Hijacking the Super Bowl Ad Conversation to Battle Cannabis Censorship

Challenge: Break through advertising restrictions and censorship barriers to own a conversation around sports and cannabis during Super Bowl LVI, an event that took place in the most cannabis-friendly city in the world.​

Approach:

• Hijacked the news cycle with WM’s first ever digital advertisement that questioned the reasoning for cannabis censorship​
• Launched digital ad that created the character Brock Ollie to battle the conversation on cannabis censorship​
• Parceled out assets, executives, and story angles to target exclusive opps across advertising, endemic, business, consumer lifestyle, and sports media​
• Leveraged CEO for Radio Row media tour targeting sports press ​
• Pressured NBC to comment on their restrictions by spotlighting comparative messaging for sports betting and alcohol consumption in relation to cannabis​

Impact:​

• Generated significant spikes on the Weedmaps app and website vendors, earning the designation as the most successful program since Weedmaps’ IPO​
• Secured high-impact coverage in mainstream and social editorial press driving the conversation across social channels ​
• Increased traffic to WM’s social channels significantly, pushing Instagram to reinstate the flagged account​
• Earned over 230 editorial placements in key publications including Fox News, Yahoo, Forbes, USA Today, The Verge and an exclusive in AdWeek that prompted a media alert from their publication driving further engagement
• Recognized in the 2023 PRWeek Awards for Best in Arts, Sports, Entertainment & Media and Best in Social categories​