Lucia Cifonelli, Founder of Smoke Show Co. – Interview Series

Proper and effective cannabis marketing can oftentimes be a confusing and convoluted process, with many unpredictable patterns and X factors at play, given the youthfulness and federally prohibited status of the plant. Luckily, though, there are dedicated marketing professionals with vast experience in similar industries, such as the alcohol industry, to provide guidance and options throughout this mostly uncharted field of marketing. One such marketing professional who holds years of previous experience in advertising strategies for some of alcohol’s biggest brands and has found the transferable skills and successful strategies within cannabis marketing is Lucia Cifonelli, Founder of Smoke Show Co.

So what subjects did you primarily study at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and how did those courses prepare you for your very interesting career path? I would imagine that, given your extensive background in event planning and marketing, a degree from UNLV of all schools would be quite useful.  

I studied Hotel Administration with a focus in Beverage Management. I was the only female in my class to graduate with that specialization. Everything I learned from the hospitality industry and my time at UNLV built what is now Smoke Show Co. I met my mentor, Tim Haughinberry, as his intern at UNLV and even started Smoke Show alongside him when we launched as Cannabis USA. My Mom, who is a big part of the Smoke Show apparel line, also began working in Las Vegas, designing uniforms for the casinos; eventually moving to Las Vegas. My sister is a tattoo artist on the Vegas strip and she created our logo with me. People give Vegas a hard time; but if you want to learn how to market to the masses of people from all different walks of lives and places; Vegas is the spot! Going to a school that was also ingrained in the city of Las Vegas; we had opportunities I don’t think many other colleges have when it comes to work study or experience. I was able to learn from top executives in the industry and build a community of like minded people who wanted to provide the best hospitality to their guests on all levels. That type of service is why Smoke Show gives the white glove service it does. 

What were your first roles in marketing, and what were some unique aspects about those roles? What were the most valuable lessons in successful marketing that you learned during your first few years of your career?

I sat in on a seminar during UNLV on owning a rum brand; it’s how I met  my mentor and his rum brand and was hooked! I got to watch first hand how a brand was created, sold, and the passion behind it. It was a craft rum brand out of Guatemala and I was working with the owner closely and to watch a young  founder build his brand was inspiring. Looking back, it definitely shaped what Smoke Show’s goal is working with brands: telling their story and building brand loyalty and growth. I worked at a high end cigar bar inside Caesar’s and one of the oldest biker bars in “Hendertucky”, a suburb outside of the strip while at UNLV along with being a brand rep at 21 years old – the juxtaposition of Vegas will give anyone in marketing lots of opportunities to study humans; it was amazing and a lot of fun. I think cannabis is like that, people use it in different ways and for different reasons; and that is why brand storytelling is so important. Capture the audience you want, don’t try to market to the masses and I think cannabis brands sometimes try to fit everyone’s needs, instead of their target demographic.  Vegas is really good at defining their audience, across so many different platforms and places. It is a study in human nature and desire, I give UNLV and Las Vegas a lot of credit for my career path and how I handle my business as well, because how you carry yourself, professionally and personally, matters.

When it comes to successful promotions and event hosting within the beverage marketing sector, what are the most common factors and strategies that you utilized? 

Beverage marketing in Las Vegas is a beast of its own; I don’t think many other cities do the type of volume in sales, events, or promotions like Las Vegas. Casino’s have their own storage rooms and order by the pallets; it gives a lot of runway for marketing budgets to be over the top. Programming properly and making sure that your brand is represented is important because there are large national programs built around case sales and supply agreements. Having the right partners to make sure your product is in stock, on menus, being poured in the right drinks, brand ambassadors at events is all important and something I’ve utilized in both beverage and cannabis. Creating valuable programs for both the retailers and brands is what makes a successful partnership and how you continue to sell. 

During your roles within the beverage marketing sector, what were some examples of lesser-known brands that you helped become far more prominent, and how did you go about expanding the popularity of those brands?

I was fortunate to work with a lot of brands, large and small across my time in the beverage marketing sector. I would say a smaller brand that I worked with and was able to make an impact was Peroni Nastro Azzura; I worked both the CA and NV market and was able to switch out Miller High Life on the Bellagio Casino floor to Peroni as an offering as part of their floor program. By representing the brand as the liaison between distributor and supplier as well as in the community helped to grow the brand in Las Vegas. I still drink Peroni and am in contact with the team I worked with. Building a strong community in your field is key to success and knowledge.   

After a decent amount of years in cannabis marketing, what caught your professional attention about working in cannabis marketing and event planning?

Cannabis has always been a part of my lifestyle so I wanted to be a part of the industry. The opportunity to be a national sales manager with a packaging company in 2018 is where my legal cannabis journey began. 

What inspired you to co-found Smoke Show Co. (formerly Cannabis USA)? What gaps in accessibility to marketing services were you hoping to fill with the company?

I co-founded Cannabis USA with my mentor. Smoke Show Co is fully owned and founded by myself. I could not have done it without Cannabis USA, but Smoke Show was the second iteration that continues to evolve with the industry. The idea was to create programming and partnerships between the retailer and the brand. So often, especially as we are seeing in more mature markets; the retailers have the upper hand and are not partnering with their brands, but looking for a race to the bottom and not paying invoices. Many brands margins are already thin, so how do we make sure that marketing dollars are being spent correctly, the brand is being represented properly with it’s ethos and story being told for brand engagement and retention, and continue to increase sales with our brand teams in CA, NY, NJ, and launching in IL and CT soon. 

I noticed that you work with some awesome brands, such as Alibi! How do you make sure that the brands Smoke Show Co. works with also adhere to the company’s values and ethos? Why is it important to represent brands that share those values?  

Alibi is one of our favorite brands to work with! Marianne Cursetjee, the founder is so hands on and her story of finding cannabis and how it impacted her life is the reason why I continue to stay in the space. We met at a women’s event that she was a part of and I produced with Sarah Falvo, another powerhouse female in space; so the synergy was there to help share and launch Alibi with Marianne in New York. Being able to share Marianne’s story along with our other brands is what Smoke Show is all about; finding and creating community that align with the brands we represent. 

Since you’ve had considerable experience in both cannabis marketing and alcoholic beverage marketing as well, what are some similarities between successful marketing strategies in the two sectors?  

The whole reason Smoke Show was created was to amplify brand partnerships and market with our retailers to create long standing partnerships. That is where I see the most similarities is once the product is sold into a retailer, how do continue sell through, add more sku’s across your product offerings, and build a true partnership. My background in beverage was always a bit of a hybrid sales and marketing role with focus on education and implementation – that is what Smoke Show does with our marketing as well as brand team. I like to say we are more of your brand team, then a staffing agency when it comes to our ambassadors and that’s because we believe in ROI and making sure that the sales numbers match the marketing spend. 

Conversely, what are the strongest differences between the two sectors? Does cannabis’s federally illegal status cause issues in marketing strategies? I would guess that Meta’s strict policies on cannabis advertising cause continuous issues.

There are so many strong differences; the major one, yes being that cannabis is federally illegal, BUT cannabis is MEDICINE.  I guess that is for a whole other conversation since we are speaking about marketing…but cannabis marketing needs to also have an educational feel to it because it is new to a lot of consumers. When we do pop-ups in the beverage sector, there is focus on differentiating your product from the other’s that are similar and that is done through consumer demographics and activations that surround that. While there is an educational side to beverages; I am a level one Cicerone ( for the beer nerds) and took the Sommelier exam (without success), education about any products has been important to me…but cannabis.

Cannabis is its own category that crosses the bounds of rec and medical and how we all use the plant to elevate our day; I personally would not market the same to an RSO user who takes it everyday because it’s their medicine or helps with seizures vs. a someone looking to take the edge off after a long week vs. someone looking for a pre-roll or vape for a show they are about to go to vs. my best friend’s grandma who asked me for sleep gummies and remembers a homemade salve that I gave her late husband for his ache and pains and helped him!  (Emerald Cup winning salve by the way – check out Curanaturals) Similar to Marianne from Alibi that found cannabis when going through cancer treatment and changed profession to share her passion about what cannabis can do for people; these kind of stories and life changing ways cannabis has helped people is something I never experienced when on the beverage marketing side.

Don’t get me wrong; there is a celebration and many of those stories in the liquor industry where a sip of champagne or a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue I kept for special occasions or personal wins in my career to sip on with a cigar is celebratory and memorable; it doesn’t create the long standing effect the same way as hearing personal, life changing stories of how cannabis impacts people, to me is the big difference. On meta; if that is your way of marketing – maybe go outside and talk to your customers, community and audience. Relying on meta or the internet for cannabis marketing is not the way to win; personal campaigns that meet people where they are at or are breaking molds, like the new Miss Grass short films on how their gummies create an experience; chef’s kiss. FIND YOUR AUDIENCE and create a community around that. Sorry if I went on a tangent, but if you are in cannabis marketing and you aren’t paying attention to the states, regions, and demographic in the areas you are in, you will never win. The beverage industry can cross market across many platforms because they are allowed, it is not restricted like ours with where and how you can advertise, and it has been legal and accepted for decades. Just like anything new, we have to educate and normalize it to break through the stigmas. 

If a federal rescheduling of cannabis or another similar reform were to be implemented, how would that impact the marketing/advertising side of cannabis? Would the more common problems with cannabis advertising, such as Meta’s policies, be alleviated, or would a federal reform only lead to more widespread issues with cannabis marketing? 

I think until cannabis is normalized in your everyday household, which is going to take a long time, there will always be issues with marketing or advertising. Until packaging is consistent across the board and brands don’t have restrictions on what can go on their packaging, it is going to be hard. 

When I think about legalization and federal rescheduling, even as a creative agency owner; it isn’t about marketing. It’s about the taxation, the people still sitting in jail for non-violent cannabis crimes, and how our government and big pharma will f*ck it up quite frankly. More than anything I want this plant to be normalized and not victim to a war on drugs for a plant that literally saves people’s lives. Can do so good for us from medicine to textiles to even hempcrete; a concrete made of hemp!!

That is what I think about when anyone talks about federal rescheduling or federal reform; how do we fix our mistakes in the legal market and learn from it. How do we educate to the masses so they aren’t afraid and make conscious decisions about what they are putting in their body and how it can effect them, positively or negatively – just like anything we consume. I hope we can start to write off marketing soon, I guess that would be a positive from federal reform. Until then myself and our brand teams that rep our partners will continue to educate at retailers, events, and create the activations that I hope help the cannabis industry as a whole – from hemp beverages making a splash on liquor store shelves to a gorgeous dab of rosin that smells of terpenes and redwoods to an all in one vape that markets to the younger demographic looking for fruity, loud flavors; we have to meet the consumer where they are and what products to continue to grow their palette and preference. Just like the Johnny Walker Blue for celebratory occasions to the Peroni beer I drink on the regular to reminisce about a great time with great people, there is something for everyone and every occasion. 

Thank you for joining us, Lucia! For more information on Smoke Show Co., please visit its website.