Four Questions With Jason?White

Jason White, CMO of Cura Partners Inc.

Jason loves sports, music, diverse global cultures, creativity and, of course, marketing. He’s been lucky enough to do a lot of that in his 9 to 5 life, not just his 5 to 9 life.

Jason is the Chief Marketing Officer at Cura Partners Inc., overseeing the Select cannabis brand and its push into popular culture. Prior to Cura, Jason held the position of Executive Vice President and Global Head of Marketing for Beats by Dr. Dre (Beats). Prior to Beats, Jason was Managing Director at Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai, following his role as Global Account Director leading Nike at Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Oregon. He is a board member of the diversity initiative, Marcus Graham Project, and the digital lab Chinatown Bureau.

Having worked for some of the biggest brands in the world, what role does brand integrity play?

Often times we sit in HQ and look at these big walls of integrated assets. But the truth is, a huge percentage of our consumers will see only one small part of the brand voice. Every piece has to represent who we are, what we stand for and the integrity with which we make the products we make. You may not get a second or third chance to introduce yourself.

How do brands keep up with the growing amount of media channels and formats?

In the last 5 years the world of integrated comms has exploded. The emphasis of spending has flipped. We spend less time crafting the message and more time crafting the medium. If you’re lucky you have time and headcount to do both but often times CMOs have to make hard choices about where to invest. More and more that investment is weighted towards down funnel media and very targeted messages to drive conversion. How do you stretch every dollar to reach your consumer in every possible channel.

What’s your point of view on automation in marketing?

I’m a brand guy. I’m a passionate storyteller. Probably to a fault. And even I have accepted that we must find better ways to get the laborious yet necessary work done. I believe in automation when it doesn’t sacrifice quality. And by quality I mean top notch execution and distribution of assets for all the channels we now have to account for in our plans. That’s the key. That’s the win win. It also affords me the room to spend more time and money on the storytelling. Remember what I said? To. A. Fault. ?????♂?

Growing a new brand in the cannabis industry, has your approach changed?

Competition is everywhere. Awareness is nowhere. Even at Select, as the revenue leader by far, we still have so much to do to make sure consumers understand our values. We are a brand built from wanting to make safer, better quality hardware and oil. It’s in our Origin Story. Channel marketing in cannabis is even harder due to compliance and retailer leverage. Everything has to work so much harder because we have fewer moments with the consumer. The stakes are high (No pun intended. Really, no pun intended.)

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