• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, January 20, 2023

Los Angeles-based Acceleration Community of Companies (ACC), a burgeoning network of marketing, media and communications agencies has acquired Trailblaze, a boutique marketing communications agency specializing in cannabis and wellness brands.

Trailblaze was founded in 2018 by Lisa Weser, former head of U.S. Marketing Communications at AB InBev. It has worked with ACC on various projects over the past three years. 

Trailblaze will be a division of Advisory, ACC’s consultancy practice specializing in integrated marketing for brands and businesses. Weser will remain CEO of Trailblaze with a dual role as Executive Vice President of Advisory. 

Trailblaze has represented more than 30 clients across the cannabis, psychedelic and wellness sectors, such as AE Global, Ayr Wellness, Canopy Growth Corporation, Foria Wellness, Good Day Farm, GrowGeneration, MariMed and MedMen. Among other efforts it helped launch Marth Stewart’s CBD brand.  It’s also known for its “World’s Largest Pot Brownie” campaign for MariMed.

Trailblaze will be headquartered in ACC’s LA office, with staffers also working in New York City. 

ACC was founded by Michael Nyman, the former Chairman and CEO of PMK•BNC in 2018. Among the firm’s holdings are creative agency MKG, design and experiential agency Pink Sparrow, influencer firm Pixly and data/analytics and brand reputation management agency Stripe Theory.

Clients include Pepsi, Target, Nike, Ralph Lauren, Meta, Grubhub, Delta Airlines, and others.