5 Keys for Successful Marketing Partnerships

Today’s cannabis brands are looking for meaningful ways to engage with a generally younger, more tech-savvy, and more sustainability-conscious demographic. This audience evolution goes hand in hand with the continued destigmatization of the plant. With less public backlash against legal marketing and advertising efforts, operators are enjoying a bit more freedom in avenues they can use to reach cannabis consumers.

Enter partnership marketing, an increasingly popular tactic that resonates with Gen Z audiences and gives brands the creative agency that seems to have fallen by the wayside in the transition from legacy to legal. While somewhat tricky to pull off in the face of strict and ever-changing regulations, a few cannabis brands have seized the partnership marketing idea. Here they share what works, what doesn’t, and why others should take a closer look at the worthwhile tactic.

What is partnership marketing?

Partnership marketing is a strategic collaboration between two or more businesses working together to achieve common goals. This type of co-marketing leverages the strengths and resources of participating organizations to create mutually beneficial outcomes such as increased brand awareness, customer acquisition, and revenue growth. From the Nike+iPod Sports Kit and the Starbucks x Spotify experience to Campari x Fortunato Depero and the Queen Elizabeth x Wedgewood collab, successful global brands have leveraged partnership marketing for decades. 

Ideally, partnership marketing is built on the strengths and audiences of each partner with shared goals and objectives—even if they’re not the same for the participating business. 

For example, one partner may ultimately define success in terms of units sold while the other partner may define success in terms of increased brand awareness. Common goals may include market expansion into new territories or demographics, reduced marketing and operational costs through shared advertising expenses, or the expansion of email lists or social media followers.

How to find the right partner

Partnering with a mainstream brand sounds like a great idea for a cannabis business looking to cast a wider net, but partnering with the wrong brand can be more detrimental than doing nothing at all. Fast-fashion retailer Forever 21 faced heavy criticism and accusations of “fatphobia” after shipping free Atkins diet bar samples with online orders in 2019. 

“The quickest path to successful partnership marketing is to hire a cross-industry expert to help you and your team strategically navigate the opportunities,” said Applegarth Strategies Founder Brian Applegarth, who helped the Cannabis Trail come to life. “In our case, to unlock the full potential of travel opportunities and partnerships, you should teach your team to think of your brand or business as an experience creator or a ‘cannabis attraction’ in the visitor ecosystem of your destination.”

If hiring an expert isn’t in the budget, it’s important to get creative with your outreach. Connect directly with brands and marketing peers on LinkedIn to see what a potential collaboration could involve. Initial conversations can quickly develop into ways of defining measurable success together, which is a great way to figure out if both companies can pool resources in an effective manner.

Cannabis marketing partnership tips

To avoid potential faux pas in a highly regulated arena, take some tips from industry brands and marketers who’ve enjoyed success with their partnership marketing campaigns.

1. Set company goals, and then establish mutual goals with your partner.

The first step to success is defining it. Establish your marketing campaign’s goals by identifying your core objectives and ranking them in order of importance. Once that’s clear, you can begin to establish measurable mutual goals including revenue targets, brand visibility growth across different channels, and product integrations.

One such example can be found in the Cannabis Trail, a cultural tourism path in California stretching from Santa Cruz to Weaverville that attracts history buffs, stray travelers, and cannabis connoisseurs alike. 

“Co-marketing strategies in the travel industry are often in the form of cooperative marketing programs or campaigns, where two or more destinations come together around a shared travel experience to promote,” Applegarth said. “It’s nuanced and never transactional—very different from traditional consumer product marketing. When it comes to destination co-marketing strategies, stakeholder alignment and clearly defining success are important, and so is establishing data baselines for measuring success, learning, and improving.”

To define and achieve success, the Cannabis Trail’s co-marketing strategy had to go beyond traditional KPIs to address destination marketing. That includes placemaking, enticing visitation, maximizing visitor spend, and increasing overnight stays to generate the largest amount of economic impact from this creative form of tourism. 

2. Define the expanded target audience as partners.

Once you’ve established mutual goals as a team, it’s time to think about how you’re going to excite your existing demographic while also appealing to a brand partner’s audience.

For example, Nike lovers are more likely to be athletic, but that isn’t necessarily true for avid music listeners. To address this potential audience gap, these partners leaned into the emotional connection many athletes have with music. With this approach, Apple sought to inspire exercise aficionados to upgrade their music player while Nike encouraged music lovers to hit the trail wearing its shoes during their next listening session. 

In the case of the Cannabis Trail, appealing to two audiences required operators to take a look at how tourists engage with experiences, and then figure out a way to marry that niche to the consumer-product relationship. 

“Most cannabis businesses and brands do not understand travel economy strategies and the power of the visitor spend,” Applegarth said. “The travel industry has its own culture, language, and way of using data to inform strategy and measure success. On the other hand, most cannabis brands and businesses think more transactionally.”

In order for this collaboration to succeed, the featured operators had to understand what the tourism audience wants to see. The result was unique, in-person experiences that intertwine cannabis education with memorable travel adventures, ensuring each visitor feels informed, welcomed, and excited to explore the cannabis landscape while traveling. 

3. Lean on data and analytics.

A data-driven approach is essential—especially for creating and managing new collaborative marketing efforts between businesses that don’t use the same tech stack. Establish a robust reporting system accessible by all stakeholders, conduct A/B testing for messaging, and continuously analyze data to optimize co-branded campaigns.

As the smaller of the two partners by revenue or reach, taking the helm on data collection and reporting is an effective way to add value to the partnership. It’s also an excellent way to glean insight from a relatively large and valuable set of audience data.

4. Hire a great legal team.

This is always a given, but it’s even more important when introducing a mainstream business partner to the highly regulated cannabis industry. Many mainstream consumer brands are hesitant to collaborate in cannabis given the daunting patchwork of regulations. In these instances, cannabis brands should consider getting someone friendly from the legal team involved early in the collaboration process to ensure all parties are moving in a compliant direction with their creative ideas and goals. 

5. Review everything carefully before moving to the next shiny object.

The best marketers use A/B testing to understand their evolving audience and fine-tune their messaging in the most personalized and engaging way possible. Once the A/B tests come to a close, most teams begin focusing on the next campaign.

However, it’s crucial to take the time to review and analyze the results of your tests across the entire marketing partnership campaign together. Reflecting on past work provides valuable insights while demonstrating an admirable commitment to continuous improvement and your value as a strategic partner. By learning from previous efforts, marketers can refine their approach, optimize future strategies, and build valuable relationships with industry peers and business partners that can pay dividends for many years to come. 

By leveraging each of these partnership marketing tips for success, cannabis brands will have a much stronger chance of connecting with potential customers who are increasingly receptive to creative and meaningful collaborations.