Tag Archive for: cannabis PR

What is a top cannabis firm anyway? How important is it that someone else thinks a PR agency is great? What YOU need to know is if a leading cannabis firm is right for YOU. If you are leading a cannabis business or are trying to grow and develop an existing cannabis brand, one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make is choosing a leading cannabis industry PR firm that understands your business objectives. As the industry explodes and cannabis becomes more accessible in more and more states where it is legal, many cannabis businesses are searching for an agency with whom they can develop a long-term, successful relationship.

To help you make the right choice for your business, we’ve put together a list of qualities you should look for when scouting a PR firm. By following these helpful tips, you’ll be better able to find the best firm for you and your business.

Does The Firm Have Experience In Your Field?

When you are seeking out a top cannabis PR agency, you want one that combines a strong knowledge of the fundamentals with experience in your specific field. A firm that has worked in the cannabis industry is one that understands the challenges your business faces due to the patchwork of state-level laws regulating its production, marketing, and consumption, and one that knows how to appeal to your target audience. The last thing you want is a firm that doesn’t know Facebook’s policy about advertising cannabis on its platform, or has outdated assumptions about the consumers who might be excited about your product.

Does The Agency Maintain Strong Relationships?

It’s important to determine whether the cannabis PR firm knows the major players in the cannabis industry, if it has preexisting relationships with influencers and important publications, and whether it can put you in touch with the consultants and other experts who can help take your cannabis brand to the next level. Having access to a PR team’s vast network of professionals can be incredibly beneficial to your business, so it’s worth asking who they know as well as what they know.

To put it simply, you want a PR firm that is more than just a database — you want a team that has ongoing working relationships with industry insiders and the other cannabis industry personnel who can be your entrée to more opportunities down the road.

Is The Firm The Right Size For Your Business?

You should seek out a cannabis PR firm that compliments the size of your business, one that offers you all the resources you need to flourish but also the personalized attention that your company deserves. If you own a small business, you may not need the resources of a 100-person firm. But you also might require more work than a single freelancer can provide. Finding that balance is critical.

What Is The Staff Like?

Since it’s common to work with one group as you explore PR firms, and another team when you sign with an agency, you should ask questions about the makeup of the team you’ll be working with. Ask each person you’ll be working with about their professional backgrounds and experiences, inquire about their responsibilities as part of the team, and find out why they’re interested in the cannabis field. Lastly, make sure that you have the opportunity to consult with senior-level executives at the firm and confirm that they will be available to provide strategic advice when needed.

Does the Firm Offer Integrated Services?

You should seek out a PR firm that offers an array of services, including earned media (such as press coverage, social media mentions, quote tweets, shares, and reviews) and owned media, also called content development (which encompasses blogs, studies, vlogs, podcasts, and more). You should also ensure that the team has the ability not just to develop content, but to do the hard work that ensures this content is meaningful to your target audience: researching, conducting interviews, and writing in an impactful way.

Does the Firm Work in a Timely and Efficient Manner?

You should also consider whether the firm takes the initiative and puts proactive plans in motion in a timely and efficient manner, rather than waiting around for you to approach them. The last thing you want is a PR team that doesn’t understand your business or your goals, doesn’t regularly strategize to help you accomplish those goals, and makes you reach them yourself.

What is the Turnover Rate for Employees of The Firm? What About Clients?

The average rate of turnover between the agency and their clients will give you an excellent idea of how much other companies trust the agency with their business. How long do their professional relationships usually last? Even if you are only signing a limited contract, would you be able to continue the relationship under a renewed contract? You should also ask what the firm’s employee turnover looks like. Low turnover is always a good sign that the firm is a place where employees enjoy working. Happy employees are better for your business, as they will likely be more invested in your business strategy and in helping you succeed. And less turnover also means that the firm won’t be cycling people in and out of your account — people who may not be familiar with your business and its goals.

What’s The Cost?

Like any businessperson, you’re going to have to settle on a budget, and that budget will influence what services you can afford. It’s important to factor the cost of an effective PR campaign into your budget, as this could make or break your business. You should be upfront about your budget and ask other cannabis businesspeople and peers how much they pay for the services you’re seeking. Being upfront about your budget will ensure that neither your time nor the PR firm’s time is wasted.

Ask For References

You should review what other clients have to say about their experience with the firm. Do they express hostility, indifference, or enthusiasm for the firm? How other clients respond will tell you a lot about what kind of relationships the firm builds with its clients. If your peers don’t get excited about the agency, then it may not be worth your time.

Contact the PR Professionals of Avaans Media

If you are starting a cannabis business or are looking to take your existing business to the next level, contact Avaans Media today. We look forward to discussing your business objectives, introducing you to our team, and determining if we’re the right fit for your needs.

[4 minute read time] Today’s CMOs are constantly scanning the news and social networks for the latest trends and cultural shifts. For emerging brands, cultural trends and shifts couldn’t be more important. But even the savviest of CMOs needs to put these separate trends into a broader cultural context in order to put them to use. Enter TrendHunter, their annual Trend Report is a must-read for PR firms, CMO’s, Product Managers, and Innovators. Guess who else watches these massive cultural trends? The media.

As a PR firm that specializes in emerging brands and emerging industries, we’re extremely fortunate to be working with brands already leading the charge on many of the trends and cultural shifts that the latest TrendHunter report documents in its 200+ pages. A few cultural trends caught our eye and thought they were worth digging into on a deeper level for our community of CMOs and media.

3 Massive Cultural Trends for Emerging Brands

Magic Mushrooms

Over the last 6 years, we’ve noticed an increasing demand for mushroom-based functional foods. The wonders of the mushroom knows no bounds. Nowhere is this more true than in the expansion of psychedelic mushrooms. As researchers fast track the science behind therapeutic benefits of psychedelics, global businesses in Brazil, The British Virgin Islands, and the Netherlands, benefiting from legal loopholes are launching brands and experiences that include psilocybin (the compound that creates psychedelic mushrooms). In the US, like cannabis-based THC, psilocybin remains federally illegal, but the local movement to decriminalize the psychoactive ingredient in mushrooms has already begun in Denver, Oakland, and Santa Cruz (as of this writing). Emerging businesses and innovators see psilocybin following the same path of cannabis, but moving considerably faster towards legalization.

Audio Only

Most marketing executives could not ignore the breakthrough app of 2020: Clubhouse. Clubhouse may or may not have peaked already, and everyone’s listening to see what’s next. Interestingly, the pandemic surge on ClubHouse came just as marketers were wondering whether podcasts, famously popular with commuters and gym rats, would remain relevant. But podcasts survived, and some would say even thrived.

Apps like Calm, which uses sound to ease tension also surged during the pandemic. Music lovers know the secret to these apps: listening to sounds has a measurable effect on mood and dopamine regulation. Could it be true? Are audio-only meetings more memorable than video meetings? Twitter is betting on it with its pandemic feature: ‘Spaces.’ Emerging from the pandemic, the sound will be part of every experiential memory and brands will be looking to research to determine how their sound logos impact people’s moods much the way the we investigate how color impacts mood for graphic logos. We’re launching the ability to LISTEN to our blog posts starting with this very post.

 

Inclusion

Brands Celebrate Inclusivity

Gillette Skinclusive Line

Inclusion is no longer a buzzword, it is now part of our day-to-day awareness.  This year, Gillette Venus’ Skinclusive line launch with a summer line, “My Skin, My Way” on video game Animal Crossing. But inclusive skin is in, and so it differently abled bodies with this launch. In-game inclusivity mirrors our greater awareness of how our differences can be beautiful. We’re seeing inclusion happening in apps like Chapters: Interactive Stories, where users can create an avatar that reflects their ethnicity as well. Expect to see this in-game inclusivity mirror: gender inclusion and political points of view as well.

Brand Purpose

Bonus round: brand purpose. From sustainability to social good, TrendHunters covered the trend we’ve been seeing for several years: brand purpose. The best brands in the world are already ahead of the game on this, but it’s also trickling down to emerging industries and smaller brands and that’s because tomorrow’s most influential buyers care very much about where their products come from and what the social, political, and environmental costs of the brand are.

 

All of these trends have massive PR, product, and marketing implications. More and more, our clients are bringing us in at the beginning stages of ideation, to ensure not only do campaigns hit newsworthy notes, they also keep them out of hot water, which is a moving target these days. But our team, hand-picked for emotional intelligence, are here to help you see emerging trends all around.

 

Thanks for joining us today!

PR and Social Media for Maximum Brand Awareness

Nothing beats when PR and social media for brand awareness. Used together strategically, they give your brand a competitive edge. With more avenues available to companies to reach their audiences, we are more inundated with brand messaging than ever before. Despite the myriad ways that brands have to reach their customers, though, the proliferation of media channels means it’s getting even harder for brands to break through all of the noise to reach their targets.

One study from Ragan found that 86 percent of TV viewers ignore or skip commercials, 44 percent of direct mail goes unopened, and 91 percent of email users had unsubscribed from an email newsletter they had previously signed up for.

Faced with these challenges, what are companies supposed to do? They can keep throwing resources at the challenge and following the same old formulas, to what will likely be diminishing returns. Alternatively, they could try a new approach by combining the strengths of two seemingly opposed marketing tools: Public relations and social media.

Below, our media experts at Avaans PR take a closer look at the benefits of incorporating PR and social media into your campaign strategy. Contact us today to learn more.

Harnessing Consumer and Media Synergy

Before diving into the gains companies can see from combining their public relations efforts with their social media campaigns, it’s worth taking a brief moment to compare and contrast how PR and social media work (or at least, how they’re supposed to work).

Social media allows companies to share their own messages by combining words, photos, video, and audio on various platforms. By contrast, public relations is the art of getting third-party organizations to say nice things about you on their platform (i.e., their newspaper, magazine, website, TV show, podcast, etc. Put simply, social media is what you say about yourself, while public relations what other people say about you.

While it’s tempting to dismiss PR as a relic from the pre-Internet era, nobody should forget the importance of public relations by focusing exclusively on social media. Some people are understandably skeptical of the messages they receive from social media, at first, until they learn to trust the brand. But public relations can win over cautious consumers by providing positive coverage from a third party. A study from the Content Marketing Institute found 70 percent of consumers said they prefer to learn about a business from articles as opposed to ads.

It’s a mistake to view social media and PR as unrelated or separate efforts for your company. Rather, social media and PR both serve the same function in different ways: To spread your brand’s messages, ideas, and values to your customers, stakeholders, and the other communities you serve.

When you take a holistic approach to your communications efforts, it’s easy to see how PR and social media can use each other’s strengths to bolster their individual effectiveness, as well as the overall effectiveness of your communications campaign.

The Benefits of Combining PR and Social Media

Here are a few examples of how leveraging both PR and social media can benefit your company:

Separate but unified messages across channels

A key element of any successful media campaign is a coherent, unified message across platforms. Combining PR with social media allows you to use multiple assets in different ways while still spreading the same general idea.

An example of how this might work is with a new product launch. You might have a blog post and a dedicated landing page with a short video about the new product on your website. Your social media team can use this content in their posts, while your PR team can use the blog post and other content to craft a press release and reach out to potentially interested third parties for additional coverage. Across platforms, though, the message is the same, which helps you better connect with your audience.

Efficient cross-promotion

Similarly, utilizing social media and PR harmoniously helps you make more efficient use of your resources. Your PR team can include easy links to your brand’s social media accounts in their materials and extend the reach of your social media content by reaching out to journalists, influencers, and others who might share that content. Likewise, your social media team can share positive stories about your company from third parties in your social media accounts, which helps lend authenticity to your content.

Increasing the size of your audience

Social media has massively expanded the potential reach of a PR campaign, and you should take advantage of this opportunity. PR campaigns are generally aimed at the audience for a particular publication or outlet, but social media can amplify positive press coverage by making sure that message goes out to thousands, perhaps even millions of people. By working together, both your social media team and your PR team can extend their reach.

Using PR strategies to improve your social media presence

As social media has grown and become intertwined with public relations, brands have had to learn a few lessons about proper social media strategy. A careless or insensitive post can generate a massive backlash in minutes or hours. Savvy brands will have a skilled PR team monitoring or running their social media feeds to watch out for distasteful or improper content, and they can respond quickly if anything goes wrong.

A Successful Brand Campaign Using PR and Social Media 

At Avaans PR, we already have extensive experience handling both PR and social media campaigns for purpose-driven brands. One of our biggest successes was a campaign for a hemp-based consumer packaged goods brand. With many people being skeptical of hemp products, finding a way to engage potential customers was a challenge.

However, by generating positive press coverage through live events, celebrity endorsements, personalized review opportunities for journalists, and customized social media content, we were able to generate more than three billion earned media impressions over three years, at an estimated earned media value of $5 million. The company also saw a 300 percent increase in its share price ahead of its IPO.

Talk to Avaans Media About Your Social Media Today

We’re proud to be innovators in PR and social media strategies at Avaans Media PR and Social Media. If you’re interested in seeing how we can help your purpose-driven brand meet its goals, please get in touch with us.

You can set up a call by visiting our contact page or by finding one of our team members across the United States. We have team members in New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Honolulu, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. We look forward to hearing from you.

Other articles you might enjoy:

Why your Social Media & PR Must Work Together

Should Your PR Agency Be Your Social Media Agency?

The 3 Most Surprising PR Insights from the Eaze Cannabis Report

[3 minute reading time]
For cannabis brands, 2020 was an eye-opener. This week Eaze released their year in review for cannabis 2020 that offers PR insights for cannabis brands. As a delivery service, Eaze can pick up on some fascinating stats from a year that was (hopefully) like none other. Unsurprisingly to those in the industry, high anxiety levels fueled cannabis consumption to new heights in 2020; order volume was up by 15% on the Eaze platform even though dispensaries are considered essential businesses in many states, including California, which is 2X the combined size of the four states (AZ, JN, MT, MD) that legalized in 2020. The question is always “will this be the same or better in 2021?” While stats from years past are always fascinating, especially if they are an anomaly, when we looked at it, we see important PR insights from the Eaze Cannabis Report.

 

#1 Vapes Held Their Own Across All Ages

Even after the 2019 vape crisis, cannabis users continued to choose vapes consistently. While edibles were the #1 category of 2020, for GenZ they remained first choice. Apparently, GenZ isn’t concerned in the slightest about the vapes and continues to trust that cannabis brands will continue to earn their trust. Vapes were second only to edibles for Millenials and GenX. These two generations are very familiar with vapes, so there’s no surprise there and plenty of vape brands squarely target these demographics.

Boomers also chose vapes, they came third behind edibles and flower. Perhaps because of the covid-lung concerns, Boomer vape purchases declined in 2020, but vapes still outperformed topicals and prerolls for Boomers, which is fascinating given their appeal to the age group. The fact that Boomers choose flower second only to edibles isn’t much of a surprise considering the nostalgia that flower holds for that generation. If you’re a flower company, that’s definitely something to tap into in your cannabis public relations, branding, and advertising. PR Insights from the Eaze Cannabis Report offer cannabis brands important opportunities for 2021 too.

 

#2 Purpose Driven Cannabis Brands See Big Gains

Within cannabis, the number #1 purpose-driven theme is social equity, which has been important since legalization started. 2020 heightened social equity awareness for all consumers and cannabis buyers especially responded. According to Eaze, 9.5% of all customers bought social equity brands. What’s surprising in the cannabis stats for cannabis brands is customers over 30 were more likely purchase from social equity brands than younger customers. Men, in particular, were more likely to buy from social equity brands than women. These two statistics are surprising because they aren’t consistent with typical purpose-driven brand buyers   which typically skew female and younger.

 

#3 420 NOT the Biggest Cannabis Holiday in 2020

Green Wednesday, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving topped the purchase charts in 2020, up from second place in 2019. What’s also interesting is the other big seller nights: last night of Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve and Christmas Eve. None of these last 4 “cannabis holidays even broke into the top 5 in 2019, so their appearance provides overlooked cannabis public relations and advertising opportunities in 2021. Be on the lookout for other lifestyle holidays your customers might pair with cannabis because 2021 will continue to be disruptive in terms of large-scale events and large gatherings which typically dominated big sales days outside of 420 in previous years. The 2020 cannabis brand insights report by Eaze lists some outstanding examples of big sales days driven by current events or lifestyle.

Overall, like others, we expect 2021 to be a very good year for cannabis sales, but since consumer habits are changing, it will be ever more important for cannabis brands to watch their own data closely so they can engage and expect their customers’ next move.

The Eaze 2020 State of Cannabis Report

 

This article originally appeared on our sister site Primo PR

As the cannabis industry grows, so does the need for conventions and conferences that focus on weed. These events provide a valuable opportunity for businesses in the cannabis industry to network and share information with one another. They are also a great place for consumers to learn about new products and strains. 

What to Expect at a Weed Convention

You will find cannabis professionals take their industry very seriously; you will find people dressed as you would any other professional industry. This isn’t just because weed consumption isn’t legal in most cannabis industry convention centers, but it’s also that cannabis is serious business. Millions of dollars of investment are flowing into cannabis and these investors expect a buttoned-up and professional organization.

Weed conventions have already become an important part of the cannabis industry. In just a few years, they have grown from small, regional events to large national conventions. The most well-known weed convention is the Cannabis Cup, which is held each year to celebrate the best in cannabis. The Cannabis Cup is a global event in multiple cities and multiple companies. 

Why Professionals Go to Cannabis Industry Tradeshows

Weed conventions offer a variety of educational sessions and panel discussions. Attendees can learn about everything from growing and harvesting cannabis to marketing and branding products. There are also often exhibits where businesses can showcase their products and services.

Cannabis has a long history of handshake deals and in-person business because it has operated in grey areas for so long because of federal regulations. Weed conventions offer an opportunity for businesses to network with each other. They provide a forum where companies can share information about the latest trends in the cannabis industry and learn from each other’s experiences. Attendees can talk to exhibitors and learn about the different cannabis products available, from strains to format, there is always something new at a weed convention. They can also learn about the various ways that cannabis can be used, such as for medical purposes or recreational enjoyment.

Conferences are also a great place for cannabis journalists and cannabis influencers to gather.

Weed conventions are an important part of the cannabis industry and offer a valuable opportunity for businesses and consumers to learn about new products and trends. They provide a forum where businesses can share information and learn from each other’s experiences, and they are a great place for consumers to learn about new products and strains. As the cannabis industry continues to grow, weed conventions will become even more important.

Weed conventions are an important part of the growing cannabis industry. 

If you’re a cannabis business looking for top-rated cannabis PR, please visit our cannabis insights page. 

Cannabis CEOs have challenging jobs. You’re in the fast-moving cannabis business, so you’re also in the business of understanding trends and our industry. For that reason, we put together a shortlist of our favorite cannabis Twitter accounts, tailored for the time-constrained cannabis CEO and C-suite.

Twitter is an extremely useful listening tool, so we’ve curated the list intentionally for listening and we did throw in a few personal favorites as well because even cannabis CEOs need a breather now and then.  But overall, the list we’ve put together is highly curated and designed to give you what you need at the moment without overwhelming executives with chatter and nonsense. Hey, we love the nonsense too, but the point of a Twitter list is to create a curated experience and that’s what we’ve done.

We love Twitter because it’s such a great place to glean insights. We’ve already written about how we utilize Twitter for media relations. While we certainly use Twitter to engage our entire community, we do much more listening on Twitter than we do posting – and that’s intentional. With that perspective in mind, when we developed this Twitter List for cannabis CEOs, we thought about the Twitter uses who stay on topic, talk business, and keep chaos to a minimum. At it’s best, Twitter is a feed of quick snippets of insight, and we think these Twitter feeds embody that perspective.

Make things easy on yourself by subscribing to our Twitter list. In no particular order, here are our inclusions for 2020. 

 

Cannabis Journalists & News Twitter Accounts


Jeremy Berke @jberke

One of the first national business writers to cover the cannabis space from Business Insider, Jeremy’s feed is straightforward and no bull. From his Twitter profile, you can also subscribe to his weekly email newsletter which is a must-read of the week’s news.

Alan Brochstein, CFO @invest420
If industry analysis is what you crave, Alan Brochstein and his site, New Cannabis Ventures are on it. As the industry has changed, so has NCV. Today the NCV focuses mostly on cannabis’ publically traded businesses. But since so many of the industry cues and trends start there, it’s a great feed to watch. Alan’s distinct mix of business trends and insights are unbeatable. From his Twitter, you can also subscribe to his weekly newsletter, which is filled with investor insight and cannabis industry predictions. 

David George-Cosh @itsdgc
David primarily covers Canada’s legal cannabis market, which means he covers some of the world’s largest publically traded cannabis companies. Hailing from the Wall Street Journal, David gets to the heart of the matter with pertinent business issues from unionization to M&A.

AxisWire @axiswire
AxisWire is a newswire dedicated to the cannabis industry. It’s an easy to digest spot to catch up on the industry, by zeroing in on the latest press releases, from product announcements to industry events, it’s a good at-a-glance feed. 

WeedWeek @Weedweeknews
Hosted by Alex Halperin, a long-time cannabis journalist and Donny Alexander of public radio and ESPN, these two have a knack for being early adopters to industry trends, with a keen eye on what it means to consumers. Cannabis CEO and C-Suite executives will enjoy the thoughtful, no-drama approach of Halperin and Alexander while benefitting from their insightful guests. 

Cannabis Business & Thought Leader Twitter Accounts

By sparking your imagination, but these accounts are must-follows for cannabis industry CEOs for their broad perspectives on the overall health of the industry.

 

Andrew DeAngelo @Andrew_DeAngelo
Andrew might not be as well known as his brother, Steve, but these days he’s coming out from behind his operational role at the pioneering Oakland-based dispensary, Harborside, and sharing his opinions with his distinct rebellious flourish. Andrew’s thought-provoking perspective is cannabis industry-focused, with an emphasis on California and its regulatory environment. 

Emily Paxhia @empax1
As a woman in the VC world, Emily is already a notable follow, but as a cannabis VC, watching Emily’s tweets is interesting insight into the headspace of a cannabis VC. As co-founder of Poseidon Asset Management, Emily has been an active investor since 2014. Poseidon has invested in Pax, Juul and Canopy Growth. On Twitter, she’s a positive advocate for the industry, while maintaining a 360-degree view on the cannabis industry’s trends and future, including international expansion and legalization. 

Vangst @vangsttalent 
It’s always interesting to see who is hiring for what. Great CEOs can read between the lines when they see their competitors hiring – or not. Take a gander at the jobs posted and you’ll see a list of who’s growing and who isn’t. 

Cannabis Advocacy & Industry Twitter Accounts

We’ve come a long way, but we’re not finished. Both THC and CBD leaders should keep a close on the announcements from these accounts.

 

Norml @norml
From research to legislative initiatives, NORML is the OG of cannabis advocacy and consumer accessibility.  NORML’s Twitter feed is highly curated and includes information from state chapters too. A quick glance will get you immediately up to speed on today’s THC-related news. 

US Hemp Roundtable @HempRoundtable
The US Hemp Roundtable was formed to take a proactive role in hemp normalization and legislation. Many in the hemp industry credit the 2018 Farm Act to the US Hemp Roundtable. If you’re in the business of CBD or hemp, you’ve got to keep your eye on these tweets. 

National Cannabis Industry Association @NCIAorg 
As a cannabis industry representative at the federal legislative level, NCIA has a national presence and state chapters. The feed is filled with legislative updates affecting cannabis business owners as well as events, podcasts and blog posts written by the industry’s leading thought leaders.

Minority Cannabis @MinCannBusAssoc
If you’re looking for an inclusive perspective, and eh-em, you should be, then look no further than Minority Cannabis who share their perspectives and the latest diversity and inclusion news specific to the cannabis industry. As this movement continues within cannabis, this Twitter feed provides considerations and insights CEOs find helpful when developing diversity and inclusion policies and procedures.