The promotion of CBD products raises complex issues. Many of the options available for marijuana advertisers are currently restricted. And mainstream advertising is a complex prospect, even in states where many forms of cannabis are legal. With demand for effective CBD marketing on the rise, how are advertisers navigating restrictions in this area of the industry?
The guidelines for CBD products include many rules of thumb applicable to all healthcare advertising. GSW’s work with Hectare’s is a perfect example.
Hectare’s started as a Kentucky grown tea company with a passion for health, wellness, and giving back. Over the course of several years, the tea product faded out to make room for a focus on cannabis. While true to their original pillars and core reason for being, changing hands and product left the current close-knit team in need of help to sell their vision to consumers. Their website was the first obvious touchpoint.
GSW took Hectare’s back to basics. We worked with them to build their brand from the ground up and really capture, as the guiding light for all work to come, the essence of their brand – its personality, values, and how it manifests – from photographs to color to tone of voice. We did research and data analysis in the space to make sure the brand would stand out all while considering applicable policy and regulation criteria in the space.
Our founded insights drove the concept “Daily Dose of Goodness” to the forefront. We wanted the home page to feature the products, but welcome the customer with a calm, earth-to-bottle kind of visual to emphasize the natural purity of what they put in their products. The new website invites interaction, scrolling through options, and easy access to the shop if something the consumer scrolls past catches their eye.
To illuminate the honesty and purity of the Hectare’s brand, we meticulously curated a presentation of their products that emphasized the natural ingredients through a raw photographic style. We also created an interactive graphic dial for the Hectare’s wellness shots that displayed the best time for the user to consume the shots. Ultimately, we conveyed Hectare’s story through inspirational imagery found on each page, showcasing their heritage and the health brand.
You can view the website here: https://hectares.com/
Traffic has almost doubled since relaunch and the work was recently nominated for Best Consumer website by Medical, Marketing & Media (MM&M). The relaunch proved the sophistication of the brand and company behind it. We love the essence of the site, how it functions and tells their story, and the way their brand is solidly and dynamically encapsulated.
Why it Matters:
There is a lot of uncertainty in the promotion of new CBD products, however on any given day in healthcare marketing we are required to navigate restrictions no matter the customer. Federal and state laws, as well as advertising policies across platforms, are changing constantly, making advertising CBD brands a genuine challenge. In short, there are no clear answers on CBD advertising yet. CBD advertising requires a constant eye to policies and regulation changes. The guidelines for CBD products include many rules of thumb applicable to all healthcare advertising.
Bottom line: know your state regulations; know your platform; make sure there is evidence to support health or medical claims; consider the age limits as well as what’s allowed in the marketing creative by state; incorporate regulatory developments as they occur.
