October 19, 2021
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Written by Highlyte
Flow Cannabis Company, the luminaries behind Flow Kana sun-grown cannabis, sought to debut their new live resin product, Caldera, in a visually striking, captivating, and eminently shareable way. To give Caldera the stylish launch it deserved, we, at AMNESIA, partnered with 9 distinctive artists who brought their unique vision of Flow’s new brand. We’re excited to recap this beautifully successful campaign with you!
Each creative partner produced Instagram UGC (user generated content), blog interviews, and submitted a unique sweatshirt design that fused their signature aesthetic with Flow’s brand of cannabis science, creative empowerment, and natural wellness. Influencers announced their collaboration with Caldera in a static post on Instagram, amplified through a story frame. After receiving their sweatshirts, the artists showed off their creation and activated followers with an opportunity to win the exclusive apparel as a drop. The campaign finished with a story swipe-up to featured interviews, where the artists discussed their creative process and how cannabis enables them.
One of the tremendous strengths of content marketing is the ability to provide clients with a broad range of aesthetics to portray themselves. Rather than settling on a single, unified look for promotions, AMNESIA’s influencers produce varied works of art that serve to establish a “style spectrum” for their brand. This approach translates to more opportunities for brands to show off different facets of their identity, and more opportunities to captivate potential consumers. If one artist does not speak to consumers, another artist may resonate strongly and lead them to look up the other artists, establishing a clear aesthetic ecosystem for the Caldera brand.
By involving artists who are a pillar of the local cannabis community, we bestowed creative ownership directly to Flow’s desired demographic. And rather than simply speaking to potential consumers, the campaign engaged them in a dialogue where Flow was positioned to listen as well. AMNESIA’s cutting-edge social analytics provide key demographic insights, identifying the designs and content that resonated most strongly with potential consumers. Knowing which content appeals to which consumers provides an invaluable edge that other market research methods can only grasp at through inorganic means like questionnaires. In this sense, Caldera’s brand was born from collaboration.
Elena Kulikova, a once-native of Hawaii, delivered a stunning design incorporating tropical flowers and volcanic heat. This floral style served to highlight the botanical roots of the entourage effects associated with terpenes in live resin products. Elena’s design also successfully connected with audiences who shared similar interests including scientific discovery, gardening, and nature photography.
In contrast, Geza, a painter, illustrator, and photographer hailing from Los Angeles, shared his personal struggles with depression after suffering a sports injury to his dominant hand, and how cannabis helped ease his pain while rekindling his passion and creativity. His story illustrated the healing potential of cannabis and live resin, and struck a chord with those who are also coping with mental health issues. Geza’s submitted sweat shirt design—intricately interwoven lines evoking gleefully chaotic energy—held an entirely different appeal than Elena’s take, reaching fans of graphic design, and abstract art. Finally, Geza also adapted his design into an Instagram filter, providing his followers an opportunity to join in the fun while generating more content and views.
The campaign was a tremendous hit, for both the participating creatives and Caldera. The collaboration scored over 63K impressions and an impressive engagement rate of 14.31%, all with ZERO account shutdowns—providing a definitive rebuttal to the assertion that compliance kills creativity.
Our key takeaway from this case study: Branding is often thought of as a monolithic or static exercise, but performed properly, it is an iterative process that reflects the ongoing evolution of a product. It is a common language between the people who desire a product and the values of the company producing said product. When that language is developed collaboratively, the results are mutually beneficial, evocative, and authentic.
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