AYR: Capturing Product & People

Overview / The Challenge

The corporate mandate was to position AYR Wellness, a large multi-state operator, as Your Neighborhood Store. The challenge was translating this high-level vision into tangible content that felt authentic and local, without the budget for a glossy agency retainer. We had to bridge the gap between Corporate Brand and Customer Experience on a shoestring.

Strategy / The Blueprint

To make a multi-state operator feel small, I anchored the content strategy on two touchpoints that actually build trust in cannabis, the grower and the seller.

The Guide (Budtenders): We elevated staff from nameless clerks into trusted local experts, giving them a platform to share their passion and knowledge.
The Source (Cultivation): We proved quality by bypassing the marketing fluff and taking customers directly inside the grow rooms to see the plants.

Omnichannel Deployment: Proof of the content loop in action. We adapted our budtender interviews into silent, attention-grabbing loops for digital menu boards, bringing the "local expert" presence directly to the point of sale.

Execution / The Build

Acting as the internal Showrunner, I oversaw production direction on a lean $2,000 micro-budget:

Unscripted Intimacy: In our budtender interviews, we avoided corporate scripts. I sat next to the camera, interjecting unscripted questions to break the tension. This captured the budtenders' genuine personalities, transforming them from employees into relatable local plugs.
Transparency Marketing: We shot high-quality loops of the grow facilities, treating the plants like premium products to visually validate the price point.
The Omnichannel Loop: We maximized asset efficiency by "atomizing" the footage. A single shoot day fed silent loops for in-store screens, audio-on clips for social, and deep-dive storytelling for email campaigns.

Results / The Metrics

By prioritizing authenticity over polish, we drove tangible yield:

Sales Lift: Strains featured in the cultivation videos saw an 18% increase in sell-through during the first 60 days, after going live.
Social Engagement: The Budtender Spotlight content outperformed channel averages by 38%, proving that people resonate more than product renders.
Internal Scale: This video content work became a corporate standard. Other regional markets deployed our cultivation loops to drive their own sales, and the unscripted interview framework was adopted as an official template for content creation across the organization.
Efficiency: Delivered broadcast-quality assets for <5% of a typical agency fee, creating a multi-channel footprint from a single shoot.

Learning / The Takeaways

Video builds trust. By using video to scale intimacy, you can turn a multi-state operator into A Neighborhood Store.
High-quality production is accessible. You no longer need a massive budget to look professional. With modern cameras and accessible editing software, we were able to produce serviceable content for a fraction of the cost of a traditional agency and/or production crew.

AYR: Capturing Product & People