What Brands and Dispensaries Need to Know About​ The First-Ever Cannabis Co-Op Program

Surfside officially announced The Cannabis Co-Op Program on November 8, which has been running in beta with our brand and dispensary partners over the past six months. We built this program to introduce a new level of transparency for brands and open a new cannabis advertising channel for dispensaries. By offering a platform to freely and safely exchange data and insights, this new program powers sales and advertising for both sides of the business.

Here are three major benefits for brands and dispensaries that join The Cannabis Co-Op Program:

1. More Distribution with Lower Risk and Higher Rewards.

When brands want to distribute products with new dispensaries, it can be a challenge to expand to new partners, since dispensaries can be cautious when stocking new products. The Cannabis Co-Op Program gives brands the opportunity to run ad campaigns with dispensaries that carry brand products, helping promote the sales of the products in the dispensaries, while giving brands the data back about sales performance.

For dispensaries, that means lower risk - and a free ad campaign - when carrying new brands and SKUs, since the brand will actively advertise the products and drive consumers right to the dispensary.

2. Re-Orders.

The Cannabis Co-Op Program makes advertising campaign performance more transparent for brands by offering comprehensive reporting through Surfside. By using Surfside to access the dispensary-level data, it's easier to track and measure sales at each partner location, helping brands understand where to dedicate more ad budget for future campaigns and how to manage distribution strategies.

With proven sales numbers, brands can work with dispensaries to increase order size and dispensaries can start to predict demand based on co-branded ad campaigns. This creates a virtuous cycle: with more brand sales at a dispensary, more brand advertising budget gets allocated to the dispensaries performing the best.

“Surfside’s integrations and partnerships give us the confidence that we are targeting the right audience for each of our brands and ability to visualize the real-world results our ads generate at different dispensaries,” says Mark Gordon, Director of Digital Marketing at Flow Kana. “Ultimately, Surfside’s Cannabis Co-Op Program drove a 2x return on ad spend for our co-branded campaign in one month alone and we’re just getting started.”

3. Turn Slotting Fees into Ad Budget.

Shelf space is valuable. That’s where slotting fees come in - if the product is new to the market, slotting fees can compensate dispensaries for the space. The Cannabis Co-Op Program can provide a new way to pay for shelf space: ad campaigns that drive real return for both brands and dispensaries.

Instead of slotting fees, brands can spend ad budget that jumpstarts sales at dispensaries by promoting the products on the shelf. With co-branded media campaigns, brands and dispensaries can team up to get consumers interested in new product lines and make the most of both virtual and in-store shelf space.

By focusing brand budget on driving revenue through ad campaigns, instead of slotting fees, both partners get more return on investment at the end of the day.

"Surfside's Cannabis Co-Op Program helped us drive more ecommerce sales and build a better relationship with our brand partners," says Chris Lane, CMO at Airfield Supply Company. "By activating new marketing channels with Surfside, we acquired new customers and got a better understanding of which campaigns and brands perform best."

How to Get Started

The Cannabis Co-Op Program is now available for both brands and dispensaries. If you’re ready to start running ads, seeing the results, and accessing new data to advertise to cannabis consumers, you can sign up today to learn more.

Sign up for The Cannabis Co-Op Program