Perhaps only from the perspective of the left-coast of Canada could come marijuana infused marketing. Yes, marketing that has gone to pot – literally. No I haven’t lost my mind. Trust me, there will be a marketing lesson in here at the end…
Last week I picked up a tweet from @HiddenWeedYVR. It came via @VancityBuzz which I follow. It noted how someone was hiding bags of weed, then tweeting photo clues. As of last Friday morning they were at 927 followers and currently sit at 3,175 followers. Not huge, but growing.
@HiddenWeedYVR is a follow up idea to @HiddenCashYVR that has apparently had a segment of Twitter followers in Vancouver all a buzz tweeting photo clues for randomly dispersed $100 bills placed throughout the city. @HiddenCashYVR with over 24,000 followers was inspired by @HiddenCash, a phenomena started about a month ago in San Francisco. Their random acts of $100 kindness gained them a following of over 460,000. Since then copycats have sprung up in Texas, Tampa, Nashville, Vancouver and the UK.
But back to the bag of weed. Who would do this?
I realize it was launched one day prior to National Donut Day, but surely that’s not some odd placed juxtaposed snacking humour? I think more likely it could be the beginning of a larger campaign, one where the organizer has a vested interest in ramping up a huge Twitter following quickly, albeit from a highly targeted group. They did tag @JodieEmery (wife of Mark Emery, an outspoken political activist), as well as news organizations @CKNW and @VancouverSun and @HuffPostBC. I’ll stay tuned on this one and let you know if it goes anywhere.
Yet another marijuana infused marketing spin comes from Mega iLL, a restaurant on Kingsway at Fraser in Vancouver, that sells marijuana oil-infused pizza. Yes, before the pizza gets baked, it gets baked. The extra ingredient is added for $10, and only to those who are over 18, and who have been prescribed marijuana by a doctor. As specialized segmented products go, I’m pretty sure their offering is exclusive in Canada. Apparently the idea was inspired on a trip to Cambodia, where the owner experienced Happy Pizza, a product using a similar oil infusion process. Here’s a video if you want to learn more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/only-in-vancouver-marijuana-oil-infused-pizza-on-the-menu-1.2591380
And just when you thought I couldn’t possibly spin this one any more, yet again from the left-coast of Canada comes a new distribution angle for marijuana.
A vending machine.
Yup, only in Vancouver. The machine is located at BC Pain Society, 2908 Commercial Drive, and targets to dispense safely for medical purposes to users who have a card, issued by their medical doctor that certifies they need marijuana. While it’s not directly marketing the use of pot, it is an interesting change to the model of distribution.
So why have I chosen educate you on more than you likely needed to know about access to marijuana on the west coast? Two reasons:
(1) I’ve given you something interesting to share and talk about with your friends. Inadvertently I have made you look smarter and more connected then you were before you read this. Hopefully you’ve had a few laughs too. That’s what good word of mouth marketing does.
(2 ) But most importantly, I’ve illustrated a couple disruptive marketing concepts:
- An unusual and memorable distribution model.
- What highly segmented target marketing looks like.
- How a business differentiates itself from competitors.
- Clever methods for gaining a large twitter following and getting noticed by the media.
I love the notion of disruption, and these examples are disruptive on so many levels. Have you seen anything out there that disrupts an industry or category? I’d love to hear about it and have you share it here.
