Case Study: Visit Oakland

Objective:

to drive economic impact to Oakland’s visitor economy businesses (hotels, cannabis shops, cannabis lounges, restaurants, museums, etc.) by attracting the cannabis-motivated travel audience that research has identified, with a purpose-driven DEI-themed 4/20 holiday travel adventure.

Approach:

Created a #This420ChooseEquity Campaign: Travel the Oakland Cannabis Trail campaign

This Experience/Activation entry is unique because it’s a first-of-its-kind purpose-driven cannabis travel and tourism experience product that demonstrates cross-industry bridge building and innovation.

The Experience spotlights Equity owned cannabis businesses and brands, and positions cannabis as a complimentary Effect Pairing tool that enhances food, art, and nature experiences in travel, while uplifting the human rights and DEI ethos of the cannabis community and movement.

Since 2020 the Visit Oakland team has tracked the year over year growth of the cannabis travel audience in the United States, an audience that now accounts for 37% of the active leisure travel audience (MMGY Travel Intelligence; Portrait of the American Traveler, Aug 2022), which equates to approximately 30 million Americans.  Recent research shows that the cannabis travel audience are interested in California destinations, and the most sought after activities include experiencing a cannabis retail shop, spending time in a cannabis lounge, trying a CBD-infused edible, and enjoying an infused spa treatment.

Recognizing the cannabis travel audience growth and the maturing cannabis experience landscape of Oakland, Visit Oakland identified an opportunity to authentically differentiate with an experiential endeavor and invested in developing a Cannabis Travel Program anchored in an evergreen cannabis experience product and storytelling platform branded as the Oakland Cannabis Trail.

Visit Oakland brought in subject matter expert Brian Applegarth, a data-driven cannabis travel consultant and advisor, to co-create the Program and spearhead the development of the Visit Oakland Cannabis Trail while supporting content and marketing strategies, including a 4/20 DEI-themed cannabis holiday innovative campaign.

The Visit Oakland Cannabis Travel Program objectives:

1. Data-driven program architecture development

2. Strategic B2B cannabis stakeholder outreach and engagement

3. Evergreen experience product development, create The Visit Oakland Cannabis Trail and

4. An eight week dedicated seasonal campaign centered around the 4/20 spring cannabis holiday on April 20th, 2023.

The Visit Oakland Cannabis Travel Program goals:

1. Develop and launch a cannabis sub-brand and a first-of-its-kind cannabis travel experience product

2.  Develop and position select cannabis assets as visitor economy attraction partners and storytellers of Oakland cannabis today, a story of cultural heritage and innovation

3. Establish Visit Oakland as a travel industry leader of the emerging cannabis travel trend.

The Visit Oakland Cannabis Trail attracts and serves cannabis travel audiences by offering travel-worthy cannabis-themed experiences, layered with rich-storytelling and cultural context authentic to Oakland.  The Visit Oakland Cannabis Trail today offers over thirty points of interest including canna-beverage bars, cannabis lounges, cannabis retail shops, and complimentary art, food, and nature Effect Pairing experiences. As food pairs with wine, cannabis pairs with activities and experiences. Effect Pairing is the art optimally enhancing a destination experience with targeted cannabis effects.

Key participants include Rose Mary Jane Canna-Beverage Bar & Lounge, Harborside Wellness, and Blunts & Moore Cannabis Shop & Lounge. Harborside Wellness and Blunts & Moore are Cultural Landmarks with monument plaques on display, cannabis-themed attractions.  Blunts & Moore was the very first Equity-licensed cannabis shop in the world, a story of restorative justice and righting the wrongs of the ‘war-on-drugs’ era. Harborside is an innovator of modern day cannabis wellness and pioneer of lab tested cannabis medicine. Rose Mary Jane is a black female Equity-owned canna-beverage bar. Rose Mary Jane emerged as a strong experience and storyteller for travel media opportunities, a solution for FAM trips and journalist visits.

Program and Trail development tactics:

1. Create a cannabis-sub brand

2.  Foundational ‘Know Before You Go’ cannabis content

3. Stakeholder outreach with an onboarding package that included a Visit Oakland introduction, Program opportunity overview, and participant onboard form

4. Participant onboard and key partner development

5. Cultural Landmark talking points, staff training, and media preparation

6. Visit Oakland Cannabis Trail kick off party

7. Develop and launch a spring 2023 DEI-themed campaign #This420ChooseEquity, enticing visitors to celebrate the cannabis holiday with purpose by traveling The Equity Path along the Visit Oakland Cannabis Trail.

Campaign (This 420 Choose Equity) tactics:

1. Identifying travel-worthy Equity & DEI path featuring Equity-owned cannabis experience assets along The Visit Oakland Cannabis Trail

2. Stakeholder outreach, holiday campaign opportunity overview, activation request, and preparation

3. Travel influencer content mission

4. Engage Hearst Media and Hearst Storytelling Studio to strategically amplify the campaign from a paid media perspective, unlock additional marketing channels and strategies.

The methodology used to evaluate the “This 420 Choose Equity” spring seasonal cannabis holiday campaign includes:

1. Earned, Owned, and Paid performance while recognizing cannabis-themed marketing is challenging.

2. Key partner development, connectivity, communication

3. Establish Visit Oakland as a travel innovation leader.

The cannabis-themed marketing landscape is complex. Successfully navigating the marketing landscape demands creativity and innovative first mover strategies including grassroots efforts with partner participants and their channels.

From a quantitative results perspective, there are two sources of marketing performance data that demonstrate success:

1. Campaign #This420ChooseEquity, a mix of paid, owned, earned.

2. Visit Oakland owned channel performance, strictly organic and earned.

The 420 Campaign ran eight weeks and yielded over 4,237,554 impressions and 11,233 engagements.

The campaign clocked an impressive 2 minutes and 18 seconds (2:18) for average time spent on the Campaign microsite.

For comparison, the industry average is 1:06 on desktop and :56 on mobile, less than half of the performance of what Visit Oakland accomplished with this ground-breaking, first-of-its-kind campaign.

The successful performance of the Campaign is a testament to reaching the right audience, via the right channels, with the right Campaign content, messaging, and strategy. The performance is proof positive that the compelling Campaign editorial and images captured audience attention and kept them on the page interacting with the VO Cannabis Trail brand, actively engaging and curating their 4/20 Equity-themed Cannabis Holiday adventure.

The Visit Oakland Cannabis Trail experience product channels consist of an age-gated webpage, dedicated blog, a map with points of interest, experience directory, and more. Due to a uniquely complex marketing landscape, the strategy thus far has been 100% organic. To support organic marketing efforts, Visit Oakland activated grassroots cooperative efforts in partnership with the Cannabis Trail participants and their channels. The Visit Oakland Trail webpage thus far has received 22,800 website views averaging over 2 minutes time on page. For social media, the Visit Oakland Cannabis Trail content has reached over 95,000 accounts. The video content (reels and video) received over 82,000 views since launching.

From a qualitative results perspective, this multi-layered Experience/Activation inclusive of a Program, Product (Trail), and Campaign (This 420 Choose Equity) –  has reinforced Oakland’s pioneering reputation within the community, media and travel industry.  It has created credibility for cannabis businesses among the broader business community, and more.