How Important Is Connecting With Target Audience?

Having the right messaging for the intended target audience is key to any communications effort, whether it includes media relations, special events or promotions and sponsorships.

I listen to classic rock.  Recently while I was driving from Northern Arizona to Phoenix, I was listening to a Flagstaff radio station, 93.9 The Mountain.  In addition to some great travel music, I heard what I thought was a brilliant promotion.

It’s probably been since 1933, when the prohibition of alcohol ended, that the creative juices flowed so freely. By the way, I do think that some of the best commercials of all-time are for beer brands.

With marijuana now legal in Arizona for both medicinal and recreational use, The Mountain and one of its advertisers have gotten creative in a daily promotion that appears to connect with its target audience on a number of levels.

At 4:20 p.m. each weekday afternoon, a Flagstaff marijuana dispensary sponsors a back-to-back set of two Rolling Stones classics.  They call it the “420 Stones.”  I joked with The Mountain’s Chris Barber that they could have also called it “Stones Double-Hit.”

The term “4:20” has been associated with pot-smokers since the ‘70s, essentially a not-so-secret code word for consuming cannabis.

The iconic band The Rolling Stones has long-been known for its appreciation of and use of weed.

And, back-to-back “hit” songs by the “Stones” – sponsored by a pot dispensary – how perfect.

Congrats to whoever connected all those dots.