5 Questions with Angela Pih, Global Chief Marketing Officer at CCELL

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Angela Pih, the dynamic Global Chief Marketing Officer of CCELL, at Hall of Flowers in Santa Rosa. From the moment we met, we were immediately struck by her genuine warmth and strong sense of community. Even as we stepped outside to chat, Angela was greeted by friends and colleagues, with her CCELL teammates noting, "Angela knows everyone."

Angela’s passion for building brands that not only fulfill their promises but also deeply resonate with consumers was truly inspiring. CCELL’s commitment to fostering community within the cannabis industry shines through in their support of key events like the Sonoma Hills Culinary Experience at Hall of Flowers—which Angela graciously invited us to attend (and yes, it was as delicious as it sounds)—as well as their presence at the Sonoma County Fair, San Francisco Hash Week and the Emerald Cup.

Angela’s wisdom and insight serve as a guiding force for professionals in the cannabis space, making her a true leader in this rapidly evolving industry.

High Herstory: With your extensive experience across cannabis, fashion, beauty, and wellness, how do you see the cannabis industry evolving in terms of branding and consumer engagement, especially for lifestyle-focused products?

Angela Pih: There’s a lot of branding within the cannabis industry, but not a lot of brands. A brand is a promise. A brand has a following. A brand has resonance with its loyal consumers and advocates. I think that in the cannabis industry, because it's still so nascent, we have a lot of very sophisticated branding, and we have some very beautiful packaging, but that's not a brand.

Angela Pih (con’t.): What I do, and what the team over at CCELL is trying to do, is really to create that brand by advocating for this promise of what this community can be and then really powering that. Cannabis is still a movement, and it’s going to be a movement for another decade.

So, your promise can be what it means to you, what resonates for you as a consumer, and the promise that it’s going to do what it says it's going to do. It’s going to work. So, there’s a functional as well as an emotional promise that you’re delivering on.

High Herstory: At CCELL, you oversee brand growth and community development in the U.S. market. What specific strategies have you implemented to help CCELL stand out in the competitive cannabis vaporization space?

Angela Pih: I think you’ll see the velocity of what we've been doing in terms of being embraced by the cannabis community over the course of the last five to six months, starting from SF Hashweek, which we sponsored, as well as supporting the California State Fair Cannabis Awards.

We also supported the Emerald Cup and provided batteries for the vape judges. It was the first time in the 20-year history of the Emerald Cup that judges used the same battery to evaluate all the submissions. So, it created that standard to be able to test and evaluate the best of the best. Then, here at Hall of Flowers, which is not just from a B2B standpoint, today we're going to have 5,000 attendees from the general public come in to experience the industry, enjoy themselves, and have a lot of fun.

Then, in terms of our work with brands, think about a brand like Jetty, which has been a longtime customer of CCELL. Airo has also been a long-time customer, and we've built all of their tech from their battery to their pods.

We're about to kick off a performance marketing campaign for Airo across the Leafly platform that's going to have full attribution to conversion. I really believe in omni-channel campaigns. Having come from brands, being able to develop omni-channel campaigns for a B2B customer is key. As a technology brand, CCELL is helping support the investment of that advertising through the entire model: starting from search, going into sponsored content and emails through the Leafly platform, and in-app notifications, all the way down to the POS level to show conversion and attribution.

We're supporting that for 60 days across a dozen states across the U.S. No ancillary brand has ever done that before.

I love doing three things: I love doing things that haven’t been done before, I love building brands, and I love building teams.

High Herstory: Your success at CannaCraft saw the launch of GEM + JANE, a cannabis-infused beverage brand aimed at women. How do you approach creating products that resonate with specific demographics, and how has that shaped your overall marketing philosophy?

Angela Pih: So, you just met Elise McDonough when we were walking here. She was a brand manager when I was working at CannaCraft. We collaborated strongly and created GEM + JANE together from concept. I got to name it, create the look and feel, and really hone in on this created-for-women-by-women infused beverage brand, which we launched in five distinct flavors.

We kept it within a very tight demographic because we understood that we were going to go niche. We weren't going to be everything to everybody. We were going to seriously target women who are looking to switch it up—those looking for sessionable, low-dose, infused beverages for a great Sunday brunch, a girls' night in, or to relax at the end of the day.

Based on what we understood about that consumer demographic, we created a product and a brand that was going to resonate with them. We had amazing flavors like yuzu raspberry rose, elderflower hibiscus, and also just a seltzer water that’s non-flavored, so you could use it for mixing.

We also had three out of the five SKUs that were THCV before THCV was really big because you want to be alert. You want to have functional benefits from cannabis. I think a lot of that came through the work I was doing both at Care By Design at CannaCraft and my early days at Papa & Barkley, looking at minor cannabinoids as a way of consuming cannabis for functional daytime use.

We’re not just a nighttime wind-down-your-day type of industry. Let’s look at how cannabis can help you be more effective, more focused, and more energetic. We do know that pain, anxiety, and sleep are the top three reasons why consumers look to cannabis for wellness or recreation. We have so many minor cannabinoids that we can leverage.

High Herstory: What do you think is missing in cannabis marketing in the current landscape?

Angela Pih: I think brands within cannabis try to be everything to everybody. People are like, "Well, it's weed. Everybody wants weed.” And that’s yes and no. You have to find your people.

There’s this brand that I really love called Fishwhistle. In terms of how targeted they are with their community and narrative, they understand their behaviors. I feel that brands that are able to find their core consumer and who they resonate with will become more successful over time. As consumers, we buy a whole lot of different things, and you instantly recognize whether something is for you or not—and then you just filter out the noise.

That’s not my brand. That’s not for me. That doesn’t resonate with me.

High Herstory: As someone who thrives in high-growth companies, what lessons from your journey would you share with professionals looking to enter the cannabis industry?

Angela Pih: Surround yourself with people who are really passionate about what they do and are really good at it. I would say that's the secret sauce. We work 16-hour days, and if you don’t love it, don’t believe in it, and aren’t good at it, it’s really going to suck.

I have a no-nonsense policy. I don't care how talented you are. If you're not a good person, we can't work together. I can teach you many things to be better at your job and to be effective, but I can’t teach you to be a good person. That’s something you have to bring to the team. It’s a bad situation when you have a bad apple, and if you continue to allow that person to poison the well, you’re enabling bad behavior that affects your entire team.

This is a purpose-driven industry. We're not making tech-level money. So, if you don’t believe in it, it's going to be really hard to keep pushing every single day. This is a 100% relationship industry, and that means you have to put yourself out there. You have to build your friendships, your alliances, and find the people who support you and help you through tough days. Find your people—those who can help support you and make you feel better—because it’s not for the faint of heart.

You really need to work three to four times harder, and I think that’s even more true for women. We’re constantly proving ourselves and showing that we deserve the positions we’re in.

I feel like it's part of our responsibility—because I’m privileged to be at a certain level of seniority within my company and have access within the cannabis industry—to embrace and bring other people in and create connections.

I don’t actually see myself in competition, even with brands that see themselves as head-to-head competitors to CCELL. I talk to my friends who work at iSpire. We’re still in this one community. We’re still growing, still small, and there’s a long way to go. We’re in the second inning of this game.

Since you’re in New York, you probably know Lulu Tsui of On The Revel. She’s like my sister, and she has that kind of energy: We’re all in this together. If you want to be a part of it, just jump in. There’s space for you, and I feel that we all need to do that and create opportunities for other women.

One thing I really want to add: As women in business, and in cannabis, it’s important to know your worth.