Creative Direction, Branding, Fundraising, Copywriting, Public Relations & Social Media
Cultivating the Brand that Defined an Entire Industry
Mile High Labs is an industrial-scale extraction company that now produces hemp-based ingredients for top DTC companies like Ocean Spray, Nature’s Way and DSM. From humble beginnings in the founder’s garage, to the purchase of a 400,000 square foot pharmaceutical facility, to the hiring of our 300th employee, Mile High’s incredible story is one I’m truly proud to have had the privilege of telling. Here’s how our nimble team of eight talented creatives and marketers developed what became the quintessential playbook for this emerging industry while fundraising $100MM in the process.
Engagement Where it Matters Most
While CBD was the hot new cannabinoid, the hemp and extraction industry had been active on the internet for years. We immediately developed and executed a social strategy to meet this community of early adopters on the platforms they were most familiar with. Despite the many restrictions on marketing CBD, we organically grew MHL’s social following from 2,000 to 25,000 with content that catered to industry veterans, as well as potential investors and new consumers.
Building Integrity Through Education
As the CBD industry grew, so did the amount of misinformation and bad actors tarnishing the integrity of our space. To combat this, we branded, scripted, directed and produced an informational series called Mile High Inside. These episodic videos were developed entirely in house and hosted by various department figureheads, providing us with the opportunity to educate our audience while showing off what makes MHL so special.
Game-Changing Partnerships
Now that we had established MHL as a leader in the space, our goal was to legitimize the CBD industry as a whole. With our steadfast commitment to quality, scale and doing things the right way, not the easy way, we were able to attract and ink partnerships with prominent household brands and manufacturers such as Ocean Spray, DSM and Herbalife.
Dynamic and Ever-Evolving Collateral
The world of CBD was constantly changing, and so was our marketing material. New regulations from governmental bodies constantly rolled in and internal innovations were a weekly occurrence. These advancements helped to both shape and inspire our massive catalogue of sales sheets, brochures, presentations and more. With an unwavering attention to detail, we were able to ensure the consistency and of this content while churning out collateral that truly moved the needle.
Keeping it Traditional
Because of the ludicrous marketing restrictions on CBD, we often turned to tried and true print to get our message out to investors and manufacturers. My background in traditional advertising saw me writing and directing a large number of pieces for leading industry pubs such as MJBiz, and even newsstand mainstays like Forbes.
Perfecting the Product Launch
Unique product offerings require equally innovative promotional campaigns. Our team was responsible for announcing and marketing the new ingredients and form factors dreamt up by the MHL formulation team on a monthly basis. This regularly included social media pushes, digital marketing campaigns, as well as PR efforts.
Brands in Our Back Pocket
B2B marketing wasn’t the only thing on our plate. We were also tasked with developing countless consumer facing brands to be pitched and sold to our growing number of manufacturing partners. Our team became experts in understanding the ethos of the modern CBD consumer, providing our biggest customers with turnkey solutions to smoothly enter this burgeoning market.
