Smarty Plants: Free Knowledge in Every Jar

 

​I led the creation of this cannabis brand from the ground up, beginning with the core brand experience, values, and positioning. Since it's weed, and I just used the word "experience," you're probably assuming that means sitting around and smoking pot, but I'm actually talking about real creative and strategic work. 

​

The thing that made Smarty Plants so popular was The Knowledge Blog, which I also curated myself. The Knowledge Blog was a spectacular buffet of stories and oddities from the annals of history, science, sports, math, and pop culture.

​

The blog served two purposes: (1) It could be accessed by a QR code on the lid of the jar, making it sort of like the prize in a cereal box; something with no intrinsic value, but a great deal of experiential value. (2) It enabled us to skirt the advertising rules on social media and a handful of ad networks. The media gods still will now allow you to run ads or post content that links out to a site that sells cannabis–but if you're running ads or boosting content that links out to a blog and that blog happens to sell merch and that merch happens to be associated with a brand of cannabis, well, that's apparently okay. 

​

Smarty Plants was about celebrating oddness and sharing the delight of obscure knowledge. We (I was also a stakeholder) made this brand for all the kids who were the weird ones in high school–knowing that deep down, even the coolest kids felt weird because when they're honest, everyone's weird.

​

The whole experience was downright poetic. And, oh yeah–extremely effective. 

​

Smarty Plants was the #2 brand of flower in the state of California in 2021. And again in 2022.​​​​

​