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How Art Meets Science with Cannabis Programmatic Advertising: A Webinar Brief

by | Nov 16, 2021 | Blog | 0 comments

Cannabis and Generational Targeting How Art Meets Science with Cannabis Programmatic Advertising

A CMA Webinar Brief

By Emily Wells

On November 9, Cannabis Marketing Association was joined by Guillermo Bravo, Chief Evangelist of MediaJel, and Ted Montanus, Director | Demand Partnerships – North America of SMART AdServer to discuss leveraging the power of programmatic advertising in cannabis.

Throughout the session, Guillermo and Ted worked to educate the audience of cannabis advertisers on programmatic “freedom” and how their retail locations can easily connect with potential cannabis consumers while they’re browsing their favorite websites and using their favorite apps using the secret weapon of programmatic advertising: display ads. The structure was a 30-minute webinar followed by an interactive AMA with the live audience.

 

What is programmatic?

Programmatic, in layman’s terms, is the automated process of buying digital ads and securing ad space (whether that ad space be with an ad network or an individual publisher). An example of programmatic advertising you’ve probably seen in your day-to-day as a consumer includes sponsored ads natively placed in your Instagram feed or at the footer of Candy Crush from a website you had visited earlier in the day.

As an advertiser, programmatic has endless benefits and is a compliant way to segment and reach your target audiences in meaningful ways. 

 

How can retail locations utilize programmatic?

Again, programmatic allows for endless possibilities for brick and mortar locations. “Conquesting”, as used in the advertising industry, is a means to deploy an advertisement for one’s products or services adjacent to editorial content relating to the competitor or the competitor’s products. Not only does this allow marketers to pin-drop competitors and add them into their own targeting, but it gives them the opportunity to create audiences and target them based on the various locations they’re visiting in addition to cannabis retail locations, like yoga studios, natural and organic grocers, or certain music venues. Identifying your target consumer is key in establishing marketing messages that resonate; programmatic advertising serves as a one-stop shop that enables advertisers to send multiple messages to multiple audience segments.

Understanding where your brick and mortar location or product lies and which consumer segment it speaks to best should drive your media mix, and then you can use data and programmatic to validate it or more strategically deliver meaningful messages to those consumers. Programmatic is the tool advertisers use to get their creative out, and speaking to your target audiences in their tone and language allows you to flex your creative muscles while also ensuring relevancy to the consumer.

There are three types of consumers: those who are loyal to you, those who are loyal to your competitor, and dual shoppers, who have no loyalties and instead shop out of convenience. Take the time to understand why a consumer may be going to one retail store over another, it could otherwise prove to be a fruitless battle if you target a consumer who is shopping based on location convenience. Ultimately, building brand awareness is almost as important as building a conquesting or competitive marketing strategy. “Brands and marketers want to focus on return on investment, but building brand loyaty and awareness is almost just as important and is where you can deploy more of a mixed media campaign at scale… and obviously programmatic and techonology add speed and efficiency”. 

As far as nurturing existing customers goes, keeping yourself top of the consumers’ mind is key, and programmatic allows you to create a seamless experience to retarget them in a way that resonates. Programmatic also gives marketers the capability to trace walk-ins, online orders, and accurately measure sales attribution. 

 

To Watch the Full Webinar

To learn more about the power of programmatic advertising as a cannabis brand and retailer and view the AMA, become a CMA Member and gain access to the full webinar.

Already a member? Log in to the Member Portal.

 

Interested in accessing CMA’s content portal with all of our past event recordings? Become a CMA Member today! Webinar attendees receive 10% off using the discount code Webinar10.

 

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