To continue to build affinity for a recently redesigned brand despite the cancellation of its experiential marketing plans, recreational cannabis brand Flowr is capitalizing on the popularity of home gardening with “Project Homegrown,” a home herb and vegetable growing program.

The program, which launches Wednesday, includes pre-packaged herb seeds – such as basil, parsley, chives and lemon balm – along with a downloadable growing guide with advice from Flowr’s own team of growers, including its director of research and development, a horticultural scientist, a cultivation manager and a production coordinator. Flowr will be giving away 250 grow kits – which include seeds, gardening gloves and a tote bag – to those of legal age who express their interest through Instagram.

The team of growers, via social media, will also provide Flowr consumers with additional “tips and tricks,” such as how much light you should be giving your herbs, how many seeds to plant and how to add nutrients to soil.

Nicole Wolff, brand director at Flowr, says the brand’s research showed that Canadians’ interest in growing vegetables and herbs were “at an all-time-high” as they spent more time indoors due to COVID-19. In mid-April, CTV News reported that seed banks across Canada were reporting significant backlogs as Canadians were looking at avenues to avoid going to the grocery store, and instead, growing their own food.

“Then, you pair this up with articles that talk about the positive emotional effects that growing can have on you,” she says. “We view ourselves as experts in growing, and our master growers have that cultivation expertise. So, we can capitalize on that and share it with Canadians by sending them seeds and having them grow at home.”

Wolff says Project Homegrown is a way for the cannabis producer to build brand affinity following its recent rebrand.

Flowr’s new brand identity features a bold cobalt blue and was unveiled with a soft launch in January across a few touchpoints. In mid-March, Flowr’s new website went live, and will be on all its product labels and packaging by the end of June.

Wolff says the new rebrand is really geared towards individuals who don’t view cannabis as a distraction, but instead, for those who view it as a tool to help them get the most out of life. She adds that, as part of the rebrand, Flowr wanted to make sure they got away from anything related to marijuana tropes, stereotypes and cliches.

One way in which that was carried out was through the colours and design – cobalt blue instead of green and the isometric “F,” which is meant to look like a staircase. Wolff notes that the staircase has “so many meanings,” like stairs from “the underground going into today” as well as stairs leading to reach a “top shelf” product and quality.

The producer also had a slate of marketing plans for this year, revolving around experiential events at music festivals and stores across the country. Then, like most companies, the COVID-19 pandemic fractured its plans and the company had to essentially re-do its 2020 marketing plans.

“What it has really enabled us [to do] is to take a pause, really focus on our core and start to get more creative with how we go to market,” Wolff says. That’s how it came to Project Homegrown, which doesn’t provide cannabis seeds, but still connects with the Flowr brand through its technical growing expertise that helps it arrive at high-quality products, Wolff says.

“Growing cannabis and herbs are quite different and take different levels of skill, but the parallel we do want to draw is that we consider our indoor grow rooms like the great indoors,” she says. “A lot of consumers are stuck in their versions of the great indoors right now. How can we bring some interesting things that they can do, while we’re in this COVID moment? It’s bringing the beauty of what we do in our great indoors, and being able to share that with our consumers.”