Feel How You Wana

Long before I ever wrote a word for Wana, I was buying their gummies.

Wana was my go-to cannabis brand back when I lived in Colorado. Then I moved to Washington—a state where Wana currently isn’t sold—and naturally assumed our relationship was over. We had a good run. I wished them well.

Except years later, Stout Design in San Francisco, one of my all-time favorite creative partners, called to ask if I wanted to help rebrand them. So, to recap: Colorado brand. Former Colorado resident now living in Washington. California agency. Somehow we found each other again. Cannabis works in mysterious ways.

Wana’s previous packaging. Photo credit.

Stout brought me in to develop Wana’s new tone of voice, tagline, key messaging and copy guidelines, alongside a wildly colorful new identity featuring cube-shaped containers and custom flavor illustrations we eventually dubbed “Flavor Feels.” My job? Make the words feel as distinctly Wana as the new look.

First, We Had to Talk About Feelings

The big a-ha came with four little words:

Of all the taglines I explored, FEEL HOW YOU WANA™ immediately hit different. It puts the brand name right at the center, making it unmistakably Wana, while capturing the real magic behind the products: Wana uses some seriously impressive cannabis science to give people more control over the experience they want.

Because you should choose how cannabis makes you feel. Not the other way around. This simple idea ultimately became much bigger than a tagline. It became the foundation for the entire brand.

The Wana and Only

Next came the voice. Or, as I named it, “THE WANA AND ONLY.”

Wana isn’t a stereotypical stoner brand. It also isn’t a lab coat explaining cannabinoids to you with a laser pointer. It’s somewhere much more interesting in between: smart (and smart-ass) science nerds who know how to have a good time.

The voice we created is clear, confident and charming. Educational but endearing. Whip-smart about the science, but never so clinical that reading a product description feels like earning continuing education credits. Can a cannabis brand geek out about minor cannabinoids, proprietary terpene blends and rapid-onset technology while still being extremely fun at parties? You bet your sweet, melt-proof gummies it can.

Then Things Got Serious-ish

After wrapping the initial work with Stout, I was absolutely tickled pink when the Wana marketing team asked me to stick around. That turned into a deeper strategic engagement to build out the brand foundations behind Feel How You Wana™ and articulate exactly what makes Wana, Wana.

Together, we built a positioning around putting feelings in your control by “sciencing cannabis into bite-sized pieces that make specific sensations edible, attainable and enjoyable.” Yes, sciencing is a verb now. Please update your dictionaries accordingly.

We also organized the portfolio around three palpable feeling states: ACTIVATE, CENTER and UNWIND. Instead of asking shoppers to decipher a chemistry set’s worth of cannabinoid ratios, strains and formulations before deciding what to buy, we could start with the much more human question: How do you Wana feel?

And Then I Wrote. A Lot.

Once we knew exactly who Wana was, I got to unleash that voice pretty much everywhere. I wrote the launch and teaser campaign for the refresh, the website, emails, social, a launch blog, internal presentations and custom copy for flavor after glorious flavor. I got to write about calming down after having a sh*t day. Muscles seeking damages after a workout. Nervous systems with anxiety problems. And THC making a tasteful little cameo. Basically, my job was to explain sophisticated cannabis science while occasionally making myself laugh alone at my desk. Dream gig.

FLAVOR SAMPLE COPY:

• BREEZY PINEAPPLE 20:1 CBD:THC
  This is what happens when CBD gets the good chair. With a 20:1 CBD:THC ratio, our Breezy Pineapple gummies let the chill factor lead while THC makes a tasteful little cameo. The result is a tropical hybrid gummy for when you want things to feel easy, even and body-comfortable.
• BALANCED BERRY GUAVA 1:1 THC:CBD
  There’s balanced, and then there’s our Balanced Berry Guava gummies. Equal parts THC and CBD meet a hybrid blend of indica and sativa strains in a fruity, island-adjacent gummy that feels steady and in total agreement with itself. Very diplomatic. Very delicious.
• PARADISE POG 1:1:1 THC:CBD:CBG
  Passionfruit, orange and guava walk into a gummy and come out with no hangover. Our Paradise POG gummies pair THC and CBD with CBG, a rare cannabinoid with easygoing, aftermath-free energy. Rapid-onset tech helps this uniquely social, creative high arrive in just 5–15 minutes.

High (hehe) Praise All Around

This is easily one of the projects I’m proudest of in recent years—not just because of how much work went into it, but because everything works SO EFFING hard. The strategy, packaging, illustrations, product architecture, voice and writing all feel like they came from the same colorful, extremely well-informed brain.

A huge, gummy-shaped thank you to the incredible teams at Stout Design and Wana for inviting me into their world, trusting me with such a massive piece of the brand and continuing to let me get weird with cannabis copy. I loved every minute of it. Or, more appropriately: I felt exactly how I Wana.

CREDITS:
Stout – Design
Calyx Containers – Packaging Engineering
Jules Davies – Lifestyle Photography