Challenge

In an emerging yet heavily regulated cannabis industry, how might we communicate, showcase and educate on a product that you cannot otherwise show?

We initially worked with a Cannabis producer to create an AR experience as part of launching and educating their recreational brands in the months leading up to the Canadian recreational cannabis legalization act in October 2018.

Research

A quickly emerging market for recreational cannabis with growing potential meant the competition was high (no pun intended). Many companies within the cannabis space were popping up and struggling to stand out due to many traditional marketing channels from print/web and other materials censored from showcasing their actual product.

As new brands and product lines were launched every week- from a new consumer perspective the sources of credible information and knowledge about product vs. the heavy marketing regulations made for a very overwhelming and frustrating experience. Through conducting a competitive analysis we can see a breakdown of how the average user was getting their knowledge from various sources:

Sources of Knowledge

For the recreational launch event visitors ranging from brand influencers and investors, to curious new consumers would be present. But what would they actually see amidst this pre-legalization landscape?

The initial target groups we focused on were for the average potential consumer at marketing activations, cannabis professionals at industry events and for customers at potential future retail locations. With heavy regulations, risks and limits of transporting product, we saw an opportunity to use augmented reality to visualize the essence of a product and bridge the gap between the digital and the tangible.

For the recreational launch event visitors ranging from brand influencers and investors, to curious new consumers would be present. But what would they actually see amidst this pre-legalization landscape?

The initial target groups we focused on were for the average potential consumer at marketing activations, cannabis professionals at industry events and for customers at potential future retail locations. With heavy regulations, risks and limits of transporting product, we saw an opportunity to use augmented reality to visualize the essence of a product and bridge the gap between the digital and the tangible.

Visualizing the Taboo

Many folks have never even seen what a bud looked like before outside of a medical context where they would look just like pills or oils. Therefore it was important to showcase and educate about the plant first while staying try to each brand hat spoke to a specific type of user from the experienced user to the social butterfly and this was translated in the AR experience in how the user could navigate the categories by, Indica/Sativa, activity or flavour respectively.

Designing for a Launch Event

Throughout 1 week design sprint I created storyboards, wireframes, and production ready UI assets that were used directly in the minimum viable product built with Unity and Vuforia that was launched at the event. Hundreds attendees were able to preview the product digitally, which was further enhanced by letting users also smell vials of terpenes to provide a truly immersive experience.

Digitizing Cannabis Buds

Each brand spoke to a specific type of user from the experienced to the social butterfly and this was translated in the AR experience in how the user could navigate the categories by, Indica/Sativa, activity or flavour respectively.

Liiv was a recreational brand targeted towards the avid daily user, they would be familiar with cannabis terminology and had the standard categories of Indica, Sativa, Hybrid and oils.

Evolving a Product Visualization Tool

What began as a novel AR marketing experience evolved into an iOS AR catalog solution that had improved consistency of product information, ability to search and showcase new and improved digital buds to empower the sales team to better educate about the product line when building relationships in retail locations. This native solution allowed for more portability, ease of deployment and data collection.

[Show use case tree evolving]

Primary Users: Sales Reps

Sales Representatives to cultivate relationships with retail stores and educate about LP line of products.

Secondary Users: Brand Ambassadors

Brand Ambassadors as a tool for ongoing street marketing, conference and event activations

Retail workers/Budtenders having an interactive catalogue to better educate customers of products.

End Consumer

Potential customers would be able to see it but was mostly used as an internal tool.

[Show Picture]

Learnings

Show += Tell

If a picture is worth 1000 words then using AR may be worth even more. In a rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape, informed consumers expect a level of “Try before you buy” that is accurate, delightful and seamless to the real experience. Using technology to bridge the gap between the physical and digital to help make that educated decision is critical especially with an emerging market such as cannabis where consumer experience and rapport is even more scarce.

Empowerment = Impact

It was essential to understand the department goals and objectives and leverage innovative technology solutions to create lasting values throughout the organization.

AR Quick Wins

AR technology is changing rapidly and switching to iOS we were able to leverage the built in functionality of the .usdz file capabilities which had great performance and graphics and had been released at a very timely manner. As adoption grows and more of these features are integrated into mainstream devices, expectations from consumers will also grow.