High Touch with Jake & Duffy

Trust, Touchpoints & The Brands That Belong | Angela Pih

SparkPlug Season 1 Episode 4

When people talk about cannabis marketing, the conversation usually starts and ends with compliance hurdles. But in this episode, we go deeper—into how brands actually earn trust, scale innovation, and show up meaningfully in consumers’ lives.

Jake and Duffy sit down with Angela Pih, a powerhouse brand strategist behind top names like Papa & Barkley, CannaCraft, StateHouse, and CCell. From fashion to wellness to tech, Angela brings a cross-industry lens to cannabis that’s all about design, storytelling, and building real community. She shares the secrets behind one of the industry’s most successful customer activations (involving tour buses and Palm Springs seniors), what occasion-based marketing can unlock, and why budtender education remains her number-one priority.

If you care about brand-building, retail strategy, or where cannabis can go when we stop playing defense, this one’s for you.

Topics Covered:

  • Why dispensaries won’t sell your product for you—and what to do about it
  • How to run a true 360° campaign (without a million-dollar budget)
  • What cannabis can learn from HIMSS, Halston, and White Claw
  • The surprising power of senior citizens and bus tours
  • Why understanding “occasion usage” changes everything
  • How minor cannabinoids and menu mix signal real maturity
  • What makes brick-and-mortar in cannabis totally unique
  • Why product launches fail—and how to build for success anyway

About Our Guest:
Angela Pih is a brand and marketing leader with deep roots in both global CPG and cannabis. She’s helped build and scale category-defining brands across wellness, fashion, and tech—including Papa & Barkley, CannaCraft, and StateHouse. A firm believer in budtender education and consumer-centric innovation, Angela is a frequent speaker, board member, mentor, and founder of PNT Brand, a cannabis brand studio that balances clarity, creativity, and cultural traction.

Links & References:

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