September 28, 2020 – San Francisco, CA – Eaze, California’s largest legal cannabis delivery marketplace, today unveils its first brand refresh since their initial 2014 launch. As Eaze shifts from a technology-based logistics service to a vertical retail business with its own line of consumer brands, the company sought a new positioning and brand that reflects this evolution. Building a full-scale out-of-home campaign to launch with the redesign, Eaze enlisted the support of Born & Bred, a SF-based studio that specializes in designing scalable brands in tandem with campaigns, and showcasing numerous award-winning cannabis brands in their portfolio.
The original Eaze brand, with its simple blue and white signature logo, set the tone for the modern trope of cannabis branding: discretion. Following Eaze’s lead in being reserved, newcomer brands aimed to decrease stigma for new consumers, avoid any regulatory restrictions, and make themselves appealing to Silicon Valley investors with hopes of reaching broad consumer demographics. But now, with over $200 million in funding and six million completed deliveries to date, Eaze is utilizing their stature as the largest legal cannabis marketplace in California to redefine the industry’s aesthetics once again. Evolving to ‘Eaze 2.0,’ the brand becomes one of few to firmly position themselves in the market with an identity that speaks to their core audience: passionate cannabis consumers.
“Eaze is a very different company today than even a couple of years ago, and cannabis has reached a whole new level of normalization,” said Eaze’s Vice President of Marketing Sheena Shiravi, “The rebrand reflects Eaze’s 2.0 business strategy and where this very magic plant is taking us in the future.”
In building a flexible identity system that truly takes the brand to the edges of our imaginations, the branding specialists at Born & Bred took advantage of the simplicity and the brand recognition that the existing logo carries. With subtle updates to provide an understated sophistication to the custom hand-drawn type, the logo becomes the anchor that allows the rest of the brand to run wild.
“Understanding Eaze’s consumer base as passionate cannabis consumers really enabled us to celebrate weed culture with this new identity, while still holding onto Eaze’s roots in technology,” said George De’Ath, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Born & Bred. “The identity we designed is groundbreaking in that we achieve brand recognition through a system that is both visually fantastic and easily iterated upon.”
“Highly Calculated Delivery” is befittingly used as a motif throughout the brand and campaign, twisting cannabis-culture history and humor into a traditionally tech-based offering. Campaigning in every market across California, Eaze communicates real, relevant data, with a humorous spin on each ad. Since these headline "facts” range from bubble baths to moon landings, Born & Bred designed a flexible grid system that can incorporate multiple art styles and scenarios for rapid iteration and scalability. In multiple instances, billboards have customized copy to incorporate hyper-relevant geographically targeted facts and stories. The pixel-grid motif extends into collector’s quality packaging and merchandise, web and social, building the brand identity off of this distinct aesthetic more so than the logo itself.
Pre-legalization, it was difficult to strategically understand a cannabis consumer base and build brands accordingly. This brand relaunch is the first of a larger shift in the industry, taking the groundbreaking step to showcase cannabis users quite literally at their highest. As the market leader, Eaze understands that their objective is no longer to just de-stigmatize cannabis for first-time consumers, but rather, to celebrate cannabis for those who have already become regular consumers. In utilizing their brand as both a solid foundation and a versatile platform for explosive growth, the new Eaze brand quite literally deep dives into a fantastical future.
About Born & Bred:
Co-Founded in 2017 by George De’Ath and Kyle Merwin, Born & Bred is a growth-minded brand agency that specializes in designing and scaling businesses that challenge the status quo. A leader in brand identities that address social stigma, Born & Bred is at the forefront of building brands in tandem with multi-channel campaigns that uniquely position their clients for fast growth and social engagement. Headquartered in San Francisco, Born & Bred’s client roster includes Eaze, Del Monte, Nestle, Visa, SoFi, and ZBiotics.
About Eaze:
Eaze, California’s largest marketplace for legal cannabis, connects adult consumers with licensed retailers and products. Eaze is on a mission to enhance safe access to legal cannabis, educate people about cannabis as a tool for wellness and drive smart cannabis policies. www.eaze.com.
