How Cannabis Brands Actually Reach Customers | Mackenzie Ziegler of Surfside

There’s a moment in every new market where things start to click.

You can feel it in the conversations.
 You can see it in the rooms.
 And you definitely feel it at events like Lucky Leaf.

Live from the Minneapolis Convention Center, we sat down with Mackenzie Ziegler from Surfside to talk about what’s actually happening behind the scenes as Minnesota steps into adult-use cannabis.

This isn’t just a conversation about marketing.

It’s about how brands find their customers in a space where the rules are still being written.

Mackenzie has spent over a decade in cannabis and nearly five years with Surfside, helping operators across the country connect data, advertising, and real customer behavior.

And what she shares here is something a lot of people are still trying to figure out.

In this episode, we get into:

• Why cannabis marketing is more restricted and more complex than most industries
 • How Surfside helps brands reach real consumers across mobile, apps, and connected devices 
 • The power of data and why measurement is everything for operators
 • What makes Minnesota’s market unique right now
 • Why testing and compliance are still major bottlenecks
 • How retailers can actually generate new revenue through retail media
 • The story behind Surfside’s “Third Thursday” events and why community still matters

One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation:

Cannabis businesses are expected to operate at a higher level of compliance, with fewer tools, and less historical data than almost any other industry.

And yet, they’re still building something real.

📍 Recorded live at Lucky Leaf 2026
 📍 Minneapolis Convention Center

Stay connected with the Canna Connect community
 https://cannaconnectmn.com

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 Tag us and join the conversation using #CannaConnectMN

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

The thoughts, views, and opinions expressed on the Canic Connect Show belong solely to the individuals and do not reflect those of Canaconnect and its affiliates, sponsors, or partners. Canticonnect does not promote or facilitate any activity that violates state or federal regulations. Everything you hear here is strictly for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not legal advice. It is not financial guidance, and it's definitely not medical direction. Seriously, don't take our word for it. Even if someone on the mic sounds like they know what they're talking about, and they're probably crazy smart too. Regardless of how legit our guests may be, you should always do your own homework, consult with your attorney, and understand the risk you're taking before you do anything when it comes to cannabis. Our intention is to keep it real. If you've got a problem with anything we've said, take us to court.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Welcome back to the Canada Connect Show. I'm your host, Stephen Eigenman. We are here live from Lucky Leaf. It is day two. We are sitting down with Mackenzie Ziegler from Surfside. Thank you for being on the show today.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Let's get into it. So, yeah, I mean, great dinner. Thank you for inviting me. Yeah, for sure. I'm glad you can stop by. And then it was uh the Kolros's were there, which was which is nice. Leah and Casey.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

I met Leah actually at Benzinga last summer. So I've just kind of kept up with her, and then I ran into her again when I came out here in September.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Um, so she just seems like a good person to know. She's pretty tapped in out here.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

So um uh I want to go to Benzinga this year. Yeah, it's a good one. The one in Chicago.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Yeah, it's a good one. Ignited. Yeah, ignite, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Um and then Munir.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Munir, I mean, we just we've worked with Munir. I mean, I, you know, obviously he was part of your Yeah, last summer or last fall. But like, you know, he's definitely done similar things in other markets with other, you know, with our team. And so um, I reached out to him uh, you know, a month or so ago, assuming he'd be here. So I was like, yeah, joining us.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

That was great. When I got there, Luke, there was an open seat next to Luke, and it was across from Meneer. I was like, this couldn't, this couldn't have worked out any better.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Yeah. And then he brought Scott, who that was the first time I was meeting Scott. I think. I think it's hard to say. I mean, you know, you like after you've been in the industry long enough, you've kind of like run into people in so many places in so many ways that it's hard to connect them, right? But um Oh, it was really good.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Um so I would say this is like the first weekend for Lucky Leaf where there's multiple events happening and there's after parties and pre-show parties and things like that. And I think that's now the norm, as like we're now really entering the adult use market. Like, this is the first year we'll have a full year of cannabis dispensaries that are non-tribal, non-medical. Yeah. Um, the market's a little different, right? Because of the bifurcation, you have hemp companies, hemp shops, which surf side works with. Yeah. Um medical app, medical. Do you guys make a diff a denote? Do you know what's going on?

SPEAKER_02 3:01

I mean, we can. Some people request that, but not really. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Um, and then tribal, which is you know, on reservation, they're sovereign. Off reservation, they have to follow the state rules. Yeah. Um testing is really the biggest bottleneck right now. I'm sure you're hearing that. And it's it's significant. It's uh it's causing a lot of people trouble. Also, the the stringentness of the tests for the micro the pesticides, the microbials. Yeah. It's harder than food.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Things that we consume through our, you know, that we eat. Um crazy. Often it doesn't really matter what you're talking about. Cannabis often gets the short end of the stick. Yeah. We have the hot we have the most compliance, we have the some of the most stringent testing. When it comes to advertising, cannabis companies are limited in how they can advertise.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

So to some extent, yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

How does Surfside help cannabis companies advertise their products?

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Yeah. Um, it's, you know, that's an interesting thing that keeps coming up is like the strict advertising regulations in Minnesota. And I think, you know, what I'm finding is that they are pretty standard. Okay. Right. When you look at like cannabis markets. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Um we like to make, we like to think that we're different.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Yeah. Well, you know, everyone does. That's fine. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's really the age gating, right? Appropriate like audience targeting in terms of like, you know, age gates and what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Which we're used to with hem as as a market. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

And every other cannabis market for that matter, you know. Um, you know, they're limited to uh the no billboards, right? Which um wouldn't necessarily be my recommendation for advertising or marketing, anyways, because they're pretty costly and you can't really measure them. No, right? So um, so yeah, I mean, I don't uh, and then the like the the creative and the messaging within, you know, needs to like not be attractive to kids and cartoony and nature and you know, consumption focused and all of that is standard too, right? In most markets. Right. So I think one of the unique things with Minnesota is that there's a a disclaimer that's required, right? That um there are uh Massachusetts, there's you know a similar requirement to their advertising regulation. So again, these are not new things in cannabis markets or for surfside for that matter. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah. Um what markets have you worked in within cannabis or what markets have you served personally? State state markets, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

I mean, we we serve every legal cannabis market, right? Um personally, uh I probably close to every market.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Well you're based in Colorado, but you work you work across the country.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Yeah. I mean, I uh my my territory is technically the central region, so kind of Minnesota down and and Montana down. But um, but yeah, I uh I you know I I support a lot of the like uh MSOs and enterprise level accounts that we work with. And so they happen to be everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

How do they use Surfside?

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Yeah. So um Surfside, we are, I mean, we're a digital advertising paid media partner, right? So um we enable um retailers and brands to uh basically get in front of relevant consumers in their market, um, all with the intention of, you know, driving new customer acquisitions, strengthening loyalty, driving revenue at the end of the day. So on the retail side, what that looks like is you know, serving ads to consumer consumers on their connected devices, mobile, desktop, laptop, tablet, where we all spend our time as consumers reading articles, playing games, shopping, right? And and getting in front of a consumer that we've identified as relevant based on their profile, their attributes, right, their consumption behaviors, their location and visitation habits, um, and then serving them an ad that we can watch, you know, their behavior in terms of engagement and ultimately conversion when they get to an e-commerce site or um uh, you know, an in-store screen or kiosk environment. Right. Um, we can measure that all back to e-commerce and point of sale.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

It's really amazing how Surfside can show up anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Yeah, yeah, right. Um, I mean, when you think about like where those ads show up, I mean, we're talking millions of channels that we could deliver um, you know, across premium publishers, a people, a BuzzFeed, a Huffington Post, a news app, a weather app, solitaire, Sudoku, Words with Friends, right? Um, so Surfside helps retailers and brands get in front of who we know are relevant consumers in the market, all with the intention of, you know, influencing them to convert or engage with their location. Um, we also have a retail media program that is um, you know, it's an opportunity for retailers to monetize those e-commerce and and kiosk in-store environments with brand funded ads. So the brands that they carry um can invest in those ad zones on their e-commerce menus and in-store screens while you know that those shoppers are intentional about purchasing cannabis, right? We can ensure that they are, you know, front and center when that shopper is in those digital environments. Um, that program enables that retailer to actually create a new revenue stream out of that as well.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Within their website.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Um, it's a no-cost opportunity for them to just activate their Dutchy, their Jane, their Blaze, their Carrot, whatever e-commerce that they're using.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Um, and then we just pay them um at the end of every month, you know, based off of the impressions that we've served on behalf of the brands that they're carrying.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. When you think about some of your most successful clients that have really taken advantage of the Surfside platform, like what are what are they most happy about? Like what really stands out to them with Surfside?

SPEAKER_02 9:28

Yeah, I think it's the um, I think it's really the the reporting, right? And the measurement aspect of being able to really see and understand the impact of the work that we're doing together and for them, right? Um, everything that we do is connected to, you know, their e-commerce and point of sale, yeah. Um, where transactions, where conversions are happening. Okay. And we can, you know, um, we can essentially, you know, uh, you know, identify the impact of those impressions that we're serving and the actions that those consumers are taking within those environments to back that into, you know, return on ad spends, um, sales lifts, you know, incrementality, new versus existing shoppers, lifetime values, just layers of of insight and data to really understand like not only who your consumers are, but how do you move them in the directions that you want to move them?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

And you don't need a data analyst on your team to work with Surfside, right? You guys handle a lot of the understanding. You you help turn it into a picture book, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Yeah, I mean it's a fully managed service. So um, and I think that's a it's a really good call out because I think some of this stuff can scare people a little bit if they don't like know a lot about especially if they're new and this is their first dispensary. Yeah, and they don't have to, right? What they have to know is that they want new customers coming through their doors and they want to know what their, you know, what their marketing spend is delivering at the end of the day, right? And so when I say this is a fully managed service, yeah, our team can take all of this on for them with, you know, a little collaboration and direction on, you know, the goals that they want us to focus on and the creative messaging that they want us to put in front of consumers, and we can manage the rest of it for them. They do have access to a self-service, uh self-service dashboard that they can get into and analyze all of the analytics and and measurement aspects of their campaigns at any given time, but we're also gonna walk them through all of that on a regular basis, right? To help understand what's going on in there and where we are moving the needle for them.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Okay. Yeah. Um I wanna I wanna jump off the platform for a little bit and jump into in real life events. And and you know, we we've been talking, we've gotten to know each other since last summer, last fall. Yeah. And um one thing that we've talked about is like the third Thursday events that that Surfside uh puts on. So talk about how you I mean, let's first set this set the stage. How long have you been at Surfside and tell us a little bit about the Third Thursday style events that pop up in different markets?

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Yeah. Um, so I've been with Surfside for almost five years. Okay. I've been in the industry for a little over a decade. Um so uh, you know, with that, I mean, I kind of know cannabis a little bit. Um, but uh, but I also have seen just a lot of these um new market transitions, right? So um, and that is kind of tying that to Third Thursday. Um, we actually started that whole concept in New York as it was, you know, transitioning to a legal and recreational market. And so um the whole concept there was just, I mean, one of our one of my team members, Sean, who is based out of New York, actually kicked this off. Okay. And um the whole concept was just bringing people together on every third, similar to what you guys do here at Earl uh Giles. Giles, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Uh it's a tough one. Yeah, is it Giles or Giles?

SPEAKER_02 13:18

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

I mean, they're right here. So he's Giles.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Um, but yeah, just bringing people together, right? For you know, networking and connection and collaboration and all the things, right? And it started with a handful of people, and today, I mean, Third Thursday in New York is like if you catch it on the right Thursday, there may be hundreds of people.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

It's happening. Yeah, it's still going on.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Yeah, it's still going on. Yeah. Yeah. And so we've uh we've uh expanded that to um we've done some of that in on the West Coast in California. I know we uh we ran one up in Detroit. Um, we'll pop them up, but New York is really where that kicked off and kind of where that third Thursday big apple.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yeah, maybe we do one in the Minneapolis.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Yeah, right. I mean, I'm I'm up for it.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Paul's down, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

I know. Paul and I were talking about it last night. Like, why not? You know? So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Uh how has your Lucky Leaf week been here?

SPEAKER_02 14:12

It's been really good. I mean, um, it's exciting. You know, the last time I was here was in September, and I feel like a lot is, you know, is is is moving.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

It's gonna be six months by the time this interview comes out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Time flies. Henry was there. No, he wasn't there. He wasn't there. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Um, yeah, no, it's been really good. It's uh I've I've been surprised at like how much is going on around Lucky Leaf, right? Yeah, I mean, again, like I got on, get it, got in here on Wednesday, and it was like there are events happening, yeah, you know, like all week. So um, yeah, it's been really good. And I feel like there is a readiness from a lot of the operators and like a level of excitement, right? That things are finally moving once they can get their hands on product, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Yeah, once they get their hands on that's the that's one of the last hurdles to fall. Testing is the other one. I'm glad you got out into the market. You went out to uh Waysada.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

What a beautiful area. It is.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

You know, you get off 394 and then you're just kind of going around the lake. Oh my god, I love it. There's nothing like it.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

Yeah, I like I will be back in the summer just for that. Like I will pay them a visit, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Uh, do you are is Surfside doing any more shows? I think I actually saw you guys are sign up for Nikan. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Um, so we'll be back for Nikan in May.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

May middle of May. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Um, I know we're planning to come out for Canacon as well.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

So great.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

So, and I mean that I'm sure we'll do some things together too. We should. Yeah. I mean, we'll we'll definitely be back. All right. Um, and like I said, Paul and I are both planning to try to get to the Wednesday nights a little more often, maybe kick off a third Thursday. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

And I'll be honest, like I won't be honest. But but I um I think I think we could do some really good stuff together.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

The the anon sometimes you gotta put gas in the tank in order to get Wednesdays to be sure where they where you think they are. So, like, but with the right coordination, marketing, promotion, yeah, easy to do.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Yeah, you know, obviously, based on what I saw last night.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Yeah, can you believe?

SPEAKER_02 16:33

There were a few people there. There were a few people there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Oh man, thank you. Yeah, and thank you to Surfside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That shit was cool.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Yeah, did a great job.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Did you try any of the food?

SPEAKER_02 16:44

I actually did not, and I should have.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

I don't know why I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

I should yeah. That next time, yeah, next time we'll we'll have some more food.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

All right. Yeah. And we're gonna wrap this up because you need to get some food.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Yeah, I do need to get some food. I need a cheeseburger. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

If folks want to get in touch with you, what's the best way for them to reach out?

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Yeah, I would say just an email McKenzie at surfside.io.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Surfside.io.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

I found you on LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Yep, or LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

LinkedIn's a great place.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

So I would I would give you my cell, but you know, I don't I don't know what that what what comes of that.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Reach out to Canada Connect if you want to get in touch. Awesome. Well, thanks for being here. Appreciate you sitting down. And uh looking forward to the next one. Likewise. Thanks, Steven. Cool.