It’s The New Year … Time For Cannuary!
Source: Cann
Happy New Year! “New Year, New You” and all that good stuff we (as marketers) have been saying every year for so many years now. The pressure is on!
After a full-on month (or so) of holiday indulgences, it’s back to some wellness habits and a break from the excesses. And hence, the birth and surgence of Dry January where seemingly millions of “consumers” are taking a break from drinking alcohol for a month.
Every year it seems to become a bigger and bigger “holiday” and promotional event. Lots of brands have jumped on the trend in recent years, but we shall leave that for another blog post, perhaps later this week.
Today we are going to feature a counter to Dry January … Cannuary.
Cannuary is where we still give up alcohol for the month of January but we switch instead to cannabis products as the alternative. This is a developing trend/promotion from the emerging brands in the space and it’s fun to see it starting to take shape and move from counter culture to more mainstream.
To my eye, cannabis beverage brand Cann was one of the first to jump on the Cannuary movement. But others have sense joined in so that no one brand owns the month, much like no one brand (non-liquor or other wise) owns Dry January either.
Source: Cann
Cann has also partnered with the online retail brand Sober-ish to offer a limited time sampler box for Cannuary, perhaps as a trial device for consumers to explore non-alcohol alternatives, at least for the month of January. I’m betting these brands are hoping new folks will extend their choices beyond the one month and into the rest of the year!
Smart way to bring in new users/drinkers. Does four weeks begin a habit?!?
I would say that the brand Trulieve has also done a nice job of offering a line of cannabis products as well as educational information, using Cannuary as a motivator for getting started in a cannabis lifestyle. Also smart way to get people started on a new lifestyle journey, one month at a time.
Source: Trulieve
It’s fascinating to see a category start, ignite, grow, and then work to promote and then in particular start to promote in ways that have otherwise become somewhat traditional if you can say that Dry January is now traditional.
Growth of a movement in many ways!
Let’s keep an eye on this and see how it continues to take off, perhaps promoting into other “holiday” seasons/events through the year. I’m betting it will.
What’s your experience? JIM