40: Who Can You Trust in the Branding Race? (Brand Strategy with Sister Merci)

FUTURE OF CANNABIS I
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The Great Cannabis Branding Race feels less about who will make it
to the top first, but who will be left standing once the bullshit
subsides. The act of wedging oneself in the minds of a consumer has
some companies taking drastic measures in experiential marketing,
costly celebrity endorsements, and getting crafty looking for
loopholes. In all of this, what can the industry do to build a
stronger relationship with buyers without being misleading for the
sake of going big? Katie Waterman and Paul Lawton of Sister Merci
are in studio to discuss - on The Dopist with Nicolle Hodges.

FIND OUR GUESTS:

Katie Waterman: Award-winning communications professional and
thought-leader in the insights and integrated media space.

Katie has a decade of experience working in Canada’s top agencies
leading digital and social strategy for top-tier clients including
Infiniti, Nissan, Samsung, and most recently, McDonald’s Canada. As
Director on the Planning team at Weber Shandwick, Katie oversaw
channel planning and the execution of integrated media programs
across the agency’s most elite clients. Campaigns under Katie’s
leadership won top industry awards with the agency itself bringing
home IABC Canada’s Large PR Agency of the Year two years in a row.
Katie earned her MBA from Memorial University and a BSc from
McMaster University in Kinesiology with a minor in French
Studies.

Twitter: @kaydubbya
Twitter: @sistermerci

Paul Lawton: Sociologist, brand strategist and cannabis marketing
expert with a knack for making brands famous.

As a cultural ethnographer and former adjunct professor of
sociology at the University of Lethbridge, Paul’s PhD research
focused on digital health and the emerging social web. Paul
transitioned from academia into the agency world in 2013 as head of
digital at Cohn & Wolfe and, more recently, as VP Strategy at
Cossette, where he led brand strategy on the Canopy Growth
portfolio during the legalization of cannabis in Canada. Paul has
owned two independent record labels that have released 100+ albums
by emerging Canadian musicians over the last 10 years and has a
deep understanding of Canadian culture from years of touring coast
to coast.

Twitter: @quartermass

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