How Cannabis Brands Can Make Their Holidays Merry and Profitable in 2021

When it comes to cannabis sales and celebrations, there’s no bigger day of the year than April 20, followed closely by Green Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, when weed fans stock up on flower, edibles, beverages, tinctures and other THC-laced goodies. But in 2021 so far, a new four-day period has emerged as a bright spot for dispensaries and brands, racking up $90 million in sales on Friday alone, second only to 4/20 as a cash cow, for a whopping $240 million total long-weekend haul, according to cannatech firm Akerna. And that holiday is…Labor Day. Labor Day? Since there’s no real history or discernible connection between the $24 billion cannabis industry and this traditional day to honor the American workforce, why is Labor Day special all of the sudden? It falls at the tail end of summer, a healthy time for weed sales, and there are four full days of receipts to count, industry analysts said. But those stellar sales indicate an emerging trend: dispensaries and brands are starting to capitalize on every notable date on the calendar—anything that might have its own greeting card—much the same as any other consumer category. What that means for the upcoming holiday season is that savvy players in the space are likely to unleash a full-court press of marketing programs and limited-edition products for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Hanukkah, Christmas and beyond. “As the industry matures, there are great opportunities to get net-new customers on mainstream holidays, those that aren’t specific to the cannabis industry,” Michael Blanche, co-founder of mar-tech firm Surfside, told Adweek. “This gives dispensaries and brands another reason to communicate with consumers, build awareness and maintain relevance.” Many are already doing just that, with dispensaries like Insa recently kicking off a month-long "haunted harvest" at its Salem, Mass., location and launching a stigma-busting campaign around it. Brands like the hot-selling Stiiizy dropped a neon orange vape battery—perfectly pumpkin-colored—and new sour gummies as an adult trick-or-treat ode to the spooky season. Data-informed marketing strategies An amped-up focus on holidays is leaning into established consumer behavior, and it's led at least in part by an influx of marketers from heritage CPG companies into cannabis, Blanche said. For example, The Parent Company, a California-based seed-to-sale brand and retailer with backing from music mogul Jay-Z, recently named former Clorox Co. executive Troy Datcher as its CEO. Surfside’s data noted some specific buying patterns around festive occasions: connoisseurs prefer flower, often tapping into their neighborhood dispensary’s loyalty program for deals. The expanding cannacurious demo, meanwhile, gravitates to "discreet formats" like drinks and edibles, sometimes buying from their hometown retailers during once-a-year visits. Heading into the heart of what could be a record-breaking fourth quarter, Surfside released a trend report based on its 2020 data, collected from millions of cannabis ecommerce transactions across the country. Among its findings: Halloween Eve 2020 saw a 55% uptick in sales versus an October daily average. Just-released figures from this past weekend showed a 60% increase in sales on Oct. 29, driven by spikes in all categories from pre-rolls to ediblesFor Green Wednesday 2020, the firm recorded a 79% jump in daily sales compared to the average November figureDecember was a green-rush month, when sales climbed 24.3% in the week leading to Christmas, compared to the December daily average; sales through the month bumped up 14.6% compared to average daily sales in October and NovemberNew Year’s Eve set off another round of buying, with the holiday logging 94.8% more sales than the October daily average, 94.6% more than the November daily average, and 70% more than the December daily average Surfside researchers expect those upswings to continue through the end of 2021, with Blanche recommending that cannabis brands and retailers “increase ad budgets and change ad creative to be personalized and seasonally relevant to be top of mind.” As Cannabis Legalization Expands, the Tech Firms Fueling Its Sales Are Exploding in Value