BuzzFeed News Launching Its Own Cannabis Brand And No, It's Not Called BuzzWeed

If you had been listening to Benzinga’s Cannabis Hour on Thursday, you would have heard the news. If not, here it is: BuzzFeed, the global digital media company and 2021 winner of a Pulitzer Prize has now decided that in addition to reporting about one of the fastest-growing industries in the U.S., it will be joining it.

BuzzFeed has launched its own cannabis brand. And, no, the cannabis line is not called BuzzWeed, which some lament as a missed opportunity.

The new brand is called Goodful. Launched under the umbrella of its lifestyle brand by the same name, BuzzFeed is partnering with California-based weed producer NUG Inc. and will release three different Goodful-branded flower packs, reported Forbes. Indica, Sativa and Hybrid varieties are available at select Nug retailers in California.

Long Time Coming

Apparently, BuzzFeed has long been interested in getting into the cannabis business. To further that goal, BuzzFeed’s data science team conducted research to understand its audience’s overall cannabis and CBD habits and preferences.

“We found that our audience was interested in BuzzFeed bringing them branded cannabis products, and the insights revealed that Goodful’s audience, in particular, was interested in branded cannabis products and recommendations,” BuzzFeed’s senior vice president of brand licensing and brand design Eric Karp told Forbes.

“From there we connected with NUG which opened up an opportunity for us to do a real-world test and enter the market.”

BuzzFeed Knows How To Market

BuzzFeed, launched in 2017, is no stranger to brand licensing. As part of an early partnership with Penguin Random House, BuzzFeed produced a series of “Tasty” cookbooks, which quickly became New York Times Bestsellers and have sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. 

Since then, BuzzFeed’s licensing business has exploded with all manner of household and cooking product offerings, including a collaboration with McCormicks MKC to produce a brand of cooking spices, Tasty Seasonings.

So Why Not Another Herb?

The company's experience and now its mission to “normalize the cannabis experience” made BuzzFeed the perfect partner for NUG, the company’s co-founder and CEO Dr. John Oram said in the Forbes interview.

“The NUG x Goodful products are high-quality and competitively priced, and consumers will absolutely enjoy their purchase. Beyond the products, this collaboration between NUG and BuzzFeed presents the opportunity to normalize how cannabis products are advertised online," Oram said. "Through branded Goodful posts, we will experiment with targeted localized cannabis ads that are both discrete and classy which will help direct customers to find NUG stores and NUG x Goodful products.” 

Photo courtesy of Shelby Ireland on Unsplash