Maryland Cannabis Administration:
Impaired Driving

Be Cannabis Smart Don’t Drive High

The new Maryland Cannabis Administration needed to convey a crucial message to Maryland drivers: Adult-use cannabis is legal in Maryland — but it’s illegal and dangerous to drive while high. It’s a critical message because research indicated that driving while high is incorrectly perceived as “not as bad” as driving drunk.

Safety first

We kept the message serious without finger-wagging — not needing to lecture, we simply wanted to make it clear: Cannabis comes with risks, so if you’re going to use it, plan for a safe ride first. We conveyed the hazards of driving high through videos that appeared online and in bars and restaurants frequented by our audience, signage in public locations, a new landing page for details, and social posts, all with a call to action asking people to “Be Cannabis Smart.”

Driving the conversation

Streaming for a period of six weeks, our videos served 5.5 million impressions from television and 13 million in public spaces, including jukeboxes in bars, with digital components making over 11.5 million impressions. The new landing page saw 8.4K views as the campaign ran, with users’ average visit time lasting up to a minute. Social executions served 5.6 million impressions, with the highlight being our static carousel post explaining the effects of driving while impaired, which saw 2.7 million impressions and drove the most website visits. The subject had our audience engaged, too, with high numbers of comments and replies.

By using instructive language and a strong, sincere tone across our multimedia push, we delivered the MCA’s messaging about impaired driving to their desired audience and helped make Maryland roads a little safer.

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