Growing local: Supporting NSLC's first cannabis vendor pop-up

The Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation entrusted NATIONAL to support with the execution of their first-ever Local Cannabis Pop-Up Event. This event connected local Nova Scotian producers with NSLC shoppers to drive awareness and encourage the discovery of local products. The goal was to create an engaging experience that would connect shoppers and frontline teammates with local producers, promoting Nova Scotian products while reducing stigma around legal cannabis.

To achieve this, NATIONAL and Time & Space were tasked with developing a comprehensive event strategy, paid media strategy, and creative toolkit. This included developing a distinct look and feel for the event, along with branded collateral that would work in-store and online. Our efforts laid the groundwork for future cannabis pop-ups by providing NSLC with reusable assets that could serve as a foundation for future events.

NATIONAL embraced this unique opportunity by developing a creative concept that spoke directly to cannabis users in their own language while fostering a broader sense of community, opening doors for future events beyond just this pop-up.

Rolling with the restrictions

Due to restrictions on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, the paid media assets developed for the event could not explicitly mention cannabis, presenting a distinct creative challenge.

Promote a cannabis event without saying cannabis? Challenge accepted! We strategically aligned our messaging with regulatory guidelines, ensuring compliance while keeping our message engaging. NATIONAL named the pop-up, Local Buds, conveying a sense of local pride, while subtly alluding to cannabis without explicitly mentioning it.

The look and feel developed also acted as a lever to demonstrate that the event was cannabis focused, using graphics, colours, and treatments that inherently aligned with the cannabis category, all while staying true to NSLC's core brand. This ensured it felt authentically NSLC, but also uniquely appealing to our target audience.

These constraints also inspired targeted promotional tactics, such a bag stuffers placed in shoppers’ bags leading up to the event—a way to effectively reach our target audience in an age-gated and controlled manner.

Creating local buzz

In collaboration with Time & Space Media, we ensured our creative materials were not only eye-catching but strategically placed across various channels, such as paid social, programmatic display, YouTube, and Reddit. The paid media campaign served more than 4.5M impressions leading up to the event across the Halifax region, generating strong awareness of the event. This paid media reach was augmented by widely shared organic content, with local producers and shoppers re-sharing the event and its clever promotion on their social channels. The event also benefited from earned media coverage, expanding the reach of our campaign to a broader audience.

A boost for local

The NSLC Cannabis Pop-Up Event exceeded expectations with significant business outcomes, with in-store shopper traffic, sales, and local product purchases seeing significant growth:

• Sales at the NSLC Clyde Street location increased by 27%
• Local vendor sales surged by 83%
• The share of total sales from local vendors rose by 13.4 percentage points during the event period
• Shopper traffic grew by 25%, accompanied by an increase in average basket size
• Both suppliers and shoppers expressed high satisfaction levels. Suppliers noted it as one of the best events they ever participated in, while shoppers enjoyed engaging directly with producers about locally made products, leaving them eager for future events!

Our collaborative efforts not only boosted immediate financial metrics, but also opened doors for future opportunities in the Cannabis category. Plus, we made some great new buds along the way.