from the audience we are unable to say unequivocally that users have awareness. This is where sentiment analysis comes in. For this campaign, we executed two primary tactics to assess audience sentiment: comment and reaction analysis on Meta platforms and a brand lift study with Politico on our CTV and display ads.

The main takeaways on sentiment analysis via Meta platforms is that users were largely positive in response to our RCC campaign messaging. Additionally, the content creator partnerships brought in a significant amount of positive feedback. In the recall lift study with Politico, we did notice a significant decrease in negative sentiment associated legal cannabis and an increase in awareness.

However, we noticed that the RCC campaign did not provide DCC in general with a positive lift, mainly due to the fact that users did not find the connection between RCC & DCC to be obvious. We know this is a challenge when attempting to raise awareness of DCC and RCC simultaneously but a longer campaign over time will allow us to build that positive association for DCC using the success of RCC.

Content Creator Engagement

We analyzed over 3.9K comments in response to 159 posts by our creators. Overall, commenters showed overwhelming support for the search tool's accessibility as well as its ease of use. Most commenters shared their appreciation for the creators spreading awareness about Real CA Cannabis. Some followers also mentioned that this is “a great promotion” and “an ad they can get behind”.

Comments expressed very high levels of positivity (89%), higher than the industry average (between 60% to 80%).

Interestingly, 7% of commenters expressed intent to try the tool. Given our initial goal of spreading the word, we'd say, job well done!

Section Audience Sentiment

Content Creators Drive Positive Engagement

Swell Inc.

Section Audience Sentiment

Swell Inc.

Negative Comments Comments categorized as negative mostly expressed negative sentiment towards cannabis usage in general. Very few expressed negative sentiment towards legal retailers themselves or Real CA Cannabis. A few mentioned that they prefer to buy “home-grown” cannabis over that offered by dispensaries—as they believe it is of “better quality.” A few complained about the higher prices in legal dispensaries. There were 3 comments on TikTok suggesting to use the Weedmaps app.

Swell Inc.

Comment Narratives Comments were categorized into a few distinct clusters:

1. Highlighted the beauty of California, often adding comments like “California” in connection to “dream”

2. Expressed appreciation for the search tool (i.e. ‘glad to have found it’)

3. Expressed intention to try the search tool

Swell Inc.

California, Quality, and Our Tool Some posters expressed sentiment that access to legal cannabis dispensaries is one of the reasons CA is “awesome”, “beautiful” and “it is their fav place.” Some highlighted that the search tool is not only great for locals but also for visitors, and Real CA Cannabis is even a reason alone to visit the state.

The highest percentage of comments discussed the quality of cannabis / cannabis-infused food or the search tool (19%). Almost 7% of comments expressed intent to try / check out the website and to use the search tool (in order to find legal dispensaries.)

Social Ads Engagement

Section Audience Sentiment

Ethan Turner Deputy Attorney General CA Department of Justice

Liked the “Buying legal should be easy” post and the “Some risks aren’t worth taking” post

Top Notable Engagements

Paulette Thornton Communications Director California State Senate CA-28

Liked "Check on Your Weed Guy" on Facebook

Tina McKinnor Assemblymember

CA-62

Liked the “Won’t the RCC Please Stand Up” post

Stephen Zollman Vice Mayor City of Sebastopol

Liked "Check on Your Weed Guy" on Facebook

Government

Victoria Monroe Web Editor for the Pacifica Tribune Bay Area News Group

Liked the “Buying legal should be easy” post and the “Some risks aren’t worth taking” post

Tom Angell Publisher + Editor Marijuana Moment

Liked the “6M+ CA adults consume cannabis” post

Tony Bowles Author Skunk Magazine

Liked the “Safer markets, safer communities” post

Media

Yoko Miyashita

CEO

Leafly

Liked the “Invigorate local business” post

Mary Pemberton Vice President of Sales Marijuana Business Daily

Liked the “Won’t the RCC Please Stand Up” post

Caren Woodsen Senior Director Compliance and Licensing Kiva Brands, Inc.

Liked the “Seeding industry change” post

Lance Lambert Chief Marketing Officer Grove Bags

Liked the “Buying legal should be easy” post

Industry

David Downs Senior Editor Leafly

Liked the “6M+ CA adults consume cannabis” post

While this audience tends to interact with ads less than the general public, we did see a good amount of positive interaction on the KOF ads. Engagement behavior tends to be higher among certain folks (industry folks) in this audience compared to others (state legislators).

Section Audience Sentiment

Meta Ads - Audience Sentiment Throughout the campaign, we monitored audience reactions on Meta ads to spot check the reception of our messages and overall perception of the campaign. A vast majority of the audience sentiment was positive, coming in at almost 100% of responses being positive (like, love, care, wow, laugh) vs. negative (angry or sad). This overwhelmingly positive response rate is an excellent indicator that not only did our messaging deliver a supportive take on the DCC oversight, it also shows that users have developed a positive association with Real CA Cannabis.

POST REACTION TYPE TOTAL REACTIONS PERCENT

care 10,340 50.00% like 10,001 48.36% love 155 0.75% haha 152 0.74% angry 23 0.11% sad 5 0.02% wow 4 0.02%

Politico Brand Lift Study

Swell Inc.

Politico Recall Lift Study Overview Goal: To measure awareness of the California Department of Cannabis Control’s (DCC) initiative and perception around the impact of cannabis regulation on public health and safety.

Field Dates: January 23 - June 30, 2024

Total Sample Size: 422 (225 control and 197 exposed responses)

Sample Audiences:

• POLITICO Audience in California

• POLITICO California Cannabis Policy Influencers

Media Tactics Observed:

• Offsite Connected TV

• Onsite Video Custom Run-of-Site (ROS)

Swell Inc.

Recall Lift Study Key Takeaways The DCC media campaign on POLITICO.com successfully reduced negative perception, yielding a 20% decrease in unfavorability (30%→10%) regarding the impact of regulated cannabis on public health and safety. While the campaign did not materially lift positive perception, more than half of POLITICO readers reported regulated cannabis having a favorable impact as a baseline (53%).

•Exposure via Connected TV (CTV) media resulted in a 24% decrease in negative perception and the most significant shift in neutral perception (+23%).

•Among the Cannabis Policy Influencers, negative perception fell by 17% while neutral perception more than doubled (16%→39%).

Swell Inc.

Results & Recommendations Results: The campaign reduced negative perception surrounding the impact of cannabis regulation on public health and safety.

Suggestions & Future Insights: The campaign was successful in improving perception of the industry; however, there is an opportunity for continued promotion to make further gains into positive sentiment around buying from legal dispensaries and connecting DCC to the Real CA Cannabis campaign.

Conversions

Section 04

Swell Inc.

Converting Consumers to Searchers The conversion part of the campaign focused on persuading consumers to take action by using the Real CA Cannabis search tool to find legal retailers. The primary goal here was behavior change—motivating cannabis consumers to actively search for licensed dispensaries. The campaign emphasized conversions through high-performing platforms like Google Search, Reddit, and Meta ads. It tracked how many users engaged with the tool, performed searches, and visited the website, ultimately aiming to shift consumer habits towards a sustained preference for legal cannabis options.

Conversions

Section Conversions

133,300,833 Impressions

90,417 Clicks

7,913,205 Reach

44,415 Conversions

The Numbers

Meta Ads - Consumer Our objective with Meta ads was to (1) build awareness of the campaign and (2) drive clicks to the Real CA Cannabis Licensed Retailer search page. Of all platforms, Meta was our top prospecting platform that allowed us access to a large audience to drive interaction. With our audiences being introduced to our campaign on Meta, Google Search and Reddit could drive our audiences more easily to take action.

Our messaging and constant optimizing allowed us to run ads on a platform that typically does not allow cannabis ads—and we were able to deliver a wide variety of creatives to each of tailored audiences.

16.85x Average frequency

$5.92 Cost-per-acquisition

Top Performer - Most Clicks - 14,506 Top Performer - Click-thru-Rate - 0.59%

Section Conversions

14,986,553 Impressions

12,276 Clicks

1,895,829 Reach

8,223 Conversions

The Numbers

Meta Ads - Spanish Spanish language ads on Meta were a later addition—launching in August While their performance is included in the overall consumer ad performance on the previous slide, they deserve their own slide to highlight their effectiveness.

Overall the Spanish language audience showed high engagement through clicks and searches on the map, with a phenomenal CPA of $2.76.

7.9x Average frequency

$2.76

Top Performers - Most Clicks

Section Conversions

1,334,713 Impressions

2,445 Clicks

21,144 Reach

1,638 Conversions

The Numbers

Meta Ads - KOF Our objective with Meta ads for our KOF audience was to ensure ad recall was strong—meaning we wanted a solid reach and frequency rate. These ads ran through June and we utilized Atlas for our audience data to ensure we were reaching key members of the Cannabis policy and business audiences.

With a fixed audience over time, we reached very high frequency numbers to ensure this audience has high awareness about the PSA campaign and many even took the chance to use the tool.

63.12x Average frequency

$16.10

Section Conversions

Google Search + Display - Consumer Our objective with Google differed based on placement: we wanted conversions on search ads and awareness for display ads. Our conversion rate on search ads continued to be one of our top metrics across all platforms. We also saw search conversions were higher than the number of clicks, meaning people were performing multiple searches when clicking on a paid search ad.

Overall these excellent performance metrics received a significant lift from all of our other awareness ads in this program. Google Search was our top traffic and search driver, delivering 46% of website traffic and 32% of conversions.

544,552 Impressions

23,165 Clicks

4.25% Click-through-rate

42,532,547 Impressions

15,370 Clicks

SEARCH DISPLAY

TOP SEARCH KEYWORDS CONVERSIONS

Weed 19,201

Dispensary near me 12,082

Cannabis 3,402

Dispensary 2,838

DISPLAY KEYWORD PERFORMANCE CONVERSIONS

Nightlife Enthusiasts 10,924

Rock Music Fans 6,312

Rap & Hip Hop Fans 5,670

Indie & Alternative Rock Fans 5,568

63,767 Conversions

19,562

Section Conversions

Google Search + Display - KOF For KOF’s we continued utilizing the Atlas audience to ensure we reached these users when they engaged on Google platforms. Our click through rate and conversions on search were extremely high for this audience and indicated that KOFs were searching for more information after engaging with our awareness ads on platforms like Politico and Meta as you can see from “Real California Cannabis” as one of the top 4 searches overall.

153,457 Impressions

6,956 Clicks

4.53% Click-through-rate

8,129,112 Impressions

4,117 Clicks

SEARCH DISPLAY

TOP SEARCH KEYWORDS CONVERSIONS

Weed 5,104

Medical dispensary 1,213

Health 709

Real California Cannabis 675

DISPLAY KEYWORD PERFORMANCE CONVERSION

S

Fitness class & personal training 898

Event tickets 612

Fitness & Health buffs 521

Concert & musical festival tickets 453

8,180 Conversions

2,796

Section Conversions

38,140,527 Impressions

$4.93

Clicks

63,611

CPM

55,328 Conversions

The Numbers

Reddit Ads Month over month, our Reddit ads continued to outperform Reddit benchmarks and also gave us an opportunity to run edgier content and connect with a broader range of users. Reddit’s ads team attributed the success of our campaign on their platform to our creative, and they are extremely impressed with the way our content was able to direct users off the Reddit platform to use our RCC tool.

Our top performing creatives represent exactly what set our content apart on the platform and why it resonated with users.

And because these creatives resonated so well, Reddit delivered the lowest CPA of all our platforms at $3.16 and . Our CPM was

$4.93 on the platform (benchmark is $6.01), meaning our ads performed nearly 1.2x as well as other ads.

$3.16

Website Analytics

Section Website Analytics

PAGE TITLE PAGE PATH SESSIONS

Find Licensed Dispensaries /licensed-retailers/ 104,523

Real CA Cannabis / 74,817

Find Licensed Dispensaries-Spanish Es/licensed-retailers/ 6,824

The Weeds /the-weeds/ 3,950

About /about/ 2,105

Licencees /licencees 1,914

Top PagesOverall Performance

301,162 Pageviews

181,097 Sessions

196,582 Searches

Website Performance

Overall, we saw users execute multiple searches and multiple sessions over the course of this campaign, with the search tool being the top page on the site. To date, 168,164 users executed 196,582 searches for an average of 1.16 searches per user. This means that many users were returning to the site to search and spending at least 16 seconds per visit. Both searches per user and seconds per visit are indicators of the value users find when they use the tool.

FEBRUARY 5 2024 - SEPTEMBER 24, 2024

168,164 Users

Section Website Analytics

Overall, more traffic equals more searches on the RCC tool and you can see significant spikes when ad spend was at it’s highest points.

Over the course of the campaign, our search volume increased month-over-month and maintained that search volume through the end of the campaign.

A L

L T

IM

E

*PLEASE NOTE KEY EVENTS ENCOMPASSES VARIOUS WAYS USERS SEARCHED (ZOOM IN, PANNING, ZIP CODE SEARCH, TEXT SEARCH)

Section Website Analytics

LocationDevices

Website Users - Devices & Locations Real CA Cannabis website users are strewn across California—with the biggest hubs in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, as to be expected based on city populations. We’re also continuing to see a significant majority of people visiting the site on their mobile devices—87.1% compared to the industry average of 61%. This may be a ripe opportunity for developing an app for all the mobile users.

LOCATION SESSIONS CONVERSIONS

Los Angeles 32,373 9,887

San Jose 14,030 3,195

(Not set) 8,538 1,977

San Francisco 7,219 1,492

Sacramento 5,680 1,209

San Diego 5,485 1,674

Fresno 1,736 462

Section Website Analytics

Website Users - Map Behaviors Throughout the campaign, we continued to refine the RCC Map tool with additional measurements within the map itself to gather more data about how users interacted with the tool, particularly if they used the location services or if they searched for specific dispensaries.

The former is an indication that users depend on the tool for discovery of retailers while the latter is an indicator that users are “checking on their weed guy” to see if their usual retailer is on the list.

MAP EVENTS EVENT COUNT EVENTS PER USER

map_browse 68,868 4.98

Search Query 39,080 2.16 map_zoom_out 25,935 4.20 location_denied 25,253 1.01 map_zoom_in 19,188 3.92 location_enabled 6,288 1.00 location_shared 2,341 1.88

Campaign by the Numbers

Section 05

Swell Inc.

260M+

IMPRESSIONS

Getting in front of people’s eyes and ears on billboards, their TVs, their phones, and their cars.

Section Campaign by the Numbers

9.9M+

ENGAGEMENTS

Across all platforms. This includes 3s+ video views, post reactions, shares, comments, and clicks.

9.2M+

VIDEO VIEWS

Primarily watching our PSA, California, and It’s Real videos across platforms (and some fun gifs).

8M+

PEOPLE REACHED

On the Meta platform alone. Reach is a difficult stat to measure across platforms, but Meta gives us a solid idea of how many unique people we reached.

Swell Inc.

300K+

SITE VISITS

Primarily the search tool but also visiting the homepage.

Section Campaign by the Numbers

< $7

COST-PER-AQUISITION

An incredibly great average CPA across all platforms—especially considering we were driving folks off the native platforms.

212K+

SEARCHES

People are using the tool to find local dispensaries.

88.5%

CONVERSION RATE

Out of the total number of clicks from ads, nearly 88.5% were searches.

Thank you for your time and attention.

SWELLINC.CO

Address 1920 Hillhurst Dr. #436 Los Angeles CA 90027

Contact sara@swellinc.co 603.759.0514

Date October 2024

Prepared for Department of Cannabis Control

Document Final Wrap Report mailto:sara@swellinc.co

Appendix A: Ads Creative

Ads Creative - Meta

Section Ads Creative - Google Search

• High-quality products

• California grown

• Environmentally friendly

• Accurate doses & labels

• Verify before you buy

• Real CA 🍃

• Find legal dispensaries

• CA’s regulated & trusted 🍃

• See legal shops near you

• Need to re-up?

• High standards

• 100% local businesses

SHORT HEADERS

• Find retailers selling 100% Real CA 🍃 High-quality, locally sourced products.

• Click here to find quality, regulated 🍃 near you—quick and easy.

• Only legal shops sell products that meet consumer protection standards.

•🍃 is legal statewide—but not all dispensaries are. Learn to spot the difference.

• Legal shops meet consumer protection & quality standards. Make sure your local dispensary does, too.

• Safety and quality go hand in hand, use this tool to verify that you’re getting the real deal.

DESCRIPTIONS

Ads Creative - Google Display

Section Ads Creative - Reddit

PSA-15 SECOND VIDEO PSA-30 SECOND VIDEO

Section Ads Creative - Reddit

WHAT YOU’VE HEARD

30 SECOND VIDEO

Section Ads Creative - Politico

CTA LEADS TO:

Section Ads Creative - CTV

15 SECOND VIDEO30 SECOND VIDEO

Section Ads Creative - Radio & Spotify

SPOTIFY - 15 SECOND SPOT

SPOTIFY - 30 SECOND SPOT

KQED - 15 SECOND SPOT

NPR - 30 SECOND SPOT

Ads Creative - Billboards

Appendix B: Influencer Creative

Live Creator Content As of September 30, there are 159 pieces of content live.

Section Influencer Creative

• Bearenger Petrella

• Kaelyn Guiterrez

• Preethi Chandrasekhar

• Kaelyn Guiterrez 2nd post

• Kimmy Tan

• Brandon Broady

• Kassandra Escandell

• Caitlin V Neal

• Rebecca Watson

• Syd Smiley

• Nae Lynette

• Angel Chavez

• Austin Kress

• Christian Torres

• Troy Solomon

• Chelsey Davis

• Denver Sean

• Joshua Marsh

• Rene Daniella

• Mel Douglas

• Ece Saglam

• Katie Cassidy

• Andre Fili

• Fernando Padilla

• Taylor Mauldin

• Yamen Sanders

• Rachel Katz

• Denise Ngo

• Kierra Poindexter

• Yaris Sanchez

• Jordi Garcia

• Zory Mory

• Henry Wu

• Denise Brown

• Brad Milison

• Travis White

• Arielle Sidney

• Aysia Ross

• Elyse Ostrow

• Alicia Goku

• Rachel Richardson

• Julia Camacho

• Erica Dickerson and Jamilah Mapp

• Matthew Bravo

• Maya Oueichek

• Joseph Vulpis

• Lindsay MaHarry

• Madison DeCambra

• Debbie Hernandez

• Katja Jeschke

• Thomas Bradford

• Crystal Dominguez

• Carolyn Vazquez

• Naomi Hutchinson

• Paris Choy https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F4djynM1zQJLFD-sWMfAFQtlJBIsSPfO7uifMEvHSGw/edit?gid=0#gid%3D0 https://www.instagram.com/p/C3A6qnMpNMK/ https://www.tiktok.com/@kaelyngutierrez/video/7335923928969268510?lang=en https://www.instagram.com/p/C6bhutsRdDX/%20https://www.instagram.com/p/C6gunnzLpTV/ https://www.tiktok.com/@kaelyngutierrez/video/7387495018661088555?_r=1&_t=8niqvvvFr4c https://www.instagram.com/p/C6HVuaDPf2F/%20https://www.instagram.com/p/C6PBM_bvGSm/?img_index=1%20https://www.instagram.com/p/C6ZV00ZPGMo/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C4RMzVAypgB/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C3qmqmZvkD6/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3lKwfJvpNs/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/p/C39A-wbRY1I/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C4doCOwxZYY/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C31Bg6byeKF/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C31ijyGr4Ph/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3oGzTRvePO/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/p/C33u5AYPLv2/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3B_SqjLlgg/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/p/C3yWdC6PPLq/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C5GwUpoRoBC/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C5EtVIvvTiw/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C5WtSQUPr6J/?img_index=1%20https://www.instagram.com/p/C6CPhx2PWDk/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C5KIK6cPCIM/%20https://www.instagram.com/p/C5ep_ExvoXg/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C4JNo90vM41/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C5B0bQ3vUl8/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C6AfLhWLTn2/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C57nYIjrGnN/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C5cBXUlvfTd/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C3N9ndbPPpA/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4JDzBvufj9/?igsh=MXRlN2xkdHRxZXA5bw== https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPNpn2UT1MI https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3YrajUv9H5/?igsh=ZDE1MWVjZGVmZQ== https://www.instagram.com/p/C5HEN00yjvV/ https://www.tiktok.com/@jordigarc/video/7333008393658977541?lang=es https://www.instagram.com/p/C4RhBNsvFEW/?hl=en&img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C4RhBJTv2yy/?img_index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPNpn2UT1MI https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3Srjb7rPzK/?igsh=ZDE1MWVjZGVmZQ== https://www.instagram.com/p/C5tEfZAPu5n/?img_index=1 https://www.tiktok.com/@ariellesidney_/video/7336273419706584366?_r=1&_t=8jwDChal7PD https://www.tiktok.com/@callmeaysiab/video/7333357184828312862?_r=1&_t=8jj381sMdhO https://www.instagram.com/p/C36QMiUvLDh/?igsh=ZDE1MWVjZGVmZQ==&img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C4O_X92p56O/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C49XwzLpM3y/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C4CUFkNLlJ1/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C4bGposxO00/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C4bGposxO00/?img_index=1 https://www.tiktok.com/@bravo_999/video/7343665950362848554?_r=1&_t=8kU4aE5UqB5 https://www.instagram.com/p/C38KAQnLG1m/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C4WMLv2SNu6/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C5yZ7tWR1-P/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C51WCNXvsNh/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C38TzkAvpMg/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C54Jpz_yDpc/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5qxyqwxgsE/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4_OwYIPW4A/?igsh=MzY1NDJmNzMyNQ== https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLmLADFV/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C6EgOZ6OXuY/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6HVR1uvpuQ/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Live Creator Content As of September 30, there are 159 pieces of content live.

Section Influencer Creative

• Daniela Hernandez

• Lauren Tomhave

• Michelle Khurrum

• Joanne Chen

• Jourdan Jade

• Araik Sinanian

• Kymberli Jenkins

• Chelsea Davis

• Chris Greenwell

• Anna Kate

• Debbie Hernandez 2nd post

• Lindsay McVay

• DeJanae Evins

• Ramón Vargas

• Victoria Burkard

• Layne Calley

• Alexandra Pullen

• Denise Brown 2nd post

• Brad Milison 2nd post

• Crystal Dominguez 2nd post

• Matthew Bravo 2nd post

• Madison DeCambra 2nd post

• Elyse Ostrow 2nd post

• Crystal Kamada

• Cara Calista

• Lupita Loeza

• Arabella Tilley

• Mary Patricia

• Lola Mendez

• Christine Duke

• Marsha Badger

• Stephanie Cedano

• JJ Dobbins

• Priscilla Vasquez

• Yunoka Berry

• Tiffany Tiwater

• Adam Zajac

• Nicole Isaacson

• Bryn Bradshaw-Mack

• Christopher Lima

• Don

• Jahmariay Clarks

• Jenessa Cibrian

• Carolina Silver

• Ethel Tan

• Destiny Wagner

• Rosa Nice

• Areina Plowden

• Matt Maneiro

• Ashanti Crawford

• Alameina White

• Nancy Rickett

• Matt O'Brien

• Juan Barcenas

• Emily Saliby

• Krystina Kalapothakos https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F4djynM1zQJLFD-sWMfAFQtlJBIsSPfO7uifMEvHSGw/edit?gid=0#gid%3D0 https://www.instagram.com/p/C6eopqwyvxN/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==&img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C6pjus6RFki/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C6tvBnoR67j/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C6txxklx5N0/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C69DyWix8No/ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CAlNOBUz7DY https://www.instagram.com/p/C7w3_-nPz_w/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C7PZWB-PmHr/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7rcoivxHnt/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA== https://www.instagram.com/p/C7S_q8ouuF6/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7R7A7JJBFC/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/p/C70A0OoyPUT/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C7pBJQ9pl8w/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C7nLp7qMldI/?igsh=MW1ka3o3b3UwdzIyZA==&img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C76-bkKp8p7/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C7xBN9Ivh0V/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C77GQCGvqGw/ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JUhSUHi_0As https://www.instagram.com/p/C7zKLuCJ3c2/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C7hYOFoJ6Xx/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8pwbezya0W/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8dXqFkv8hX/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA== https://www.instagram.com/p/C7j1MGVJdWl/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C8me4dUPOGp/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7sNAsvv7h_/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/p/C8GEEGcyinA/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C7xAIwuyYEm/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C8XDmDDJhWK/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C7ioetaMFQq/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C8ClXdAAqqG/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C7jpjFogKj3/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7moIReRrZg/?igsh=MW5sbzZlajRkcjZtMQ== https://www.instagram.com/p/C74j0v4Pf45/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C9DD-wLpxpf/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C9SQfYkJLbM/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C9kaOEcJ1ip/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C9dahqGRhIK/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C9kfJ7MP-9L/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/C-S7IOzpz21/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C_1FtRUxKOw/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_0t747P9aA/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.instagram.com/p/C_wq-UOvTat/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C_wq-UOvTat/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C_rBYGsy5p6/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C_wD-e5SFQT/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C_tKIFPxfk-/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_wEVuLysBg/?igsh=cGpobnlsd2wwY2xh https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_xfaXaoHhG/?igsh=YnZnNzN2NXBkNjNq https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RoIPSHFeEhg https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-qJWOuPVD9/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA== https://www.instagram.com/p/C_yztLaSvaD/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C-lyEcjSNOF/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C_QpWHHJZES/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C_gm-RTS4FA/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C_lv_XhShbd/ https://www.instagram.com/p/C_q8hZsSUmN/?img_index=1

Appendix C: Terms

Section Terms

• Average Engagement Rate (AER)

• Average Frequency

• Clicks

• Click-Through-Rate (CTR)

• Connected TV (CTV)

• Conversions

• Cost-per-action (CPA)

• Engagement Rate (ER)

• Videos

• Images

• Impressions

• Reach

TERM

• A weighted average of all engagement rates

• The average amount of times each person views an ad

• # of times the ad or post is clicked

• # of clicks / (reach or impressions depending on available data)

• Any TV set connected to the internet, most commonly used to stream video

• # of times the web app was used

• Cost of obtaining a conversion

• # of engagements / (reach or impressions or views depending on available data)

• ER for videos = total engagement / # of views

• ER for IG organic static = total engagement / followers (follower counts are higher than actual impressions)

• # of times the ads or posts were viewed

• # of unique individuals who viewed an ad or post

DEFINITION

Appendix D: Audience Personas

Swell Inc.

Section Audience - Cannabis Users

This group looks at the world as a reflection of their inner values—from their vegan diet to choosing produce with labor friendly farming practices. They are willing to pay more to stay true to themselves.

DESCRIPTION

• Approach them from the health & wellness angle as a reason to buy legal: legal cannabis is high quality.

• Looking for a certain type of high; they need to trust the labels and have consistency in dosage and feeling.

• Potential spokespeople: medical professionals (including non-western medicine practitioners), micro-influencers (including spiritualists, mindfulness teachers), cannabis pop culture celebrities

• View nature as the ultimate healer and are motivated by the potential to create a new vision of the world.

• A desire for self-expression through their style and way of life

• Motivated to heal their body and mind through many different means:

• Drugs to induce higher states of consciousness

• Meditation

• Body movement & breath work

• Being in nature

OPPORTUNITIESMOTIVATIONS

Soul Explorers

NEEDS

CHANNELS DEMOGRAPHICS/PSYCHOGRAPHICS

• Digital via interests

• Audio streaming + radio

• OOH, including yoga studios + health food stores

• OTV/CTV

• Influencer Marketing

• Generations: Millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers

• Income Levels: lower to upper middle class

• Interests: yoga, meditation, spirituality, tarot readings, jam bands, health food, sound baths, Burning Man, more likely to be vegan

• Value natural and organic products and therefore need assurances that products they buy are cruelty-free, vegan, fair-trade, and ethically-sourced.

• Commitment to sustainability so looking for products that are made from recycled materials or produced in an environmentally-friendly and labor-friendly way.

• Buy products that help them connect with nature.

Swell Inc.

Section Audience - Cannabis Users

These are the cannabis users who find themselves searching for ways to improve their mental and physical wellbeing.