Spotify Agrees to Host Cannabis Business Advertisements
Recently, Chicago-based Cresco Labs Inc., a company specializing in therapeutic cannabis, announced to the media that it will soon become the first cannabis brand to advertise its products on the music streaming and radio service Spotify. This move could open up a vast new field for legal cannabis business advertising, especially considering that Spotify currently boasts over 551 million unique users, with about 220 million of them having premium accounts.
According to Cresco, the company’s first 30-second commercial will be periodically played for adult users of the service who live in the Chicago area. The campaign will specifically promote Cresco’s retail cannabis outlets under the Sunnyside brand.
“Audio messages on Spotify will undoubtedly become a new and potentially very effective tool for engaging and attracting potential customers, given the platform’s broad user base—even compared to other social platforms,” said Cory Rothschild, head of Cresco. “As an advertising tool, Spotify offers us a convenient, unobtrusive, and easily targeted way to promote our products and services. In a market where other advertising channels for cannabis businesses are blocked, this will allow us to reach the ears of millions of potential customers in Illinois alone.”
In addition to placing ads directly on the platform, potential advertisers will also need to arrange contextual advertising with the owners of individual radio shows and podcasts for maximum targeting effectiveness.
“At this point, this type of advertising hasn’t really been tested yet. We don’t even have tools to measure its effectiveness. However, we believe that placing ads contextually in various themed podcasts and channels will allow us to deliver our messages most effectively to those users and groups who are genuinely interested,” said Matt Pickerell, a representative from Cresco’s advertising department, about working with Spotify. “Looking ahead, we’re already planning to allocate about 15% of our advertising budget to developing this direction.”