Vic Mensa Explains Why Publicity Is More Important Than Advertising

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
There was a few points, but I wanted to go back to the other point because it was very insightful. You said marketing over advertisement.

**Vic Mensa** (0:08)
Yeah, publicity over advertising.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:10)
Yeah, that's something that's extremely important for anybody in business to understand because I think it's like 10 times more stickier if it comes organically as opposed to an ad. And it actually helps advertising as well, just to have more of a brand recognition. So now when you see an ad, now you're more likely to engage with that ad from that. So being that that's the case, like what exactly is your strategy? Like come on different podcast shows?
Is it social media? Is it print? Is it just everything all wrapped in one?

**Vic Mensa** (0:46)
It's definitely a multi-layered strategy that I've been taking with 93 Boys. I think to begin with, as I said, I wanted to make sure we were the first. So that means certain things I had to push to the side, so that I got in there first.
Tyson was two weeks later. You know what I mean? My claim as first black brand wouldn't have been true anymore. Tyson, Mike Tyson? Mike Tyson, Tyson 2.0. So we got into dispensaries right before Mike Tyson did in Illinois.
Being first, really using these community initiatives, obviously to uplift the people, but also to impress our brand identity on the mind of the Chicago consumer. My brand identity is that. So ultimately I was just transferring that into 93 Boys. We did a campaign where we were giving away free gas. Gas prices was through the roof. And so we went to the gas station in the trenches and just stood there asking people, do you want gas? And filling people's tank up. And sent that around to the different platforms, different pages on Instagram. So they could talk about 93 Boys as opposed to just me.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:13)
It's bigger than that.

**Vic Mensa** (2:14)
Scream down your ear like, listen to me, we're dope. I'm like, no, send it to a bunch of different people. Let them tell you that we're dope. Like we said, you know, that's publicity over advertisement. Because at first, in the budget was billboards planned. But through study and I learned that statistically, billboards are actually more impactful for a largely established brand to just stay present in the mind of their consumers before a new venture, a new brand. You want other people telling your story for you. So definitely interviews and podcasts and genetics though. I mean, when you're talking about cannabis, it's like it's got to come down to weed. So that's a space in which we've just been doing a deep dive to really nail our genetic portfolio before even introducing new skews. Like I've learned a lot though in the past year.
One thing I didn't know coming into it is that pre-rolls are really the cream of the crop in cannabis.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:25)
Why is that?

**SPEAKER_3** (3:27)
Well, because it's super convenient.

**Vic Mensa** (3:30)
Very convenient and it's something that you don't buy from your weed man.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:32)
You can't.

**Vic Mensa** (3:33)
Your weed man ain't finna roll your weed for you. A couple of them will, but that's kind of weird.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:37)
You might have to get somebody to roll it for you.

**Vic Mensa** (3:38)
You know what I mean?

**SPEAKER_1** (3:39)
It's a higher level of luxury.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:41)
Yeah. It's a luxury.

**Vic Mensa** (3:42)
Yeah. It's just simple. It's also a lower price point because taxes and cannabis are crazy. So, we've gotten to a space where our pre-rolls are the highest selling skew in some stores, like across all the brands.
And that's not even really geared towards the real heads, the real stone of smokers. Dispensary is a different game, man. It's like, especially in Illinois.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:11)
So you're a finer smoker.

**Vic Mensa** (4:13)
That's for like, just regular people, bro. Like, that's one thing your people is like, there are so many mothers and grandmas and just like coders and regular working people that really shop in the dispensaries. Like your weed snobs, Illinois is not there yet. The quality standard is not to that level.
Like weed snobs that are my friends will go to LA and just like buy out Jungle Boys or something, because it's a flex too. But none of them shop at dispensaries in Illinois. They probably go buy my shit to tell me or say they did. But it's like, I know they don't shop in dispensaries. You know what I mean? I'm not even particularly focusing on them. Ultimately, I do want to onboard our community into the dispensary space. That is one of my aims with this brand and with this movement. But I'm also not particularly concerned with it right now because there's so many people that don't even look like us or hang with people that know us.