Olswell Shorts

Strict advertising restrictions make it difficult for cannabis brands to build awareness through traditional paid media, putting greater pressure on organic content to earn attention. While managing Olswell's social presence, I developed a different approach: turn the brand's own budtenders into recurring characters in an original short-form comedy series.

Drawing from the narrative skit formats gaining traction across social platforms, I created Olswell Shorts and have led the series for nearly three years, developing the brand voice, writing every script, directing every performance, and guiding each episode through production and edit.

Cannabis marketing operates within significant advertising restrictions while competing in an increasingly crowded category. Product posts, promotions, and educational content gave audiences little reason to follow one dispensary over another.

Olswell needed an organic content strategy capable of earning attention consistently without relying on paid media. The opportunity was to build that strategy around something competitors couldn't easily replicate: the personalities of the people already behind the counter.

I conceived Olswell Shorts and have led the series from concept through publication for nearly three years. I write every script and piece of dialogue, direct the budtenders on set, and work directly with our videographer to plan and capture each narrative.

I also direct the edit, shaping specific cuts, pacing, and comedic timing to make sometimes complex stories work within the constraints of short-form video. Beyond the series itself, I helped establish the graffiti-driven visual language, humor, and personality that became Olswell's broader social identity.

Rather than treating budtenders as presenters, I treated them as a recurring cast. Scripts were built around recognizable dispensary and retail experiences: awkward customers, coworker dynamics, running jokes, and situations the employees could perform naturally.

Repetition was part of the strategy. Bringing the same personalities back across episodes allowed individual videos to build on one another, gradually turning employees into recognizable characters while giving Olswell a consistent voice audiences could associate with the brand.

Nearly three years later, Olswell Shorts remains an ongoing part of the brand's Instagram presence, establishing a repeatable organic content format that continues to generate new stories while maintaining a recognizable brand voice.

In the most recent 30-day period, Olswell's Instagram content generated 21.2K views and added 105 new followers. Beyond platform performance, employees repeatedly reported being recognized by customers who had seen them in the videos, turning the people behind the counter into recognizable ambassadors for the brand.