NY Cannabis Rising: A Journey to Ayrloom

Exploring Top Selling Edibles Brands, Pt 5

Jan 09, 2025

Preface: Cannabis awareness-generating activities are difficult for third parties to track.

That’s why BrandDope explores the consideration phase of the consumer journey (which follows the awareness phase awareness and drives to purchase), applying a fusion of a consumer mindset and a practitioner's POV along the way.

The idea is to sorta-kinda simulate the experience of someone who has somehow discovered a brand and is interested enough to learn more.

The following journey recap is one of several posts following up on a recent New Frontier Data post charting the top edibles brands.

Background*

Leafly

Not so much.

I Heart Jane

There we go. Full brand page and a brand statement. The highlights:

Multi-generational family business (apple orchards & cider)
New York company/community
- “Profits stay in state, helping to create jobs, stimulate our local economy, and educate people on the benefits of cannabis”
“ADJUST YOUR ALTITUDE” — A (categorical) line! I’m not a big fan of taglines anymore. They represent old, top-down brand grammar — literally trying to jam a thought in your head. Feel a little different about it in cannabis though, where there’s less traditional marketing structure and the focus is refreshing.

Packaging/brand ID pops, rooted in a retro 70s West Coast/Aviator Nation meets Cali-outdoor vector iconography. Say “chill” in a very contemporary way for a canna-brand. (Yes, to an extent we’re grading on a curve.)

Pricing is average for NY: $30 for a 10pc/100mg edible, $3.50 for a 5mg 1:1 CBD/THC bev, $5 for a 10mg THC/5mg CBD bev. More or less keeping the pricing across SKUs simple, which I like.

Conversations around the full range of products, but the beverages are particularly well received. Their “Rest” beverage seems to be a thing and overall the brand is also noted for value.

Very good signals.

IG

Easily findable on IG, the brand has a strong following by cannabis standards (~9500). Mostly heavily styled product photography, some How To’s, lots of well-received events, and smart capsule collections. Engagement is pretty strong, comments are quite enthusiastic, plus they netted a few fortuitous bangers (below).

Now that’s a great signal.

Website

Fantastic from design to info architecture.

Leading their homepage promo carousel with the brand’s overall proposition and a hero product with deep equities. Rotations overview through all the lines, They have a “beverage enhancer,” (is this just a tincture repackaged or something else?) as well as D9 balms shipment. Textbook.

Scroll 1: Not afraid of useful redundancy, reiterating their line overview, the offering a need-state-based gateway. (Yes, effects claims can be dubious, but everyone does it.)

Clever again, collecting data and driving purchases with a simple product finder wizard. Definitely a brand interested in capturing data, and in broad audiences.

Back to the scroll. Still 100% on point. Unpacking key attributes in a fast, visual, accessible way — including an effects intensity gauge across all products. Love it all, but especially the gauge. First time I’ve seen this approach vis a vis communicating effects. Super smart and well executed.

Keep scrolling. Nice brand story overview, though it could better telegraph the good stuff: 110-year/five-generation family business, (tour-able) multi-industry farm, etc.

Jump to the About section. There’s all the richness. And awards. Awards stop thumbs. Again, this stuff should be surfaced more.

Back to the hp scroll. Weird. Headset says the brand is only in NY, but Ayrloom claims seven state distribution…

Checked North Carolina

Wine shops. Must be for the D9 hemp balm. Assuming all of the non-NY distribution is hemp then. A bit confusing from a UX perspective.

OK. So, cannabis THC products can’t be shipped DTC — only Hemp-based products. So they’re selling hemp products. But I’m also under the impression that they also have MJ THC. Product pages don’t clarify. Some brands — like Off Hours, which we checked out recently — use similar/virtually the same packaging for cannabis vs hemp finishes.

Searched for Ayrloom and hemp and was driven back to a “cannabis variety pack” on Ayrloom.com. Finally, drilled into the FAQs, and indeed, they sell both hemp and MJ-infused products.

While I get the motivation behind the ambiguity here, some clarification would be nice. Some people really care about the distinction.

YouTube

Moderate quantity of YT reviews, mostly focusing on Vapes – which seem to have a cool push-pop packaging – and beverages. The sentiment is generally favorable.

The brand had a YT presence at one point, but it appears to have been taken down. Haven’t seen that message on YT before. Interesting…

TikTok

Ayrloom runs a safe, attractive well-produced TikTok feed. Nothing’s really taking off but an A for effort.

A sprinkle of UGC is findable otherwise, largely driven by the strong packaging. Nothing with breakout results.

Instant Takeaway

New York strong! I’m in as a consumer and a marketer.

Substantial, with the ambition, fundamentals and the sort of groundswell that can take Ayrloom all the way. A tuned-in, thought-through, driven brand with lovable roots and a breakout beverage. Enough signal to make anyone shopping for a canna drink curious.

Potential Optimizations

Surface that great brand story even more
- Better integrate/play up unique equities: in particular the 110-year/five-generation family business and tour-able multi-industry farm,
Consider leaning further into the Honeycrisp and Rest products as heroes
Play up the intensity gauge
Collabs, collabs, collabs, collabs. You’re so ready.
Influencers for the uptight social platforms
Clarify the MJ/hemp/distribution thing
Merchandise awards more prominently

Do you have additional thoughts on this brand? Have you seen more of their marketing? Can you help connect the dots? Please share your knowledge, takes, questions, and/or examples so we can build on this post.