BRAND MANAGER 2022-2024
As Brand Manager for Fire & Flower and Friendly Stranger, I led the creative team in the development of promotional campaigns, weekly features, and brand takeovers that have garnered impressive increases in transactions.
My team produced all print materials and digital assets including visual merchandise materials, in-store and out-of-house signage and ads, website content, social media, weekly e-mail assets, and programmatic digital ads.
With every brand we featured, I made sure we kept to that brand’s voice and aesthetic. I directed our messaging strategy and composed copy for both retailers’ marketing across mediums and platforms.
As a data-driven marketer, I used research tools to develop our messaging to be as impactful as possible.
SEO CONTENT
An avid writer, I have penned many SEO-driving blogs for Fire & Flower and Friendly Stranger covering topics from experience and use to Licensed Producer features. Click on the examples below.
How to Use Cannabis During Sex
Digital board for Friendly Stranger.
Digital board for Fire & Flower.
PROMOTIONAL PLANNING: FRIENDLY STRANGER ANNIVERSARY
To celebrate Friendly Stranger’s 30th year in business, I collaborated with Merchandise and held a two-week promotion of 30% off all concentrates. The promotion also coincided with 710 Oil Day, a popular cannabis culture tradition with concentrate users. Friendly Stranger is a legacy in the Ontario cannabis scene starting as a significant head shop and legalization advocate in Toronto. Considering the brand’s historical significance, I wanted a bold sale to match the 30 years of making friends one joint at a time.
The sale included a wide assortment of products to ensure a proper run. Having a promotion on a usually expensive and intimidating category of product increased traffic and basket sizes significantly.
FRANCHISE SUPPORT - CIRCLE K
Fire & Flower had a short-lived franchise deal with Circle K opening our dispensaries attached to their convenience stores and gas stations. The same boards played in the Circle K locations.
I wrote copy for a variety of assets to be used at Circle K to direct traffic to the adjacent store. Using the same copy from my generic beverage promos, we created beverage cooler clings tying the two worlds together. My “Cannabis & Munchies made convenient“ signage included gas hose covers, cooler clings, counter decals, pull-up banners, washroom signage and magnet signs to be used as suited in each location.
Click any example below to open a viewer (cooler clings and washroom signage).
PROGRAMMATIC DIGITAL MARKETING
As Brand Manager, I worked with different digital advertising agencies for the implementation and monitoring of our large-scale digital campaigns. The campaigns created grew in success with ROAS of up to 2000%.
Using Traffic Junky, I was able to build campaigns independently using my market research. Although risqué, promoting an adult product in an adult space made sense as both the cannabis and sex industries face similar limitations on advertising, and cater to much of the same audiences. The effective ads received high impressions in less than a week with low CPC.
A-Frame signage for outside shops.
DIGITAL SCREENS & PROMOS
The digital boards promote weekly product features or the shop branding. With up to ten promo boards running at a time between loyalty, promotional, and branded digital boards, we kept a balance between brand takeovers, and Fire & Flower or Friendly Stranger presenting the brands or products.
Composing for the rotating screens meant copy needed to be concise, eye-catching and rememberable.
Static digital boards.
Spark Perks static digital board.
SPARK PERKS - FIRE & FLOWER LOYALTY PROGRAM
Spark Perks was the loyalty program developed for our retail and franchise stores. My team assisted with several rebranding of the program; and promoted the Marketplace app launch with email, social, and digital campaigns.
My “Weed at your fingertips. Get the app.” copy was well received and became the tagline.
EMAIL WRITING
Between the two major retailer brands, I was producing copy for weekly emails and website content with catchy headers and subject lines.
Right-Click any examples below to open a larger version.
