Cannabis Control Commission:
Website, Branding, and Digital Strategy
Client: Cannabis Control Commission
Project: Agency Brand and Digital Media Evolution
Collateral: Website, Branded Collateral, Paid Social Campaign
Platforms: WordPress, Mailchimp, Meta, Microsoft Teams, Tableau, Socrata
The Cannabis Control Commission, one of the youngest state government agencies in Massachusetts, has a mission of safely, equitably and effectively implementing and administering the laws enabling access to medical and adult-use marijuana in the Commonwealth. The Commission is responsible for promulgating regulations relating to marijuana, processing business applications and issuing licenses, and creating policies and procedures which "promote and encourage full participation in the regulated marijuana industry by people from communities that have previously been disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement and to positively impact those communities."
Much like a start-up, the Commission was formed in 2018 and has seen exponential growth both internally and externally as the marijuana industry becomes one of the fastest growing industries in Massachusetts, having surpassed $3B in adult-use retail sales in 3 years. The Commission brought me aboard as their Digital Media Director in July of 2020 to implement their newly developed Strategic Communications and Outreach Plan, including harmonizing and unifying the Commission's digital presence through the successful launch of a new website, continued enhancements to their Open Data platform, streamlining their email marketing platform, and expanding their social media presence with creative and innovative content, all aligned and consistent with the objectives of the strategic plan.
Website Creative Direction and Development Management, Brand Asset Design, and Digital Advertising Design: AnnMarie Nichols Burtt
Website Design and Development: MORE Advertising
Web Presence
The Commission was 10 months into a complete website redeployment when I joined, and I took ownership and oversight of the project for the following 9 months until launch in April of 2021. The new Commission website now provides clear pathways for 6 of its priority constituent personas (Patients & Caregivers, Applicants & Licensees, Adult Consumers, Parents, State & Local Government, and Certifying Healthcare Providers), as well as secondary and tertiary sections related to Public Resources, the Commission’s Equity Program, Research, a Retail Store Locator, Press Releases, and Enforcement Announcements among others. In an effort to provide as much assistance and transparency for the Commonwealth’s constituents as possible, visualizations from the Commission’s Open Data platform were strategically woven throughout the site, and thousands of public documents and resource guides were transferred or republished and reorganized to provide a better user experience and access to content for site visitors.
Brand Assets
The Commission launched its brand in 2018 with a small collection of branded assets to support staff in their interactions with the public. With continued rapid expansion of the agency as well as staff switching to fully remote work in March 2020, an expanded suite of digital assets was needed to further reinforce the reputation and recognition of the brand. In Q4 of 2020, I designed and deployed branded email signatures and Microsoft Teams backgrounds for use by all Commission staff in their increasingly digital interactions with the public.
