UP Cannabis
UP North

The Challenge

Introduce Up Cannabis to cannabis curious and legacy (long-term users) consumers before the promotional legislation on cannabis would take effect. These precious months ahead of government restrictions are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve the brand’s goal of creating mass brand awareness for Up by creating an unforgettable experience to generate traditional and social media coverage.

The biggest challenge: launching the brand without the product. Working from a constrained palette forced the brand to get creative with its strategy to generate brand awareness.

The Insight

Winter is a big part of Canadian culture, but it’s in the summer that Canada comes to life; when people reconnect with nature and embrace the outdoors. What better way to introduce Canada to Up than by bringing them… Up North. Up North captures the essence of the Up brand– with music, the outdoors, the Tragically Hip, and Canadiana at its core.

To bring to life this insight, the agency created a one-of-a-kind, multi-sensory brand experience embracing Canadian music, nature, and an elevated lifestyle in Northern Ontario.

Hosted in partnership with the Tragically Hip, the team connected each experience to an occasion our target could use cannabis to enhance, with three experiential pillars to bring to life the brand’s value proposition of music, food and health/wellness:

Listen Up: Whether it’s sitting around a campfire, or hearing it broadcasted across the nation, music is an undeniable part of who we are as a brand and as Canadians.
Eat Up: Canadians take pride in their food. It’s a celebration of our diversity and an opportunity to share things we love, with people we love. The target is always looking to take their food experiences up a level, and that’s exactly what the brand did.
Open Up: The healing power of cannabis has attracted serious interest from the wellness community (ex. cannabis-friendly yoga studios on the rise in Canada). Which creates the perfect connection between the laid-back Canadian culture and the brand’s offering.

The Plan

Launch Event – 250 media and influencers traveled “up north” for a 24-hour brand immersion that connected Up Cannabis to enhanced moments and occasions including:

Listen Up–Special music performances by City & Colour and the Glorious Sons – chosen based on their connection to Up’s culture.
Eat Up–Food experience lead by five local chefs who designed a menu inspired by terpenes found in the five Up Cannabis strains.
Open Up–Luxury camping in the great outdoors, morning yoga class led by renowned instructors Queenie and Jonathan Phair, trail hiking and swimming

Every touchpoint was designed to encourage social sharing, and by integrating all the above elements, the brand was able to target all types of media and influencers (lifestyle, wellness, news, etc.) to expand its coverage opportunities and tell each facet of the brand story.

Media and Influencer Journey – In void of an actual product, the journey for guests at this event had to connect in some way to cannabis. This way, they could get to know Up through experiences that connected to the brand’s identity, and envision how Up could enhance their own everyday experiences. The first touchpoint was an invite kit that was creatively designed to introduce the brand, deliver key information, and set the tone for the event. The event began with ‘Up Cannabis 101’, an informative session by Up’s horticultural managers to educate guests and arm them with knowledge and brand messaging to include in their posts and stories. Select media were offered interviews with the Tragically Hip, who are creative partners and investors in Up Cannabis, but since the passing of their frontman, had been on a public hiatus.

The Results

A flurry of media coverage ensued after the event earning over 30 million earned impressions to-date with 137 stories in top tier outlets including Canadian Press, CTV News, Huffington Post, and more. The team secured feature, in-depth coverage including interviews with the Tragically Hip and Up Cannabis CEO Jay Wilgar on CBC National News, eTalk, ET Canada, Toronto Star, National Post, and Sun Media.

The agency turned media and influencers into unofficial Up ambassadors, proven by the social media activity resulting from the event: 940 posts generating a reach of over 20 million across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

The total reach of the campaign to-date is 50 million, more than quadrupling the brand’s goal and exceeding KPIs by over 38 million.