Advertising
Despite the thriving cannabis industry, advertising and promoting cannabis products remain challenging for sellers.Traditional mediums are out for cannabis companies. No television or radio advertising. Although some restrictions are gradually easing (such as Twitter’s recent announcement of allowing paid cannabis ads on the platform in states where it is legal) and digital advertising networks exclusively catering to cannabis are available, their reach is still largely restricted by publishers who accept their ads.
This is where Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising has stepped up in a big way to fill the gap left by other advertising mediums.

GOALS:
In an effort to enhance brand awareness and stimulate more foot traffic to multiple Trulieve dispensaries in the Phoenix area, ZMA Cannabis Marketing and Wilkins Media teams partnered with Wrapify to create a campaign that could leverage the heightened exposure during the events surrounding the 2023 Super Bowl.
Drive measurable foot traffic into 4 Phoenix area dispensaries
Utilize Wrapify SWARMs to hyper-target key events surrounding the 2023 Super Bowl.
Promote both Trulieve dispensaries and their popular cannabis brand Verano, which is a top vertically integrated, multi-state cannabis operator in the U.S. committed to enhancing community wellness by offering regulated cannabis products through responsible access.

METHODOLOGY:
15 vehicles, driven by rideshare and delivery drivers, were wrapped and deployed by Wrapify over a 4 week period surrounding the 2023 Super Bowl in a campaign zone covering the Phoenix area.
Wrapify partners with Reveal Mobile to collect data on the audience and impressions generated by the vehicles while they are on the road, using the “DMOOH Exposure Methodology Standardization Guidelines and Best Practices” developed jointly by OAAA, Wrapify, and Reveal Mobile. The resulting audience data was compared with a control group to calculate the net lift.
RESULTS:
The campaign estimated 18,903,000 in campaign zone impressions. This brings the effective CPM to $1.17.
The campaign Hot Spot focused around your core demographic and netted 1,909,454 impressions in that zone.


The Exposed (Test) Audience was three times (3X) more likely to visit one of the Trulieve locations than the Unexposed (Control) Audience.

ZMA Cannabis Marketing, Wilkins Media, and Wrapify teamed up to deliver remarkable outcomes for Trulieve dispensaries. This collaboration underscores the potential of OOH advertising in enabling cannabis companies to effectively reach their target audiences and achieve their marketing goals

Our network just got bigger.
… A LOT bigger. We added over 2,000 installers to our current installer network, allowing us the power to get more campaigns up and running at lightning speed. Drake dropped the lyrics, “This a Rollie, not a stopwatch, sh*t don’t ever stop.” Now we can onboard even faster than before.
But wait, there’s more…
More Buying Power
Wrapify and Wrapmate offer an array of services each to their own. We each bring something unique to the table. This partnership will allow for an expansion of current offerings for both brands. One of our aims is to provide a more extensive comprehensive range of products and services, providing customers with access to a wider range of possibilities within the vehicle graphics and advertising industries.
Campaigns on the road … FASTER
The overall goal of this partnership is to identify parallels within everyday operations and improve upon those to create the most efficient way to buy and sell our products. By streamlining our operations, we aim to reduce costs, lead time, and increase our competitive edge aka more cost effective for our client base.

James Heller, our CEO and founder, commented on the partnership, saying “Wrapmate has done an incredible job over the last four years leveraging technology to change how people buy and sell vehicle wraps. Our team has known Chris and Wrapmate for years, and we’ve focused on similar operational obstacles. Now we can make better use of the 12+ years of combined experience to delight our customers.”
Overall, Wrapify’s new partnership with Wrapmate has innumerable benefits. With expanded product offerings and improved operational efficiency, this partnership is set to revolutionize the vehicle graphics industry. We are excited to further integrate our operations and continue working together to create a stronger, more competitive product.
Read the full press release here.
E-book: How to Use Advertising’s OG Medium to Your Advantage
Marketers and organizations alike cannot afford to ignore the resurgence of out-of-home (OOH) advertising Why? Because these numbers are hard to ignore…
- OOH spending rose 72% in the first quarter of 2022
- 41% of US adults use search engines to look up brands and information they have seen in outdoor advertising
- 96% of out-of-home advertisers are satisfied with the ROI of their OOH campaigns
But don’t call it a “comeback”! OOH advertising was the OG ad medium long before Facebook and Google came along. And with the introduction of Mobile Ad IDs (MAIDs) to track exposure and effectiveness, OOH is now a critical component of an omnichannel marketing strategy.
You can learn how OOH has revolutionized itself, and how it compliments your digital ads, by downloading our free eBook (no contact info needed!)
In this eBook, you can find out how OOH supports your top-of-the-funnel brand awareness, targets your ideal customers with laser accuracy, and influences consumer behavior like never before!
COVID-19 has left a mark on the world, and it’s not going away anytime soon. In fact, the economy is expected to take years to recover from this downturn. And for marketers that means recessionary spending mode is activated!
When consumer spending drops significantly during an economic downturn, companies often slash their marketing and advertising budgets. This can be devastating for brands that are trying to stay afloat: without any marketing efforts or ads, what’s going to make consumers choose them over another company? And if they don’t have enough money in their budget for marketing or advertising, how will they compete with other brands who do?
But there is hope! While it may seem like a bad idea at first glance, cutting your advertising budget actually presents an opportunity: now is a good time to create brand awareness while other companies are cutting their ad budgets out of necessity. The availability of ad space goes down when demand goes down, so now is an excellent time to dominate your market share before other companies catch up.
This means you should take advantage of free or discounted advertising space while it lasts—and use this recession as a chance to build up your brand awareness in order to stay ahead of the game when things return to normal.
Why You Should Invest in Marketing Now
Marketing is a long-term investment, but in the short run, it could mean spending more than you’re making. However, in the long run, if you’re smart about it, it can mean earning more than you spend.
In fact, companies who advertise and market aggressively during recessions can maintain or increase sales at a time when competitors are cutting back on advertising budgets and promotions. Why? Because they want to keep their market share!
Brands that don’t spend lose market share… up to 15% of it, to be exact.
“rules of recession-proofing” report
All it takes is for a similarly-sized competitor to double their ad spend right when you’re cutting yours. And because brand building takes time (generally three years), aggressive marketing during a recession gives marketers an opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competition by building brand loyalty early on—and reap rewards later on when consumer sentiment improves again.
In the past, the recession has been a period where businesses cut back. However, smart advertisers know that a recession is actually a golden opportunity. In a recession, buyers become more cautious and spend less, so most companies assume that they’re unlikely to see a return on investment. What they don’t know is that ad space will become cheaper, and customers will be paying attention to branding and marketing more than ever. And what we saw with the pandemic and “revenge travel”, we will likely see with “revenge spending” post-recession.
There’s a sense of mounting anticipation among consumers: they’re eagerly waiting for the economy to bounce back so they can start spending again. When companies develop marketing strategies that encourage trust, conversion, and brand loyalty, they will inevitably reap the rewards of a better economy in a few years.
Building Brand Loyalty with Recessionary Spending
Brand loyalty is especially important because it gives you an edge over competitors when it comes time for advertising again—you’ll have an established audience that trusts you, and your share of the market increases when you advertise during a recession because there’s less competition. This means that you get more bang for your buck! Finally, it’s also a good opportunity to exercise creative marketing skills in order to stand out from the crowd
Some other recession marketing strategies include:
- Encouraging trust: Customers will be more cautious about spending money on products and services during a recession. You need to build trust with your customers so they know they’re buying something they’ll be satisfied with.
- Getting customers to convert: If you have good products and services, then getting customers to convert is not as hard because they will feel good about what they’re buying. You also need to make sure that you have good customer service so that if something does go wrong, they will come back again.
- Keeping brand loyalty: During a recession, there are fewer brands spending on advertising than usual because they don’t have the funds for it—this means that those who do advertise will get more bang for their buck because there isn’t much competition out there! This creates an opportunity for businesses like yours that want their share of the market in order for them to reap the rewards of an improved economy down the road when things start picking up again
Tips for Advertising During a Recession
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a brand that stands out. You can use the recession as an advantage by being bold and making a statement about your business and its products or services. Be creative with your marketing, ensure you are driving conversion, and focus on brand development. Also from the same report mentioned above, contextual advertising is king. Consider how your brand can play with certain mediums; OOH advertising is a great playground for content + context.
Contextual advertising is 1.2 to 2.5 times more effective than other forms of advertising, including behavioral targeting.
“Rules of recession-proofing” report
Marketing is a great way to keep your business afloat when things are slow. There are many ways to market during these tough times, and with the right strategies, you’ll be able to reach new customers who have never heard of you before.
At Wrapify, we can help you develop a long-term branding strategy that will drive conversion, create customer loyalty, and keep you moving forward through the struggling economy.
Also known as out-of-home media, outdoor advertising, and outdoor media, Out-of-Home Advertising (OOH) is a form of advertising that takes place outside of your residence.
OOH is a complete marketing solution that incorporates a broad range of performance marketing and brand-building strategies. You may have seen the giant billboards on your way to work or a poster promoting a product. These are both examples of out-of-home advertising and its place-based media appeal.
However, this form of advertising is not just limited to stationary objects and buildings.
The Varied Forms of OOH
In fact, OOH falls into four primary categories: billboards, street furniture, transit, and alternative. Billboards are arguably the most well-known, based on the sheer size of their construction.
Over 4,900 digital billboards have been installed across the US and China. Despite this development, it has done very little to make the traditional billboard expendable. Currently, 9% of total annual revenue is being generated by public service ads, 18% by national ads, and a staggering 73% by local ads.
Urban centers also benefit from OOH, which can take the form of bus shelters, telephone booths, and news rack formats. This is especially effective being that it targets densely populated areas that have increased foot traffic.
Transit media advertising is another popular branch of OOH and, as the name implies, caters to mobile audiences. Branded vehicles and moving subway trains make excellent spaces for this kind of advertising.
The benefits of transit media advertising become abundantly clear when you consider just how many employees commute to work. While sitting in traffic can be a nightmare, the human eye will inevitably wander to boldly branded vehicles.
Transit media advertising is not just popular in the US and China, but has also struck gold with the metro train audience in India. Incidentally, municipalities have come to favor this form of advertising as it provides an extra source of revenue to offset budget deficits.
With so many options available, transit media advertising is an invaluable resource to stretch that all-important marketing dollar. Let’s take a look at some of the other core benefits offered by out-of-home advertising.
Cost-Effectiveness
Don’t be fooled by the cost of out-of-home advertising. Prices are often overinflated and are based on the price of billboards found in prime real estate locations such as Times Square.
Remember, it is the location and not the medium that determines the final price. It’s still possible to achieve marketing campaign targets in lower-traffic spaces, which often guarantees more bang for your buck.
When compared to other forms of advertising, OOH offers the lowest cost per thousand impressions (CPM). With an average CPM of about $5, you’ll feel like you’re getting away with something. You should consider several marketing elements in addition to the traditional methods that have been tried and tested.
Even without a Times Square billboard, the appropriate digital strategy will effectively target people across multiple geographic locations. There are several factors to consider, but for a savvy marketer, it won’t come as too much of a challenge.
What does this mean from a consumer perspective? Well, your goal as a marketer is to get as many eyes on your products and services as possible. You are playing the law of averages, and the more people who get to see your ad, the better.
Having an advertisement on rotation not only attracts new customers but has the ability to convert potential buyers. That in itself is worth the money spent on out-of-home advertising.
Audience Targeting
Have you ever heard of a little thing called Big Data? Big Data is defined as: “a collection of data that is huge in volume, yet growing exponentially with time. It is data with such large size and complexity that none of the traditional data management tools can store it or process it efficiently.”
From a marketer’s perspective, more information on potential buyers is available than ever before. Big Data is an effective tool for creating buyer personas and targeting individuals interested in purchasing your products and services.
Big Data is not lost in the OOH space, and marketers can now use large data sets to hone in on their ideal customer. We live in a world where the guesswork has been removed. Savvy ad buyers can now focus on purchasing out-of-home advertising assets that guarantee a healthy ROI.
There are several ways to make use of Big Data, which include analyzing third-party mobility data and anonymized foot traffic. With this sort-of-creepy-but-pretty-cool tracking, tailor-made ads will find you without even knowing who you are.
This form of geo-targeted advertising is one of OOH’s most notable features. A localized OOH ad unit can influence consumer behavior up until the time of purchase. Think of it as a gentle nudge to do something that you were going to do anyway.
This is a boon for companies operating in niche markets that sell specific products and services to a select audience.
Wide Reach
OOH is celebrated for the fact that it gives full creative expression to the human imagination. Remember, out-of-home advertising is not just about sticking a celebrity’s face on a billboard, enticing you to buy expensive perfume. It’s also more than just a clever marketing gimmick that convinces you to switch to another service provider.
OOH is everywhere. It’s on the packaging your lunchtime treat comes in, on your favorite park bench, and on the buildings you pass. It is with you at every major touch point. All day, every day.
Gone are the days of currying favor with the powers that be to reap the benefits of out-of-home advertising. Enter the age of OOH buying platforms, where you as a marketer are able to track inventory in real-time, check pricing and historical performance, and make your decisions based on low, predetermined rates.
Sounds like a dream come true, right? Now, you are free to focus on reach instead of on how and where to book your ad space.
With all these developments at the marketer’s disposal, catering to a wider audience has become next to effortless. However, the goal is not to “shotgun” the information out there, but to create a tailored experience every single time.
A painstaking process a few short years ago, OOH has been made simpler than ever by technological advancements. We are almost at the point where marketers can operate at the speed of thought. This next step will make reaching intended audiences that much simpler and quicker.
Consumer Engagement
OOH is a significant driver of consumer engagement, which makes it an excellent complement to your existing digital efforts.
Here’s how OOH connects you with new audiences, targets groups, and why people prefer it over other forms of advertising:
While it is not advised to employ the shoot-and-hope-it-sticks strategy, it may be effective based on studies conducted. The very nature of out-of-home advertising allows it to reach 91% of individuals over the age of 16. In this pool, 80% consciously notice the ad and it boasts an engagement rate of 82%.
Compare this to digital ads that have to overcome ad blockers, and the value of OOH becomes even more apparent. The highway billboard model ensures that your ad is practically in the commuter’s face. It is viewed daily, increasing the likelihood that the commuter will become a customer.
Remember, your out-of-home advertising strategy does not have to be a static process and can incorporate clever digital elements. QR codes, for example, make your static poster interactive. This allows you as a marketer to take initiative and engage directly with your target audience.
Consumer Engagement with Smart Technology
Want to take your customer relationship to the next level? Why not use location-based technology like geofencing to attract potential customers in your area through their mobile devices?
In the earlier days of OOH, marketers wondered who their ads reached, despite them being able to reach large audiences. An effective marketing strategy, as we now know, is one that caters to a specific audience. And if that audience has already displayed intent to buy, even better!
Now, it’s not just a matter of buying that space in Times Square, fingers crossed, and hoping for the best. More effective ways exist to now reach your intended audience.
What magical elements allow for this sudden shift? Well, tools like geofencing help determine locational intelligence, and mapping technologies and demographic data also play a crucial role. These processes happen in the blink of an eye and they allow marketers to track real-time audience engagement to optimize campaigns accordingly.
Nevertheless, while the digital realm is fraught with danger, the real world where OOH operates is not. Well, to a certain degree at least. This has fostered the perception that ads seen outside of one’s digital domain have better intentions. What has this meant for marketers?
A Nielsen study recently discovered that companies see four times more engagement with out-of-home advertising than with traditional mediums. Close to half of adults go online to look up a product they’ve encountered in the physical world. With as much as 40% of Facebook users following up on products after seeing an OOH ad.
Still on the fence about OOH?
In addition to considering some of the benefits listed above, consider what it would mean for you and your team. In an age where automation and scheduling tools have taken most of the legwork out of marketing campaigns, don’t you owe it to yourself to give out-of-home advertising a shot?
After all, in a competitive marketing space, OOH creates peace of mind by meeting consumer demand. This in turn increases your bottom line, while effectively helping real people who rent out space for these ads.