Cannabis awards are going mainstream. Does a win mean a sales boost?

Keith Healy, the co-founder of Oakland, California-based licensed cannabis cultivator Fig Farms, has a success story that begins with a win.

In 2017, the brand was still a small garage project. But the very next day after Fig Farms won first place in the High Times NorCal Cannabis Cup for its Banana Fig flower strain, Healy was offered the brand’s current cultivation space. Since then, Fig Farms blossomed into one of the state’s top-selling flower brands.

“I would say, winning a competition is like throwing gasoline on a fire,” Healy said. But like a fire, the glory is fleeting.

“There’s like a quick pop, but it burns really fast,” he added.

As with mainstream commodities such as wine and beer, the cannabis industry has long featured competitions and awards. With the California State Fair recently handing out its fifth annual crop of winners – and with advocates in New York clamoring for that state fair to follow suit – there may be more “award-winning cannabis” than ever before.

But does winning trophies result in increased sales?

Netting an award can boost revenue, cultivators told MJBizDaily but over the long run, many other factors keep sales numbers high long after the award ceremony. These include product consistency and having a game plan in place to strike while the iron is hot.

And in the cannabis industry, that time frame isn’t very long.

What does winning a cannabis award mean for a brand?

Earlier this month, Moon Valley Cannabis, a Santa Rosa, California-based indoor living soil grower, won top honors at the California State Fair, taking home two Golden Bears for its Neon Panther live rosin in an all-in-one vape pen and as ice water hash.

“We’re pretty stoked to be able to get the Golden Bear,” Moon Valley Cannabis founder Eli Buffalo said. “It was definitely one of those things on the bucket list.”

And the state fair awards are designed with retail appeal in mind. Its marketing materials  boast digital assets that can be applied to product packaging, brand exposure through press and physical displays. There are also immediate retail opportunities, both at the fair itself and through its sponsor, Embarc.

The win wasn’t Moon Valley’s first. The brand has won in almost every cannabis competition of note, with trophies  from Zalympix, MJBowl, Transbay Challenge, Emerald Cup, Dabadoo, and King of Z Hill as well as a second place finish in the MJBowl at MJBizCon.

Wins get their name out, but only result in a small uptick in sales, he said.

“We see a little bit of movement and an increase in sales; it’s not as drastic as I would hope for,” Buffalo said.

“Getting the awards is essentially the only source of marketing that we’ve ever had… It does help in a sense, like if we’re trying to get into a new store, I feel like that’s something that it assists in. ?

“We’ll definitely see a little increase, but nothing crazy drastically,”Buffalo added. “It’s been difficult to gauge… We’ve realized every time we win a competition we’re not going to just sell out of everything immediately.”

Are cannabis awards better for selling flower or seeds?

Mark Greyshock, the founder of Northern California-based Greenshock Farms, is running out of room for all his brand’s awards. Greenshock Farms can boast of at least 50. Last month, Greenshock won another: a state fair Golden Bear award for Pink Rider, a cross of Pretty in Pink with Tropical Sleighride, a strain that won the highest terpene award at the 2017 Emerald Cup.

For Greyshock, the awards do mean increased sales – but mostly in seeds as opposed to flowers, since genetics have a wider global audience. Last year, Greenshock had a tissue culture of Pink Rider made with Segra International, in preparation for its potential win at the California State Fair.

“We’re now able to get that plant out in California, and through the states and even internationally now, and that’s where I’ve seen a lot of the pickup and demand,” he said.

“With the flower sales we’re limited because we’re small; I’m not in a lot of stores… It’s really the [demand] for the genetic itself that I’m seeing. This last week we’ve had quite a flurry of activity of people inquiring if they can run it.”

How brands can capitalize on cannabis awards – and what else matters

At least in California, where the supply chain rules require a third-party distributor in between production and retail,  a brand isn’t always directly responsible for all of their sales. And distributors are skeptical that competition wins matter at retail.

Wesley Hein, the co-founder of Los Angeles-based Mammoth Distribution and president of the Cannabis Distributors Association, doesn’t have data showing a direct correlation between competition wins and increased sales.

That’s because there are so many different factors in play, he told MJBizDaily.

“Trying to get an ROI off a single win, I think could lead to poor decision-making and the wrong conclusions,” he said.

“There’s probably other questions that can be drawn, which is how many winners end up becoming something of note over a longer period of time and does it end up leading to other things?”

When building a brand, it’s notoriously difficult to pinpoint what exactly moves the needle, he added. However, there’s no doubt an award helps.

“If something is winning awards, it’s probably because people like it,” he said. “That means budtenders are probably recommending it. That probably means other people are getting it and recommending it to others and so forth.”

With so many awards out there, dilution is also a concern. The value of cannabis awards is based on the trust and authenticity the public places on the competitions, Hein said. And it’s not uncommon in cannabis to have awards dismissed pay-to-play schemes.

Ultimately, it’s elusive “credibility” that drives sales. And that can include competition wins, Hein said.

“When you’re building a brand it’s never about one thing,” Hein says. “It’s about an accumulation of things: cannabis product quality, consistency, marketing messaging, the retail experience-all of these things that are leading up to trust and belief in a brand, and winning awards can be a part of that.”

How soon after a cannabis award should a brand move to capitalize?

Brands also have to be ready to exploit a win immediately – on all fronts.

Leveraging a competition win into sales means being ready to open additional sales accounts or target other business goals. The week after a win is the time to execute new ideas and leverage accolades, Fig Farms’ Healy said.

“People move on quick,” he said. “With the amount of stuff that we’re all exposed to daily, the newscycle, things fade fast.”

But what really matters is consistent excellence in terms of the product

“It’s really about business execution,” he said.

“Winning a competition is definitely fun and a great boost of confidence,” he added. “And there are things that come from it immediately, like you can use it to open new doors, new accounts, or secure real estate, like we did in that first thing, but it fades extremely fast.”

“So you might open new accounts, but if the flower is not great consistently after that, you’re not going to sell off the shelf.”