While cannabis is legal, advertising it isn’t. In this extraordinarily restrictive and incredibly competitive environment, the agency was tasked with generating awareness and sales for ‘50’, an intensely relaxing new Indica strain from Up Cannabis. Without a massive budget, it was vital to ensure that the attention generated benefited the brand and not the bigger players driving category education. The campaign needed to demonstrate the unique role ‘50’ and Up Cannabis could play in people’s lives, without speaking directly to the brand, or its benefits. And since most mass media wouldn’t touch cannabis, the challenge was to find other law-abiding ways to impact and connect with the target.

Targeting young professionals who often badge their booked and busy lifestyle also posed the additional challenge of having to reframe using ‘50’ and Up Cannabis to relax as a positive. Through research, it became clear that the target, in the early stages of their careers, were working hard and saw themselves as anything but lazy. In fact, a startling 83% of Canadians millennials are up before 7AM and approximately 50% have “side hustles”. It was also clear that all the late hours and stress was taking a toll. In fact, “time poverty” has become an epidemic. Knowing 95% of Canadians consider it important to invest in themselves but don't do it as often as they'd like, the agency saw an opportunity to position the acquisition of the new UP strain as an important investment in themselves. One that would pay back in dividends.

Introducing ‘Saving Grace Financial’, a fake financial company that teaches consumers about investing in something more important than money: themselves. The campaign championed the notion of investing in yourself, combining classic bank imagery with unusual twists on traditional financial headlines meant to grab attention and make the reader think twice. Headlines such as “Our interest rates are so high”, “Retire this afternoon” and “Make a withdrawal from everything” were all paid off with the CTA ‘Feel Fabulously Rich’, a subtle nod to an iconic line from the Tragically Hip, who founded Up Cannabis, and a drive to the URL. From the colours, to the language, to the URL itself (IsThisReal.ca), everything was designed to provoke curiosity and drive people to a landing page, where the company could provide more information and demonstrate how their products paid off the campaign’s fake claims in a very real way.

Online, the age-gated site delved deeper into the importance of investing in downtime and matched cannabis strains to consumers’ specific investment needs, with ‘50’ being the hero. Visitors were also rewarded with 80% off Up branded Shredit Cards - wallet-sized cards to be used to help break up Cannabis buds. ‘Saving Grace Financial’ took a bold and unique approach to establishing brand awareness in the category and the misdirect paid back in spades. Sales of the hero Indica strain, ‘50’, spiked 90% for the 1g offering and an incredible 242% for the 3.5g offering during campaign period vs. period prior.