For decades we’ve been told not to drink and drive. But, driving high is not (yet) taken as seriously as a public safety threat.
Utilize (unexpected) social and offline media to drive attention and engagement.
Target Audiences: Primary: Adults 21–54 Cannabis Users, younger demo focus.
Approach to Achieve Cultural Relevance: Be where the users are, in nonjudgmental and lifestyle-forward ways.
Program Elements:
Content Creators—Stoney McBlaze and Chef Roilty
The primary objective was to leverage their online presence to tap into their unique audience and home in Colorado. Secondarily, we saw engagement from each content creator’s fanbase.
We partnered with comedian Stoney McBlaze, a stoked toker with more than 550K followers, many residing in Colorado. He posted his rendition of our message and spun it into “Stay stoked but stay safe. Partake responsibly.”
For the second content creator, we partnered with Chopped 420 finalist and award-winning extract artist with cannabis, Chef Roilty. Chef developed two posts featuring video and an infused recipe for his followers to try at home, reminding them of THC’s effects.
Don’t Drive High Dispensary Bags
As a place-based tactic, we distributed branded CDOT bags to be handed out as consumers purchased cannabis from dispensaries in Denver and El Paso counties. Inside these dispensaries, we aimed to extend the safety message to consumers at the point of purchase as a contextually relevant reminder to consume responsibly. The strategy of combining the bags and on-screen display on digital menus (in-store) increased frequency while customers were inside cannabis shops. These tactics together garnered 1.5M impressions from those actively purchasing cannabis within both recreational and medicinal dispensaries.
Mobile Display and Video
Using both behavioral and location-based data, we added to our awareness effort by serving ads to people who have visited dispensaries over the past 90 days.
In conjunction with the mobile-device IDs of those who have visited a dispensary, we leveraged app affinity data (those with marijuana-related apps) to increase the potential reach of more people.
Each data set was aligned with adults 21 and older and served the customized rich-media expandable unit when the device was at rest (not moving or driving).
This execution drew in 6M impressions with an overall 0.34% engagement rate (image or text click on the unit), with the interstitial unit having an excellent engagement rate of 0.94% (0.80% benchmark).
Rich-Media Quiz Interstitial and Rewarded Video
In this unique mobile execution, we leveraged interstitial units (full-screen units that cover the interface of the user’s app) and rewarded video units (placed for users to interact with as a way to earn an in-game reward on their mobile device during game play) designed with an online quiz featuring the effects of cannabis and driving.
With these units, engagement was our primary key performance indicator; we looked to leverage a quiz as a unique way to share our initiative’s messaging.
The call to action is to keep their high harmless and off the road and learn more about the effect cannabis has on driving. The interstitial unit drove an engagement rate of 12%, and the rewarded unit generated a 92% engagement rate (exceeding the 10% and 80% benchmarks, respectively). This quiz campaign drew more than 1.6M impressions.
Additional insights included were the best-performing app category of Card & Board, and the highest engagement rate was derived from iOS users. Fridays saw the highest click-through rate, suggesting that our target audience is likelier to interact with the unit on weekends.
Programmatic Connected TV and Online Video
Unlike traditional TV, connected TV and online video allow us to home in on our target audience with a scalable amount of users using qualifying data. These units in both English and Spanish ran across TV/Laptop/Mobile devices within our targeting parameters. These data parameters allowed us to reach users based on their purchase and lifestyle habits aligning with our cannabis message. This tactic delivered 2.7M impressions with an above-average video completion rate of 86% and a frequency of 5.7x.
Westword 4/20 Edition Custom Wrap and Sequential Ads
Using Westword, Denver’s leading entertainment publication, we negotiated a custom full-cover wrap for its weekly publication during the week of 4/20.
In addition to this cover wrap, we ran full-page ads for six consecutive weeks, including the Best of Denver issue.
In conjunction with this print presence, we included digital impressions that included a re-skin (dominant background takeover of the web page), home page takeovers, and display ads on the Westword site. These impactful executions garnered 993K impressions across both print and digital.
Mile High 420 Festival—Civic Center Park
We were pleased to collaborate with the client to secure a dominant presence at the Mile High 420 Festival, the most significant cannabis event in the world, which drew an estimated 70,000 attendees to Denver’s Civic Center Park.
Our estimated impressions at the event totaled 215,000 among the attendees, resulting in an estimated 3x message frequency through this combination of placements.
Streaming Audio
Streaming audio, similar to that of connected TV, allows for that specific targeting of users that traditional radio cannot. Integrating streaming audio allowed us to target a more specific audience of cannabis users based on their general interests and listening habits layered with our specific geographic parameters. We connected with our target audience by unlocking a vast network of streaming audio partners and using keyword and location-based targeting to spread CDOT’s Drugged-Driving safety initiatives. In doing so, the Drugged-Driving safety campaign garnered 1.8M impressions with a 96.8% listen-through rate.
Budget: $421,680
Results Achieved and Evaluation: The awareness-based Drugged-Driving campaign featuring the Don’t Drive High creative ran from April 17 to May 31, reaching 4,537,849 unique users and serving 25,026,600 total impressions. Of those impressions, 2,006,685 were served specifically to Spanish-speaking audiences. Media flighting ensured that we were in the market at key moments in the year to maximize efficiency of spend and drive reach.
Year over year, success is defined by ensuring that we continue to lean into engaging tactics that drive strong connections with our audience, on top of awareness, which was accomplished through the unique content creator partnerships, rich-media quiz units, and dispensary bags (to name a few). These placements not only increase the quality of engagement but also drive memorability, showcased through achieved video views at 5,644,532, and an 82% completion rate.
