Aunt Mary’s, a cannabis dispensary based in Flemington, NJ, needed support launching their brand from the ground up. As a longtime partner of the owner, Plural was brought on to ideate Aunt Mary’s identity, and strategize ways to stand out on socials while playing safely within the bounds of platform restrictions for the controlled substance. Those restrictions allowed Plural to thrive with a singularly humorous and community-driven persona that led Aunt Mary’s to going viral, expanding as a brand, and eventually being acquired.
After launching his Utah-based cannabis dispensaries, Deseret Wellness and Pure Utah, founder Jonathon Goldrath turned his sites to the east coast and the emerging cannabis market in the Garden State. The New Jersey dispensary, Aunt Mary’s, was founded in the small town of Flemington and set to open early 2023, and Jonathon knew he needed a robust social strategy to herald in the new brand. Fortunately, Jonathan already had a social agency of record to support all aspects of social strategy and production for his prior brands, and knew just who to call for Aunt Mary’s. Spoiler: it was Plural.
Jonathon’s ask was simple, but bore latent considerations beneath the surface. To launch and grow a social media community around Aunt Mary’s while producing content that defined the brand. However, in the world of cannabis, no content production is simple. There are countless regulations when it comes to cannabis marketing. One cannot demonstrate the product in use, speak about sales, THC percentages, and several other key product details that prospective customers would love to know. The lifespans of cannabis adjacent accounts are notoriously short, and Aunt Mary’s needed to be built as a brand into perpetuity.
As such, Plural stepped up to the plate with a strong yet fluid strategy, perfectly ownable voice, and content that spoke for itself.
As time went on, we came to realize that the restrictions on cannabis content were, in actuality, a springboard for creativity. If we were unable to demonstrate the product, we found the best way to connect with audiences was to instead demonstrate the lifestyle; not just of the cannabis user, but specifically of the Aunt Mary’s fam both in store and out.
By leveraging social-first video concepts, both reposted with permission by the original artists and remixed in-house by the Aunt Mary’s team, we transcended being just another store to being a community hub with familiar friends, great vibes, and top-quality bud.
As our social engine hummed along, Plural continued to expand Aunt Mary’s identity as a store by introducing and ideating several holiday mini-campaigns which led to massive single-day sales (surpassing $50k as a single day record), as well as in-store activations like giveaways, March Madness tournaments, customer retention stratagems, and designing custom paneling for an in-store Claw Machine.
Our cumulative results since launch speak for themselves:
Through several widely viral videos, highly engaging activations both in-store and online, as well as a consistently humorous and welcoming voice, Aunt Mary’s earned love from locals and attention on a national scale. In mid 2026, Aunt Mary’s was acquired by TerrAscend, one of the largest cannabis businesses in the world.
The culmination of Aunt Mary’s partnership with Plural is one of vast, phenomenal success. We are proud of every skit, every meme, every community carousel, and every Stash Steal we ever produced. Though we have parted ways vis a vis business, Plural will always be a proud member of the Aunt Mary’s fam. We cannot wait to see what happens for our favorite Aunt next!
If you’d like to build a brand from the ground up, and a community to match, it’s time to consider reaching out to Plural. Let’s chat, maybe yours can be the next Aunt Mary’s success story.
Spencer Brownstein is a Content Strategist at Plural, leading partnerships ranging from medical nonprofits to cannabis dispensaries. He is a Korean-American Jew hailing from Brooklyn, New York. He studied Creative Writing at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota under the tutelage of Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James. His short lyrical fantasy, A Feast for the Fairy King, was recently named an Honorable Mention in Kinsman Quarterly’s 2025 Iridescence Award.
