Social media story branding
As the Vermont cannabis industry grows, there is increasing demand for high-quality, small-batch "craft" product. This dynamic will perhaps be even more intense here than in other “mature” recreational markets. Vermont has a strong legacy cannabis brand of its own, one that shares genetics with its wider love of all things hand-made and home-grown.
To succeed in this competitive market, craft growers, for example, must create a unique brand that stands out from the hundreds of other growers. There are only so many strains and there is a great chance that you and your competitors will be selling the same exact stuff. What will set you apart is your brand. (Of course, this applies to any niche within cannabis, not just growers.) As the market is still relatively new, now is the time for even small businesses to think about things like awareness, positioning, and customer loyalty.
One of the most powerful forms out of the gate is social media branding, telling the world what you are about with pictures, or within videos that are three minutes, one minute, even 15 seconds. And this content cannot be stale or people won’t look at it.
When done well, social media videos can:
take people behind the scenes of your operation
demonstrate products
reveal the history of your enterprise
educate them about things like cannabinoids, cultivars, terpenes, and effects
convince them that your cannabis has a special something, an idea that makes it unique
By sharing informative and entertaining videos online, you can build a strong following of fans who will be eager to buy your product when they have the chance, and share your story with others because it’s a good story (and a great product).
Unlike photos, there are endless forms that video content can take, such as:
cinematic documentary-style short
explainer video
web series or podcast (YouTube channel)
high-energy, music-driven sizzle video
meme (YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels)
educational webinar (live or on-demand)
At Craft State, we favor the approach of producing a complete doc-style short, similar to an episode of our own web series, Vermontwise, and then mining the footage gathered from that video to generate a steady stream of shorter content in some of the other forms. Here’s an example:
We took content from that full piece to create a 13-second meme video to be used on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels.
The possibilities are endless, between what’s depicted in the longer video above and all the additional footage we shot that didn’t make the final cut. That’s how even our small-scale clients can be prolific and smart with their video branding, and stay within a reasonable budget that’s fitting of a startup enterprise.
The longer storytelling video draws out the uniqueness of the people behind the business, what they are doing, and why. We follow our curiosity when producing these pieces, and that’s how we deliver authentic final cuts that then make it possible to provide any number of variations that are punchy, funny, poignant, or informative — but always true to the spirit of the company’s brand.
If you’re curious about what Craft State can do for your rising brand, reach out and start a conversation today.