The AGCO places a priority on digital and enhanced communications to inform and engage with audiences, based on its Digital by Default approach. Over this past year, under the spotlight of significant interest in the regulation of recreational cannabis, the AGCO had a unique opportunity to reinforce its communications commitment of sustaining the agency’s reputation by expanding its website content, amplifying its social media presence, proactively engaging with media and taking a direct communication approach with licensees.
Overall traffic to the AGCO website increased by 19% during fiscal year 2019–2020 compared to the previous year, due in large part to the public attention surrounding the second allocation of cannabis retail stores (in Q2) as well as the opening of the cannabis retail market to the public (beginning in Q4). During these peak periods, website visits increased more than tenfold, increasing from an average of 2,000 to over 29,000 per day in August and 24,500 per day in March.
The AGGO has continued to increase its outreach on social media in response to sustained interest in cannabis regulation and licensing. Users directly engaged with the AGCO’s tweets over 16,700 times in 2019–2020 through liking, sharing, or replying. Peak periods were closely aligned with major milestones and announcements, such as the results of the second allocation lottery and the opening of the public market for cannabis retail licensing. The AGCO received over 300 mentions on Twitter in a single day after the announcement of the second allocation lottery results, compared to just 400 mentions during the entire 2016–2017 fiscal year. Social media posts during these peak periods commonly reached more than double the usual audience size.
The AGCO sent 31 direct emails to subscribers of its cannabis distribution list in both official languages. By the end of fiscal year 2019–2020 the list had grown to over 14,000 subscribers, an increase of approximately 3000 over the previous fiscal year. Messages initially focused on providing updates about the application status of those selected in the first expression of interest lottery but later provided important details about the second allocation lottery and open market licensing. Most of these emails continued to have open rates of over 50%, well above the government benchmark average open rate of 26.5%.
Working with media outlets to share information continued to be a priority over the year. The significant increase in media inquiries during August 2019 was due to the second allocation lottery.
TABLE 1 – Media Requests by Month
|
|
2018–2019 |
2019–2020 |
Percentage Change |
|---|---|---|---|
|
April |
8 |
51 |
+537.5% |
|
May |
19 |
33 |
+73.6% |
|
June |
10 |
17 |
+70% |
|
July |
7 |
37 |
+428.5% |
|
August |
4 |
104 |
+2500% |
|
September |
8 |
37 |
+362.5% |
|
October |
11 |
28 |
+154.5% |
|
November |
12 |
16 |
+33.3% |
|
December |
24 |
21 |
-12.5% |
|
January |
115 |
29 |
-74.7% |
|
February |
52 |
33 |
-36.5% |
|
March |
96 |
29 |
-69.7% |
|
Total |
366 |
435 |
+18.8% |