Reigniting Relm: Effective Community Engagement
Challenge
After a nearly four-month closure, Relm Cannabis needed a strategy to reengage its loyal community and drive awareness for its grand reopening in Burlington and the surrounding areas.
Solutions
Marigold developed a comprehensive campaign involving media and influencer relations, community engagement, and event management to reconnect Relm with its local customers, ensuring strong attendance and brand presence at the grand reopening.
Results
The event surpassed attendance goals, secured extensive media coverage, and generated significant online engagement, leading to a notable increase in sales and successfully revitalizing Relm’s connection with the local community.
Challenge
Relm Cannabis, one of Ontario’s first legal cannabis retailers, opened its doors on April 1, 2019. Owner David Nguyen won the license through a government lottery, and the store quickly became a fixture in Burlington and the surrounding areas, serving over a million customers. However, after a nearly four-month closure due to a burst pipe, Relm needed a way to reengage its loyal community. With Marigold’s experience in hosting industry events and executing successful media relations campaigns at both the local and trade levels, Relm approached the agency to drive awareness and reconnect with the community in a meaningful way through a grand reopening event.
Solution
Relm and Marigold collaborated on a multi-faceted campaign focused on local and trade media and influencer relations, community engagement, and event management.
Marigold engaged over 20 cannabis influencers and local and trade journalists, crafting a compelling story about Relm’s journey and its importance to the Burlington community. If local, journalists and influencers were invited to attend Relm Cannabis’ Grand Reopening.
Based in the GTA, Marigold has created a strong local cannabis community. Digital invitations were managed through social media platforms and e-newsletters by both Marigold and Tether, a Canadian Budtender community of over 5,000, powered by the Marigold team. Relm also received social media and e-marketing support from Marigold to communicate the event to its existing customer base and leveraged in-store signage for in-person promotion.
For the grand reopening event, Marigold handled logistics, including setting the date and time, organizing signage, arranging food and refreshments, preparing swag bags with uninfused brand samples, and coordinating onsite activations with customer-favourite brands.
Results
The three-hour grand reopening event held at the Burlington retailer exceeded expectations, drawing 69 attendees against a target of 50. The event featured activations from Sticky Greens and BLK MKT, with a total of eight brands participating through swag, uninfused samples, and VIP tour tickets including Collective Project, Medipharm Labs, Muskoka Grown, General Admission, No Future, and Pearls. This variety added significant value, giving attendees diverse experiences.
Marigold also secured seven media and influencer mentions, reaching a potential audience of 1.68 million people. Coverage included local and trade publications like BurlingtonToday.com, Burlington Post, and StratCann, as well as influencers such as Strictly_Hippy, Bootsie_Budtenderette, Lester_the_Weed_Tester, Lady.C.of.Niagara, and Tether. The event was also listed on two prominent event sites, InsideHalton.com and AllEvents, further extending its visibility.
Social media and e-marketing efforts generated 6.8K impressions with an engagement rate of 7.8%. Newsletters during the campaign achieved an impressive 38.2% open rate, resonating well with the intended audience.
Following the event, sales at Relm increased, confirming the effectiveness of the re-engagement strategy. Owner David Nguyen highlighted this as a key success, reinforcing the impact of the campaign.
