The Evergreen State is an appropriate name for Washington, which, as one of our most mature markets, has a flourishing cannabis culture. Washingtonians take their weed seriously and the state is home to many amazing farms and cool homegrown brands. In fact, the array of cannabis brands and products can be a little overwhelming.
So what’s the best weed in Washington? Our team here at MJBI/MJ Unpacked is largely based in Washington, and they’ve been trying to answer that question for a while. The verdict’s still out, but we can tell you which homegrown Washington brands are generating the biggest buzz with consumers. The Pioneer Intelligence Heat Index measures which brands are getting the most attention across three pillars: social media, earned media, and website traffic. (More on their methodology here.)
So let’s take a look at Pioneer’s list of the ten hottest cannabis brands in Washington. I no longer live in Seattle, so I hit up the rest of the team for insights about the products in question. Most of the companies on this list were no surprise to our team of erstwhile stoners. Woman-owned Heylo is a fan favorite–not only for the quality of their bud but for their voluntary testing to keep consumers informed about terpene profiles and minor cannabinoids. Freddy’s Fuego also made sense–this brand is known for its savvy marketing and fun products so it’s no surprise that they’d be acing the consumer engagement.
As usual, our business development specialist Morgan Worley had the most detailed notes. (Morgan wins the crown for resident weed connoisseur for our Washington branch, which is really saying something–the rest of the team are not slackers in that field.)
“Their Dutchberry helps me clean in a frenzy and their Willies Wonder is my go-to for headache relief,” Morgan said of Artizen, and went on to wax poetic about Fairwinds (“AMAZING”), CannaSol (“probably the best outdoor weed I’ve ever had”) and Subdued Excitement/Sub-X (“some of the frostiest flowers you’ll ever see”).
Being a “hot” brand is often more about clever consumer engagement strategies and stylish branding so it’s nice to see that in Washington the brands that are creating the biggest buzz also tend to be brands that will give you the biggest buzz. We’ll smoke to that!
Pioneer Intelligence leverages data to benchmark marketing performance of consumer-facing cannabis brands. Built by a group of experienced and passionate marketers and data scientists, Pioneer helps industry stakeholders better understand how communications strategies resonate with audiences. In early 2021, Pioneer launched its first products, a suite of marketing performance scorecards. These reports present actionable data across three focus areas: social media, earned media and web-related activities. More information can be found on the company’s website, https://pioneer.buzz.
Disclaimer: Pioneer currently has more than 621 brands in their active pool with hundreds more in their pipeline. (Pipeline brands require six months of data before being added to the active pool. )Lists of both active and pipeline brands can be found at pioneer.buzz/brands. If you would like to request your brand be tracked by Pioneer, please email [email protected].
