309 - Marketing Cannabis 101 with Mike Tebb

Summary

Episode Summary: The Marketing Millennials - Episode 309: Marketing Cannabis 101 with Mike Tebb

Release Date: February 7, 2025

In Episode 309 of The Marketing Millennials, host Daniel Murray delves into the intricate and highly regulated world of cannabis marketing with special guest Mike Tebb, Marketing Director at Fig Farms. This episode provides a comprehensive exploration of the unique challenges and effective strategies for marketing within the cannabis industry, offering invaluable insights for marketers navigating this complex landscape.

1. Navigating Regulations in Cannabis Marketing

Mike Tebb begins by addressing the overwhelming regulatory environment that characterizes cannabis marketing. He emphasizes the critical importance of understanding industry rules to the "107% mark" to effectively balance compliance and creativity.

Mike Tebb [01:34]: "The biggest piece of advice I could give anyone, especially marketers within that space, to have content be successful in any way, shape or form in the cannabis realm, is to understand your rules to the 107% mark, get really close to breaking them and take about two steps back and that's going to be your happy little sweet spot."

Tebb highlights the long history of cannabis legislation in California—spanning nearly three decades—and the perpetual evolution of regulations from cultivation to marketing. He discusses the necessity of operating within these constraints to maintain both legal compliance and brand integrity.

2. The Power of Storytelling in Cannabis Marketing

A central theme of the conversation is the pivotal role of storytelling in overcoming marketing restrictions. Tebb explains how crafting compelling narratives allows cannabis brands to engage audiences without directly violating platform policies.

Mike Tebb [02:52]: "Promoting cannabis on Instagram is technically against the rules. So what you have to do to get around that is really tell the story. The story of whatever you're talking about will save you from a situation where you're going to get in trouble."

He advises marketers to focus on indirect promotion through storytelling, allowing brands to showcase their products creatively without explicit advertisements. This approach not only adheres to platform guidelines but also builds a deeper connection with consumers by providing context and meaning behind the products.

3. Types of Effective Content: Educational and Lifestyle

Tebb distinguishes between different types of content that resonate within the cannabis market, stressing the importance of educational and lifestyle-oriented content.

Mike Tebb [04:12]: "The informational stuff for a store menu really is the burden of the whole industry to do educational content. All these consumers in the cannabis space are grossly misinformed on how to judge quality."

He points out that consumers often rely on superficial metrics like THC percentages to assess product quality, which can be misleading. Therefore, educational content that informs consumers about product integrity, cultivation practices, and quality indicators is crucial. Additionally, lifestyle content that entertains and relates to the audience helps in building brand affinity and trust.

4. Leveraging Limited Marketing Channels

Given the stringent regulations on major digital platforms like Instagram and Facebook, Tebb discusses alternative marketing channels that cannabis brands can utilize to reach their audience effectively.

Mike Tebb [07:07]: "One of the biggest ways people have been getting in front of their own consumers is just holding events and literally having them out. That's your dollar for dollar kind of cheapest way to win, you know, to win hearts and minds."

He highlights the effectiveness of in-person events and print marketing collateral as primary channels for engagement. Additionally, brand deals with influencers or athletes offer loopholes to gain visibility without directly advertising cannabis products. Tebb underscores the importance of maintaining a strong presence within the community through events and partnerships to foster brand loyalty.

5. Planning and Executing Content Shoots

Drawing from his background in videography and photography, Tebb provides practical advice on planning successful content shoots tailored to the cannabis industry’s unique needs.

Mike Tebb [08:52]: "If you're the client coming in and you're looking to get your assets, make a list. It's clarity in that moment is worth everything."

He advises creating a detailed list of desired assets and selecting photographers or videographers who prioritize honesty and quality over quantity. Tebb emphasizes the significance of clear communication and thorough briefs to ensure that the resulting content meets diverse needs, such as Instagram posts, website content, and YouTube videos. Establishing a collaborative relationship with creative professionals is essential to produce versatile and compliant marketing materials.

6. Rapid Fire Session: Quick Insights on Cannabis Marketing

To provide actionable takeaways, Daniel Murray conducts a rapid-fire segment with Tebb, covering various aspects of cannabis marketing:

• Most Underrated Marketing Channel:

  Mike Tebb [10:46]: "Short form, but you need your long form to tell a story of a brand. So do your short stuff first, do your long stuff later."

• Best Performing Content Format: Tebb advocates for short-form content to capture immediate attention, supplemented by long-form narratives to build brand stories.

• Top Cannabis Brand in Marketing:

  Mike Tebb [10:59]: "Bosque... they do a bunch of cool events, they're out there giving, they're out there putting the product in people's hands and really talking to people."

• Biggest Myth About Marketing Cannabis:

  Mike Tebb [11:27]: "That it's easy. People just go like all their bunch of stone loadies."

• Best Tip for Growing a Cannabis Brand:

  Mike Tebb [11:40]: "Show up and don't be show up to events, but show up to the right events because your brand is providing credibility for the event series you go to."

• First Platform to Run Ads If Restrictions Lifted:

  Mike Tebb [12:01]: "I would sprint to TikTok... but typing the word weed will likely get your account shut down."

• Marketing Principle to Stand By:

  Mike Tebb [12:15]: "If you're a brand owner and your consumers need to see you, you need to get mic'd up."

7. Building Trust Through Authenticity

Concluding the discussion, Tebb emphasizes the importance of authenticity and transparency in building consumer trust. He advocates for featuring brand founders and key figures in marketing content to humanize the brand and eliminate skepticism.

Mike Tebb [13:04]: "Personalities... If you're not sharing the founder and who why you started the brand and show faces of the brand, people won't trust you."

By showcasing the people behind the brand and their motivations, companies can create a relatable and trustworthy image that resonates with consumers.

8. Final Takeaways

Daniel Murray wraps up the episode by reiterating the central themes of storytelling and personal connection in successful cannabis marketing. He underscores that regardless of industry differences, compelling narratives and authentic personalities are universal drivers of effective marketing strategies.

Mike Tebb [13:49]: "Gotta kill the skepticism, entertain and educate all at the same time."

Conclusion

Episode 309 of The Marketing Millennials offers a deep dive into the complexities of cannabis marketing, guided by Mike Tebb's expertise. Marketers in the cannabis space can leverage the insights shared to navigate regulatory challenges, harness the power of storytelling, and engage audiences through creative and compliant strategies. Whether planning content shoots or selecting the right marketing channels, Tebb's advice provides a roadmap for building a credible and successful cannabis brand.

For more insightful discussions and actionable marketing strategies, subscribe to The Marketing Millennials on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your preferred podcast platform. Don’t forget to join the conversation on LinkedIn and Instagram, and share the podcast with fellow marketers.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Marketing Millennials, the no BS Marketing podcast. I'm Daniel Murray and join me for unfiltered conversations with the brains behind marketing's coolest companies. The one request I tell our guests stories or it didn't happen. Get ready to turn the top. Welcome back to another episode of the Marketing Millennials podcast. Today we're diving into one of the most highly competitive and highly regulated world of cannabis marketing. Today my guest is Mike Tebb. He's a marketing director at Fig Farms. Fig Farms is one of the most respected brands in the industry. We're talking about how to market the cannabis industry without getting shut down, how to navigate strict regulations across different marketing channels, and how to make sure you get the best content from your videographer or photographer. Let's jump in. What is up, Mike? Welcome to the podcast.

[B]

Hey. Hey, thanks for having me.

[A]

I want to kick it off by. I know you are in one of the most heavily regulated industries, cannabis, and it's hard to market anything because of all the rules and regulations. But there are a lot of cannabis companies out there that are doing great things, including yours online. So what is the secret for cannabis marketing?

[B]

The biggest piece of advice I could give anyone, especially marketers within that space, to have content be successful in any way, shape or form in the cannabis realm, is to understand your rules to the 107% mark, get really close to breaking them and take about two steps back and that's going to be your happy little sweet spot. I mean, cannabis is, you know, it's Prop 215 was, I believe, 97. Prop 64 was like 2016. So, you know, we were, I think we're on like 28, getting kind of close to 30 years of that in California. It's where I'm from. I work out of Oakland and, you know, we have a ton of regulations imposed all the way from, you know, cultivation to our marketing material just because there's a lot of misinformation around, you know, how it works. So, but understanding, but understanding, you know, the rules, getting real close to breaking them. And two steps back is a nice, happy little sweet spot where you're going to get a lot of work done, you're going to keep your clients happy, so then you're going to be able to, you know, win some hearts and minds on the brand marketing side.

[A]

So could you give example what, like what the line is, and, and then that, that, like two steps back from that line, what that example is.

[B]

So I try to tell anybody really in the content marketing space In. In cannabis to go check the rules on Instagram, to really read them, because, you know, technically, promoting cannabis on Instagram is technically against the rules. So what you have to do to get around that is really tell the story. The story of whatever you're talking about will save you from a situation, you know, where you're going to get in trouble. When you go, hey, look at this. You know, we can't really post a lot of our product. You know, I probably take anywhere from 8 to 20 macro shots a week. Each one of those shots are anywhere from 24 to about 85, 90 stack photos. You know, to be able to show the consumer our product, you know, when we manage our menus on. On our side, when we're putting things on our Google Drive, when we're putting things on our website, like, things like that are totally fine, but if you were to just take that nug straight to Instagram, you know, there's a pretty high chance you're gonna get in trouble. So it's a very, very, very fine line. So telling that story and being a storyteller within this space is huge.

[A]

So I know storytelling is the main focus, but what. What is the type of, like, storytelling you're doing? Is it educational? Is it lifestyles, entertainment? Like, what is that best content that actually works?

[B]

So the best content that actually works is. I mean, I have a lot of success on Instagram reels, you know, being as though it's so heavily governed and my stuff typically doesn't go down. So my stuff will shine on there. But you could even. You could go as far as doing a product review as long as you're telling a story and you just ride that line really, really close. But the content that your consumers are looking for is number one in terms of, like, the informational stuff for a store menu. It really is the burden of the whole industry to do educational content, you know, I mean, all these consumers in the cannabis space are grossly misinformed on how to judge quality. And it's a very, very huge level of separation in between your cultivations and the information that your consumer gets for them to judge quality. Because everybody's judging quality off a THC percentage. It couldn't be any more wrong, really. I mean, like, sure, it's a pretty decent indicator. Was the plant healthy? A lot of days, you know, there's certain stores that I walk into and I won't be able to find something that I know in a California dispensary that I know to be healthy, to actually ingest. So it's really the burden of us brands to do the education on what's clean, what's not, how to kind of, how to kind of look for those things. So. But you know, your lifestyle content's huge because you can use on your website, you can use on your menus, you could use in your brand kit. You know, a lot of cannabis companies don't have the ability to have, you know, multiple marketers per business. One of the biggest marketing departments in the space that I've ever managed was like independent marketers in that place. It's probably about seven. But you know, I've been a part of ragtag operations where you know, I'm teaching, you know, bud tenders how to be coordinators, you know what I mean? And it's gritty. So you know, a lot of that is, you know, really trying to entertain people, create something, you know, create something that people can level with with the brand and the brand marketing in the spaces, you know, winning that, you know, winning the hearts and minds. Especially in a place where you could potentially lose. All your posts that show people your credibility is huge.

[A]

I know. So Instagram has like strict regulations, Facebook has strict regulations. What are the, the, the, the channels that are people are using to get in front of consumers? Because obviously I, I'm from, I grew up in San Diego, like lived in la and you probably see a cannabis store billboard. That's probably the only way I, you. I've seen a lot of cannabis content and said, except for maybe influencers or someone else talking about a certain store or someone on a podcast talking about it. So what are the other avenues to market with those strict regulations?

[B]

You know, we can't, you know, we can't go to radio, we can't go to tv. The closest thing that we can do in terms of something like that is like a brand deal with an athlete who then goes themselves on tv. So there's loopholes within that system like that. So California's been so isolated that marketing hasn't been on a multi state operator level yet until very recently. So the, one of the biggest ways people have been getting in front of their own consumers is just holding events and literally having them out. That's, you know, that's your dollar for dollar kind of cheapest way to win, you know, to win hearts and minds. And then from there they kind of follow the social. So your scope of things you could do is pretty limited. You know, unless someone is inside of a store themselves and then, you know, you got your shelf talkers, you Got your banners, you know, you have, you know, your print marketing collateral up and stuff like that, but the amount of ways you can really go about it is extremely, extremely limited.

[A]

So, yeah, so you also come from like a videographer, photographer background. So could you explain to people just not even in the cannabis industry in general, but like how you go about planning a shoot or photography, what are the steps people need to take to make sure they get the right assets out of it, the right formats out of it? Because this is a big issue and marketing in general is how do I plan a shoot, how do I plan with photography, how do I get the right. Make sure I ask. And what, what should I be asking for? Because I need to get reels, I need to get Instagram posts, I need to get website content, I need to get videos for YouTube. What should I be asking for? And how do you plan a shoot and session?

[B]

So if you're the client coming in and you're looking to get your assets, make a list. It's clarity in that moment is worth everything. Have your list of stuff you want to achieve and make sure that you have a shooter that you know that is just going to shoot it to you straight. You know, your guys that are going to tell you no to things are telling you no because they're trying to, they're just trying to be honest. You know, there's a lot of young, scrappy shooters out there that are going to say yes to everything because they're trying to get a name. It's funny, I always tell people that I want to be your third shooter because your first guy, you're going to go, your first guy, he's going to be your cheap guy. The client's gonna learn how to work with creatives on the second guy. And so I want to be the third guy. Once, you know, once those, once those toe stubs have been, have happened, that's when I want to come in and work with someone. But you want to find, you want to find your guys who, who are willing to have a conversation and tell you the pain points.

[A]

Yeah, I, I've noticed that. I mean, if you have a good brief and you understand what you want, and also the, the other side, if you're a videographer, make sure you demand that brief because you're just going to go through the pain of shooting something, they're going to not like it. It's going to be back and forth for a long time. But if you get on the same page, like you said, even if it's an Hour, meeting before or having. Write down everything you want especially and give examples of things that you like and don't like. It will help you. But I want to go into a rapid fire session quickly and ask you some quick questions and on the cannabis industry and marketing and get quick answers from you. Is that cool?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Cool. What is the most underrated cannabis marketing channel? People's websites, best performing content format, Short form or long form?

[B]

Short form, but you need, but you need your long form to tell a story of a brand. So do your short stuff first, do your long stuff later.

[A]

What's one cannabis brand that's killing it in marketing besides what you're doing?

[B]

Bosque, they were some legacy fellows who have came to, you know, the lights, you know the light side and really focus on what they focus on. Right now they do a bunch of cool events, they're out there giving, they're out there putting the product in people's hands and really talking to people. Boss, he's crushing it and I just adore those guys over there.

[A]

What is the biggest myth about marketing cannabis?

[B]

That it's easy. People just go like all their bunch of stone loadies.

[A]

What's your best tip for growing a cannabis brand from scratch?

[B]

Show up and don't be show up to events, but show up to the right events because your brand is, is providing credibility for the event series you go to. And don't be scared to put it in people's hands for free.

[A]

If Cannabin ads weren't allowed on all channels, what would, where would be the first thing you would run to?

[B]

I would sprint to TikTok. I would sprint there. If you type the word weed, an automated thing will more than likely get rid of your whole account with under 20 minutes.

[A]

What's a marketing hill you would die on?

[B]

If you're a brand owner and you or somebody higher level within that brand that your consumers need to see. Not getting mic'd up is you need to get mic'd up. If you're a face or a big operator of a brand, if you're not in that content, you're only gonna go so far.

[A]

And lastly, where could people find what you're doing and where could we find you?

[B]

Yeah, you can find, you can find me on Instagram, the mikeytab, that's my personal account, free for bookings and stuff there. Michael Tabb on LinkedIn. You know, you go, you check us, you check the page that you know that my current employer is with where I mean we're bigger on the fig farms. On Instagram, but you know, we're bigger at just maintaining the website and you know, in channels like that.

[A]

Thank you, thank you. It's so insightful to hear different industries because it's so hard. Marketing is so broad and especially industry to industry, profession to profession. Like how to think about content marketing in cannabis is way different than software and what you need to shoot and what you don't need to shoot is different. But the one through line, through all this is like storytelling wins no matter what industry you're in. So. And then also you said something very great too is like personalities. If you're not sharing the founder and who why you started the brand and and show faces of the brand, people won't trust you.

[B]

So gotta kill the skepticism, entertain and educate all at the same time.

[A]

Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks so much for listening. Keep tuning in to hear more great insights from the core coolest marketers from around the world. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe and follow the Marketing Millennials podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. And if you like what you hear, I would greatly appreciate you giving us a five star rating. It helps bring more marketers into our community.