Marco Cadisch
Racking up more than 20 million followers on social media is no easy feat. In fact, it’s one reserved for only the most popular of celebrities and the most viral of meme accounts. However, reaching millions is particularly hard when dealing with cannabis, as limitations around promotion and marketing are especially harsh.
So, how did one guy do this from the comfort of his home in Switzerland?
A Lawyer Turned ‘WeedMan’
Fed up with the entry-level legal job in Switzerland, Marco Cadisch launched a Facebook page and a website to share the interesting, informative, weird, offbeat, and comical aspects of the cannabis world. He started targeting readers in his native Switzerland, but over time shifted his focus to the U.S. market, considerably more advanced than the Swiss market when it came to weed, and substantially more inclined to interacting with cannabis content on social media.
Within three years, Marco’s various social media channels had racked up more than 20 million followers.
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Nowadays, Marco is the CEO of this ecosystem, dubbed Highlife Media. The company now specializes in social media marketing and management, influencer marketing, and content creation.
The Highlife Media Network
Ever since this project started in 2014, Marco says, his pages have shared more than 100,000 posts. “We know exactly what kind of content works and what [kind does] not,” he explains. “Further, we have ongoing connections with a lot of different websites, big social media pages as well as influencers. Nobody has such a good overview of the online cannabis market like we have.”
An Interesting Business Model
Marco says most agencies in the cannabis industry have to outsource their reach. However, Highlife Media owns 80% of the channels it advertises on. This means the compay can offer better pricing, transparency and flexibility.
But don’t let these words fool you: Highlife’s margins are really good.
“When you look at the established players, 90% or more of them are unable to grow their channels,” he says. “They simply lack the know-how to achieve constant growth. On the other hand, we grow our network a couple 100k followers a month and you will see a big difference when you advertise with us.”
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Marco monetizes the traffic in many ways.
“We monetize the traffic on our websites, we do a lot of affiliate marketing, apart from that we promote a lot of different clients in the cannabis industry. For some clients we also fully manage their online marketing activities or we manage some of their social media accounts. We also produce a lot of content and we expand our reach with a lot of influencers in the cannabis industry. We basically upsell their options. Last but not least, I also offer consulting.”
Know The Law
As one might imagine, having a legal background came in handy when navigating the complexities of the cannabis industry.
“If you study law and work in the legal field, you are confronted with a lot of things that are essential to running a business, like setting it up, handling the account, being responsible for taxes, contracts and all that kind of stuff,” Marco says. “I set up the company myself and apart from the accounting, which I outsource, I handle everything myself.”
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But formal knowledge is not enough, he adds, explaining he had been a cannabis consumer for more than 10 years before starting his business. “I know how the people in this field operate and how they tick. Even though, as the market progresses it gets more and more professional, the market is unlike any other. I’m sure that if you want to make it to the top you need to live what you preach and that’s what I always do.”
