Early in my PR career, I was drawn to the legitimacy of earned media and thought leadership. Right away, I appreciated the credibility companies could establish with these tools, but I never envisioned how critical they would be for today’s fastest growing U.S. and global market.
That’s today’s reality for marketers of cannabis and related services. These marketers have a limited set of tools available to them and many challenges to overcome, but they enjoy one amazing advantage not available to other types of restricted marketers, albeit a temporary one – a confused marketplace trying get its bearings.
Consider the many challenges
Over the last few years, we have learned a tremendous amount about the challenges and opportunities of marketing cannabis products, not the least of which is a far-from-complete array of marketing options available to cannabidiol (CBD) and marijuana brands. This industry faces unique challenges as a result of its patchwork legalization in the U.S.
Banks, for example, are monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and this has made it tough for cannabis companies to even get bank accounts for years, let alone fund marketing campaigns. Only after news accounts of cannabis companies paying federal taxes with bags of cash did the U.S. government begin to better accommodate them, but even now major challenges persist.
As recently as early 2019, marijuana companies often had to use piles of cash to pay federal income taxes.
Even as cannabis companies become more capable of moving funds like other legitimate businesses, they then find many promising partners won’t take their money. Media companies like Google and Facebook prohibit advertising of federally illegal products: fireworks, for example, and a wide range of other products, including cannabis.
A massive emerging market
These unique challenges might slow but won’t stop this booming new market.
In its Global Cannabis Report: 2019 Industry Outlook, New Frontier Data estimates that the total annual global cannabis market (regulated and illicit) equates to $344 billion USD. As we await complete tallies for 2019, plenty of other statistics in this report highlight the growth and size of the market:
An estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide suffer from medical conditions for which cannabis has shown therapeutic value.
There are more than 263 million estimated cannabis consumers in the world.
More than 50 countries around the world have legalized some form of medical cannabis.
Six countries have legalized cannabis for adult or recreational use.
When will the playing field level for marketers?
Likely never, and plenty of questions remain.
Will the big publishers open their doors to CBD advertisers in light of the Farm Bill? If so, when, and why haven’t they already? When will the FDA do more?
Though it seems inevitable, will the U.S. government legalize marijuana for recreational use? Medical use? When?
Even if and when all the stars align for cannabis products marketers, in all likelihood, they’ll never sell their products the way apparel companies sell pants or electronics companies sell televisions, but cannabis is not alone in this plight. Plenty of products have major advertising restrictions on them; think alcohol or likely even more on point, tobacco. TV is off limits to tobacco advertisers. Major online publishers also turn these companies away.
Thought leadership answers the call.
Confusion in the marketplace. It’s everywhere. It’s also a giant opportunity for marketers selling ancillary services to cannabis companies and BtoC cannabis businesses trying to connect with their new, growing and very fragmented customer base.
To understand how far and wide the desire to know more reaches, consider the demand for vetted research on these fast-growing cannabis markets. Before New Frontier Data launched in 2014, no legitimate data collection to speak of had been done, but now the firm’s data has been cited in more than 80 countries and counting. There’s a burning desire to know more, and this data has already informed the launch of major government and corporate initiatives across at least four continents!
This marketplace confusion and aspiration to learn opens wide the PR and thought leadership opportunity awaiting both BtoB and BtoC marketers considering cannabis. Over the last month, I’ve seen so much of this firsthand in Illinois, the nation’s newest recreational market and the first state to legislate recreational use instead of using a ballot initiative.
The questions are endless; everything’s new!
Local and national media have been answering many questions:
Beyond Illinois, consumers across the nation need information to answer questions like:
Is vaping safe?
What are the best strains for my condition or desired moods?
What are the benefits of home grow?
How can parents keep their kids safe?
How to pick the right dispensary?
And cannabis businesses are struggling to answer basic questions like:
How can we get financing?
How am I going to navigate all these changing tax reporting issues?
What are my banking and legal options?
How do different federal and state legalities affect my business?
How can we determine product quality and safety without scientific standards?
How can we better forecast supply and demand?
Identify expertise and promote it
New Frontier Data’s experts get cited all over the globe on important issues like consumer safety, industry sustainability, policy evolution, market-sizing, consumer demand, product preferences and more.
Accounting and law firms serving cannabis businesses can use media relations and thought leadership to raise awareness of their expertise and services by making themselves and their know-how available to reporters, bloggers, analysts and influencers. What do the latest industry developments mean to their prospects and how ought they respond? By answering these questions in the right venues, they can establish credibility and connect with customers.
Cannabis brands selling to consumers should enlist their best customers and advocates, spokespeople, design partners and more to offer their best consumer guidance to consumers. Testimonials, tips, shopping advice and relevant research can provide media, thought leaders and their audiences the information they increasingly seek out.
Act now
Cultivate a timely blog. Find top media outlets to write for. Make experts available for interviews. Educate the market while it’s young and full of eager learners.
However niche the cannabis expertise, there’s likely demand for it, and by spotlighting that expertise and providing valuable information, companies can connect with their prospects and influence the market.
Instead of lamenting the marketing limitations, embrace the discussion taking shape!
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