Covert campaign
Creatives approached a number of adjacent businesses—Stok’d has four locations—and a few turned down the potential collaboration. But several were “really receptive,” according to Erin Kawalecki, chief creative officer.
“They were quite involved in how their business would be portrayed,” Kawalecki said. “They liked the idea of amping up their profile, and they understood that we were pushing it a bit over the top with the creative style.”
The agency team conferred with the small business owners, but hired professional actors to be the on-screen talent because “we needed people who could memorize lines” and knock out the scenes efficiently, Kawalecki said.
When it came time to submit the ads to heavyweight platforms like Meta and Google, creatives sent the work from the business’ accounts so there was no Stok’d paper trail.
“We were waiting for someone to say, ‘hey, this isn’t allowed,’ and we were ready with options in case we got rejected,” said Choi, formerly chief creative officer at J. Walter Thompson New York. “No one asked for any edits or changes.”
Having worked with a different cannabis company previously, the agency was aware of the marketing challenges. And the stated goal for this project was to skirt the rules, while officially adhering to the spirit of the law.
“We were worried that someone would see through what we were doing,” Kawalecki said. “Either we were lucky, or the program was really well done?”
Cannafans noticed, of course, and the campaign has been a hit on social media. That, in turn, has boosted visits to the Stok’d website and in-store traffic by double digits.
