Get a Gummy Guaranteed or Win 1lb of Weed?

Which Would You Rather?

It’s not uncommon to see deals and various promotions being offered by the many fine dispensaries or cannabis delivery services within the GTA. Almost every week, my phone is flush with texts and e-mails offering the same few promos, ad infinitum: free gummies with a sizeable minimum purchase, a discount rate on all the driest strands, or at best a handful of choice bud for people who refer their friends or for new customers.

Now, don’t get me wrong: getting anything for free when buying weed is always great. I just can’t help but feel that the promotion game is starting to become a little stale.

Promotions and deals are important to cannabis vendors because, at some point, they all need to cycle product. Like many other industries that deal in goods with an expiry date, there’s a solid chance that they won’t sell as much as they produce or purchase in a given period of time.

Sales are different every day, and it’s impossible to track demand with perfect accuracy. When expiry or sell-before dates loom, the need for good promotions to help sell excess material should not be overstated.

Why Do Weed Promotions Seem To Be So Boilerplate?

Why does every weed delivery service in the city seem to have the same gummy deal? I’ve never seen a promo so ubiquitous as “buy an ounce and get a few free gummies” in another industry. I’m sure it works, because it must if every service that I know is running it. I can’t help but think there must be something more exciting, though.

Using edibles as a promotion doesn’t help with the expiry-related problems that I brought up earlier. If you store them properly, good edibles maintain their potency for an extremely long time. In my opinion, however, edible promotions are of limited use when it comes to attracting new customers. Once upon a time they might have drawn in those who never dabbled in the ways of edible cannabis products, but in 2021 that’s a very small subset of cannabis users. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that these promotions are largely holdovers from the edible boom that followed widespread legalization (about which I plan to write more in the future).

The other common ‘deal’ I see no end in site for is discounting strains as they approach their expiration. This one just makes sense, though. If you have a product nearing its expiry that no one wants to pay for, lowering the price might let you sell a little more before you’ve gotta toss it. I have no problem with this, but I think it still falls squarely in the ‘boring’ category of promotions.

What Other Options Are There?

I hope you didn’t think the title of this article was merely clickbait: there are new, exciting offers brewing in the world of cannabis promotions. One such offer comes through Farmer’s Link, who hosts this very blog upon their website! For those who might be unaware about our gracious host, Farmer’s Link is a weed delivery service that operates within the GTA. Their aptly named ‘Weed Max’ promotion, if I do say so myself, is definitely new and different in a field defined by ‘same’ and ‘similar’.

Also, for those coming into this post not expecting a Farmer’s Link plant, come on! When you’ve got the best promotions in the game, you’ve gotta let the people know. If I honestly believed that there was any other comparable promotion on the market, I’d be posting about that.

Here’s how Weed Max works: every time you spend $100 with Farmer’s Link, you get a number for the weekly draw. $200 gets you two numbers, and so forth.

Every Friday, after the official Lotto Max numbers are drawn, you win a 1/2oz if your number matches the official bonus number from the draw. As the numbers drawn are publicly available, the process is very transparent. The numbers are also available on the Winner's Circle page shortly after being drawn. Here’s the trick, though: hit that bonus number 4 weeks in a row? You get 1lb. of weed for free.

That’s not a typo: 1 free POUND. Not to mention, even if your number doesn’t match the bonus number from the draw, you still get points. Those points can be redeemed for products you can buy through Farmer’s Link, and you can get them if your number matches any of the numbers other than the bonus drawn that week. The more you buy, the higher your chances become of at least getting something. As the weekly numbers only range from 1-50, even smaller purchases can net you a pretty good chance at a win.

That Does Seem Pretty Sweet

It’s certainly among the more creative promotions I’ve seen in the cannabis industry. Hopefully, it’s just the start of more exciting things to come! I think it’s easy for a lot of budding cannabusinesses (no way I was the first to make that joke) to write off having good promotions as an unimportant factor of their business. I think that largely stems from the age-old belief that the product will sell itself. To some degree, that’s true. Prior to federal legalization, it was definitely true. Now, however, things have changed! There’s competition in the field, and small dispensaries and other services will have to set themselves apart somehow. Historically, promotions are the simplest way to do that.

Personally, I think the best part of promotions is how crazy you can get with them! It makes me sad that the industry seems intent on providing the lowest-effort options time and time again, even though they’ve had years to figure that shit out. It isn’t hard to have the best promotion in the business when the competition is so lacking. 

Honestly, I challenge any readers to go out and find a deal as good as Weed Max. Within Ontario, at least, it isn’t gonna happen. If you know of any services that offer something cool, though, I would love to hear about it in the comments! Just to see if anyone stacks up (no links, though, I ain’t giving those away for free).

Until then, I’ll await potential challengers for the promotion throne with my pipe at the ready. Last one standing gets the final say about which service has the best promotion in the weed game, smoke until you drop. Fair warning: it’s a duel I’ve been training for my whole entire life, so you’d better bring it.

More details on Farmer’s Link and Weed Max are available via their website.