Cannabis goods consulting firm The Vivid Team’s leaders — Jessica Cristadoro, president and CEO, and Steffen Weck, COO and Food Business Consulting president — shared that since cannabis brands can’t advertise in the traditional sense other bakeries do, influencers provide a way for brands to speak directly to consumers they’re trying to reach.

“The only way we as an industry can communicate effectively to our products’ end consumers is through influencer marketing,” Weck said.

Rather than through fiscal arrangements, cannabis companies are limited to trading product in exchange for content from influencers, Cristadoro shared. With each state having its own rules and regulations, edibles producers need to lean into modern marketing methods to connect to consumers. While influencers in cannabis range from online creators to the “budtenders” dispensing product, their impact and the feedback from their followers is direct.

Working with creators who already have an audience — and the ability to create appealing content for that audience — can be a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing.