Q1 - 2024
Q1 - 2025
Q2 - 2025
Q3 - 2023
Q3 - 2024
Q4 - 2024
Q4 - 2024
The Challenge
Most cannabis retailers treat creative as an afterthought — a price tag and a product photo. New Standard wanted something different: a retail marketing program that would build genuine shopper relationships, attract national brand partners, and give every campaign its own distinct visual identity while still feeling like it all belonged to the same world.
Starting in 2022, the system was built from scratch. What began as individual seasonal campaigns evolved into a fully architected annual program — six distinct campaign moments per year, each with original creative, co-branded partner integration, physical merchandise, and multi-channel execution across print, digital, social, in-store, and email.
The Annual System
Each year ran the same six campaign moments, with a new visual theme and creative direction developed for each season. Every campaign was designed to work as a standalone moment AND as part of a cohesive year-long visual narrative.
Q1 — February Valentine's Day / Coupon Book of Love
Co-branded coupon book with 5–8 brand partners. Themed around romance and indulgence. 1,000 units printed and sold for $5 each, delivering $200+ in savings to shoppers. Designed two-page spreads for each partner within a unified seasonal visual system.
Q1 — Super Bowl Bundle Drop (Hot Box / Cloud 9)
Co-branded product bundle in a pizza box format, featuring 5–6 brand partners. Sold for ~$60 per box, limited to 500 units (250 units per bundle in 2025, when we split into two formats: one for flower/vape consumers, one for edibles/beverages/transdermals). Required full box design, partner asset integration, and multi-channel launch creative.
Q2 — April 420 Campaign
Michigan-first co-branded limited edition tote drop. Original illustration developed for the campaign. Supported by social features, eCom banners, SMS/email blasts, and in-store vendor days across all locations.
Q2/Q3 — Summer Great Summer Sesh-Off
The flagship campaign. Co-branded coupon book (1,000 units) + limited edition cooler tote drop (500 units). In 2024, this expanded to 14 brand partners with 14 original characters — one illustrated per partner — deployed across the coupon book, stickers, social media, and merchandise including a limited edition t-shirt drop. Total co-marketing value: $750,000+.
Q3/Q4 — Fall & Halloween Fall Coupon Book + Haunted Highs Bundle
Co-branded fall coupon book (1,000 units) + Halloween bundle in a custom tin lunchbox (500 units, $69–$79). The Halloween bundle became an annual collector's item with a new theme and original illustration system each year — 2022: Haunted Harvest, 2023: Haunted Harvest Box, 2024: Haunted Box of Doom. The 2024 Halloween campaign generated $34,500 in merchandise revenue.
Q4 — Holiday Season Greenings / Holiday Coupon Book + Scratch Cards
The most complex campaign of the year. Co-branded holiday coupon book (1,000 units) with 20–30 brand partners, each with a dedicated spread. Plus a scratch-and-win card program distributed one per purchase across all six retail locations — every card a winner, with prizes ranging from penny products to $500 store credit. Original illustrated characters and holiday themed visual system developed for the full program.
Scale & Impact
Over five years, this system ran continuously — evolving in scale, partner count, and creative ambition each year. Key metrics across the program:
4,000 coupon books produced annually (1,000 per campaign × 4 campaigns)
250–500 bundle/tote units produced per campaign drop
$750,000+ co-marketing partner value managed annually (2024)
$34,500 Halloween 2024 merchandise revenue
$9,750 Super Bowl 2025 bundle revenue (sold out in 3 weeks)
14 brand partners in Summer 2024 campaign alone
14 original characters illustrated for Summer 2024
20–30 scratch card prize partners, Holiday campaign
10,000+ unique shoppers reached per month across all locations
20–30% average email open rate on campaign blasts
Q2 - 420
Q2 - 420 - 2025
420 - 2025
What I Built
Every campaign required the same core set of deliverables — concepted, designed, and produced by me in-house:
Original campaign naming and theme development
Full visual identity per campaign — typography, color, illustration style
Print production files: coupon books (dieline-ready, 1,000 units), bundle packaging, tote bags, scratch cards, lunchbox tins
Partner brand integration: co-branded two-page spreads, co-branded social assets, partner-specific stickers and merch
Original illustration IP: seasonal characters, limited edition merch graphics, brand partner characters
Digital extensions: eCom menu banners, social posts, email/SMS creative, in-store digital signage
Partner-facing sales materials: campaign playbooks, rate cards, and pitch decks used to sell partners into each campaign
Vendor coordination: print production management, timeline ownership, quality control across all physical deliverables
The Bigger Picture
The campaign system wasn't just creative — it was a revenue program. By the time this playbook was produced in 2023, New Standard was offering brand partners turnkey Plug & Play packages starting at $1,000 per campaign with $7,000–$14,000+ in bundled value. The creative I produced was the product being sold.
For brands like Kiva, Wana, Glorious, and Keef, buying into a New Standard seasonal campaign meant buying into a designed world — not just a logo placement. That distinction, built entirely through creative, is what drove $750,000+ in annual co-marketing value.
