What is the Power Behind Cannabis PR and Event Marketing?

Updated: October 2024

The cannabis industry has changed a lot over the past decade, but one thing remains the same—it’s all about who you know. 

Sure, for consumers in legal states it’s no longer necessary to know the local plug with a backpack full of the best zhazha. Shorthand like 420 isn’t as necessary as it once was to feel out fellow heads, nor is cannabis consumption an underground affair. 

This is, however, still an industry and community fueled by relationships. That’s part of the reason public consumption spaces are poised to become the next wave of legalization as dispensaries have become more mainstream and plentiful. 

That’s also why cannabis event marketing is more relevant than ever. As the industry grows and stigma declines, there are more people joining the weed space, and more visibly, too. For cannabis business owners, event marketing is one of the best paths toward meaningful connections with future collaborators, allies, partners and customers.

What Is Event Marketing?

Event marketing is exactly what it sounds like—using events to showcase a brand’s mission, vision, values and vibe and the different ways that brands’ products and services could improve consumers’ lives. Event marketing can include:

• Cannabis conferences, trade shows and expos
• Thought leadership speaking engagements
• Brand and product launches, soft launches and grand openings
• Brand activations and experiential marketing
• Pop-ups, takeovers and other brand collaborations
• Virtual events like webinars, online speaking engagements, workshops and digital happy hours

Whatever shape a marketing event takes, the goal is to build trust, educate consumers and foster community. That’s big business—in the United States alone, B2B trade shows were valued at $15.8 billion in 2024. That value represents a huge rebound since the COVID-19 pandemic put an unprecedented pause on in-person gatherings. 

While post-pandemic event planning has a slightly different flavor than expos and conferences that took place before 2020, it’s clear there is still a lot of tangible and intangible value to be had for brands in any industry that want to leverage event marketing. 

That’s especially true for cannabis brands that have more limited opportunities for marketing and advertising than brands in other industries. Some of the benefits of event marketing for cannabis brands include:

• Brand visibility and awareness
• Expanded top-of-sales and top-of-marketing funnels
• Demonstrating brand and team expertise, authority and trust
• Opportunities to generate PR and earned media by leveraging newsworthy events
• Show consumers firsthand where a brand’s products fit into their everyday lifestyles or memory-making moments like concerts, festivals and immersive experiences

• Cross-pollinate existing brand audiences through thought leadership and marketing collaborations and partnerships
• Introductions to diverse stakeholders 
• List-building for email marketing

How To Tackle Event Marketing Strategically

Planning a strategic, effective event isn’t easy—just ask the Grasslands staff who bring The Grasslands Party to life each year, or long-time team members like Account Director Lindsay Hoffman, who spent much of her career marketing events like Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits Music Festival. But it can be, ultimately, fairly straightforward. 

First things first—determine if event marketing is the right fit for your brand’s marketing mix. If so, include events in your brand’s annual marketing plan and budget. Any event a brand engages and invests in should ladder up to that brand’s broader goals. 

With some simple marketing math, you can assess how much your brand is spending on customer acquisition through tactics like top-of-funnel content marketing, public relations, loyalty programs and event marketing. Compare that customer acquisition cost to the average lifetime value of that customer and it will become clear where the brand’s marketing budget is best spent.

Building an Event Marketing Timeline

Working from those marketing benchmarks and budgetary guidelines, it becomes more clear the size and scale of events that would be the best fit for your marketing goals.

Next, determine what would be the best timeline to produce the event. For instance, many event venues and other logistical arrangements will need to be contracted at least a year ahead of time. Vendors for trade show displays and exhibit fabrication will have different production timelines—especially if numerous brands are preparing for one big expo at the same time.

Speaking at conferences or on panels often requires submitting applications well in advance, or even a selection period where nominations or voting need to be promoted internally and externally. Event sponsorships also take time and effort to arrange. Activations and stunts need to be set up and executed. And so forth.

Event-related content creation to promote the event also requires significant advance planning and strategic cadences ahead of the event, including:

• Marketing emails 
• Web copy
• Graphic design
• Thought leadership
• Social media posting
• Gated content

Download Our Pre-Event Content Marketing Checklist

Unlocking Cannabis Event Marketing Success

For example, our team begins planning The Grasslands Party (an event that takes place during MJBizCon week, typically in late November or early December) a full six or seven months ahead of time. While not every event Grasslands hosts is such a long play, strategic pre-planning is key to bringing together top minds in cannabis in markets as diverse as Boston, New Orleans, Oakland, Toronto, Denver, Austin and Las Vegas for Nightcaps, Supperclubs and Daybreakers. 

Fine-tuning the event marketing timeline is especially important for brands that want to earn media and draw in new customers for major retail holidays like 4/20, 7/10 and Green Wednesday. While these “high holidays” of cannabis are a time when people are extra enthusiastic about mixing and mingling, they are also more competitive—especially when it comes to coverage in cannabis trade publications. 

Cannabis retail events might also take a little more education to contextualize for mainstream journalists who might not inherently “get” the newsworthiness of what used to be niche stoner touchstones, versus more traditional gift-giving holidays like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas. That’s where building trust with reporters and editors throughout the year is crucial. When it’s time to proactively pitch news outlets about your marketing event, having strong media relations in place is a genuine advantage.

‍Learn more about Grasslands Agency’s strategic marketing services and our proven process for brand building.