As more and more territories around the world are legalizing cannabis in one way or another, the different rules and regulations in every territory make getting in front of customers’ eyeballs a  strenuous task for many cannabis companies all over the world.

Cannabis is not federally legal in the US, in some states it is legal for both recreational and medical consumption, and in other, only for medicinal use. The same goes for Europe where countries have different regulations and tolerance toward cannabis. In Spain for example, cannabis is not legal but yet, one of the biggest conventions in the cannabis industry – Spannabis – is taking place in Barcelona.  

The problem gets worse when it comes to marketing and advertising cannabis products due to dissimilarity in marketing, branding, advertising, and packaging cannabis from one territory to another. Here in California, for example, you can advertise on billboards whereas in Maryland you can’t.

Airing a cannabis-related commercial on any TV station in the world right now is quite a challenge and usually not worth the trouble. Cannabis retailer MedMen created an ad by Oscar-winner Spike Jonez that was played in movie theaters, YouTube and SiriusXM but not on any TV network. Even in Canada, the epitome of legal cannabis, the law is very strict when it comes to cannabis on TV.

But if you think about it, this is 2019, almost 2020, who needs “traditional” media these days?!  According to The Guardian “Young people in Britain have almost entirely abandoned television news broadcasts”.  The internet and social media are playing a huge part in marketing cannabis all over the world. In fact, without social media, we wouldn’t have seen the massive growth of the global cannabis industry. 

Social media is responsible for the hyper-fast distribution of content, ideas, and products. The problem is that even over the internet and social media, marketing cannabis is not so easy. Last year, YouTube deleted many very successful channels that focused on cannabis. YouTube is a Google company and you can not advertise cannabis on Google. Facebook is another huge outlet that does not allow cannabis advertising. Instagram, a Facebook company,  is shutting down cannabis-related profiles constantly. So no matter how you look at it, marketing cannabis is very hard. 

As a brand strategist and marketing consultant working with clients in the cannabis industry, I’m very familiar with these issues. Let me show you some light points and tactics that will help you see the light at the end of the cannabis marketing tunnel.

The thing is that as much as it is hard to market cannabis on those channels mentioned above, it is 1) possible 2) the regulation on those platforms is the same worldwide, so it is clear what you can and can’t do to promote your cannabis business. So be smart and stay inside the lines.

Social media marketing is the way of the future

In addition to these channels, cannabis media channels are booming everywhere, from magazines to online shows, huge blogs, and podcasts. Cannabis POS media is a growing channel as well, where you can advertise your products and services mainly on TV screens in dispensaries. One very beneficial result we got out of the decline of TV as the master of all advertising, is the opportunity to use the advertising budget in a much broader way than when TV was king.

There are many websites you never heard about or heard about but never thought of allocating budget for, that have an abundance of traffic. You can have a successful ad campaign for your cannabis brand using advertising networks on different high traffic websites that are not Google or Facebook, nor cannabis channels. One advertising network such as this is Traffic Roots, located in San Diego, offering ads on websites such as Rolling Stone magazine, and Huff Post, among others. 

What is common to all of the channels, platforms and promotion options mentioned above is that they all cost money. You must pay to play. 

What a lot of new businesses are missing these days, regardless of the industry, is organic, free, content to get exposure, sales, and high-quality, consistent traffic and customers. I’m a huge believer in content and a long-time practitioner of using organic (free) content to grow sales and increase market share. Regardless of obvious SEO benefits (Search Engine Optimization) which are huge, content is king, mainly when it’s free.

When I talk about free content I mean posts and stories on Instagram and Facebook, IGTV and YouTube videos, newsletters, automated emails, Linkedin/Instagram/Facebook/Youtube live and so on. In order to create the right marketing mix for your business, you must utilize the many free options for content marketing.

With the right content, you can not only make sure you’ll have no issues with Google, Facebook, or the rest of the moguls, you can extend your online presence, expose your products and services, and get immediate feedback.

The best way to master the production of good online content is to use “brand thinking”. Good branding is not about a great looking logo, it is about creating a positive emotional bond between your brand and the customers. Here are the three marketing mistakes most businesses do and that you must avoid in order to create successful content that converts to sales and brand awareness:

It’s about trust

Brand awareness is extremely important

The most important thing to understand is that in order to create long term business success you must create a trusted relationship and empathy between your business and consumers. For most business owners this means a shift in mindset: stop thinking like a product and start thinking like a person.

Products don’t write blog posts, products don’t post on social media, products don’t publish YouTube videos, humans do. You need to be personal and authentic and not focus on making a sale or create content that constantly promotes your product or service and talks relentlessly about the feature of your product. The more you try to sell, the less you will actually sell.

The context of the content

We all love our products, we know everything about them and have a clear conception as to why consumers should use or buy them. But this is OUR perception, not the customers’. In order to be successful as a brand on social media and to create content that converts, you should think from your target audience’s point of view.

What will make them read your content, click on your posts, open your newsletters, and then get interested enough to make a purchase either on your website or at your physical location?

Be Consistent

The third thing you should keep in mind to master content marketing is to be consistent. Not only post on social media all the time, but to constantly send newsletters, and publish movies to YouTube. You should be consistent with your content’s look & feel as well.

Use the same formats, the same tone of voice, and the same concepts. And remember – when a piece of content performs really well, for instance, a specific post or video, double down and create more content like it. 

Final Thoughts

I’m not a numbers guy, I don’t know about numbers, I know about people, but one thing I learned in more than 20 years in marketing is that the data don’t lie. When you do things right, you get immediate results. I don’t say it is going to be easy, or that you will be a millionaire in less than a month, but I can tell you that regardless of the industry, implementing the RIGHT content strategy for my clients has always been successful. 

With the backing of a Canadian cannabis giant two British entrepreneurs have established a new CBD production plant in Africa’s most developed cannabis nation.

Lesotho has a history of illegal cannabis production stretching back centuries and became the first African country to approve medical pot cultivation in 2017. Shortly after legalization Ontario-based Aphria launched a joint venture with U.K. extraction company Verve Dynamics. This JV, known as Cann Invest Africa, aims to export Lesotho CBD to global markets. 

Partners Help Fund School Build

Cann Invest’s partner in Lesotho is the Matekane Group of Companies; it cultivates the cannabis crop needed for the production plant. Brits Richard Davies and Joe Simon are Directors of Verve Dynamic and in conjunction with Sam Matekane, say their investments will contribute to a rapidly growing industry, with the potential to create hundreds of jobs, reports the Telegraph.

The three have also provided the funds to build a school near the factory for 2,000 children. Vic Neufeld, CEO of Aphria which prides itself on being a value for money cannabis proposition, said: “Given the abundant natural resources and our collective expertise and that of our partners, Verve is poised to become one of the lowest-cost producers of medical cannabis extracts in the world.” 

Game Changer for African Cannabis

Mr Davies, Managing Director of Verve described the partnership with Aphria as ‘a game-changer for the cannabis industry’. 

“We are very excited to be working with Aphria, who are undoubtedly the most agile and forward-thinking company in the cannabis space, period. Together we aim to effectively network with multiple opportunities across the African continent with a keen focus on jobs creation, and most importantly community participation,” he said.

Cann Invest also plans to expand its footprint through additional licensing and commercial opportunities across the African continent.

Grandmother Helped Make Investment

Mr Simon, a London-based film producer who became the first investor in the venture, said he was convinced of CBD’s health benefits by his grandmother. A second Canadian cannabis company has beaten a path to Lesotho, with Toronto-based Supreme Cannabis Company investing $10m into Medigrow, giving it a 10% share of the business.

Medigrow was granted permission by the Lesotho government to begin cultivation in 2016 and the partners have entered into a long-term, distribution partnership which will see cannabis oil exported to Canada and elsewhere.

‘The African Cannabis Report’– published by Prohibition Partners, estimated that Africa’s legal Cannabis market could be worth over US$7.1 billion by 2023.

Late last month, a Canadian woman faced a lifetime ban for attempting to cross the U.S. border with cannabidiol (CBD) oil in her possession — the decision was eventually overturned. Meanwhile, recent reports suggest that an American teenager has been arrested for possession of medical cannabis in Russia and could face up to three years in prison if convicted.

Although cannabis is legal in Canada, federal law prohibits Canadians and visitors from crossing the border with the drug — whether entering or exiting the country.

But despite numerous publicity campaigns, signs, press releases, and articles, the hard facts still don’t seem to deter many international travellers.

In the U.S., cannabis is legal in numerous states, but the drug is still classified as a Schedule I narcotic by the DEA and remains federally prohibited. If caught by the U.S. customs, there are bound to be serious legal consequences, regardless of whether cannabis is legal in the U.S. state where the border crossing is located.

Last week, an unnamed 21-year-old Canadian woman was caught with CBD oil in her backpack when she tried entering Washington via British Columbia. She maintains the oil was to treat symptoms of scoliosis. She was fined $500, fingerprinted, denied entry, and told that if she wished to attempt to re-enter the U.S. she would have to apply for a $585 waiver.

The woman’s lawyer, Len Saunders, said that an agent at a U.S. point of entry got in touch to inform her that her case had been reversed and she would no longer have to apply for the waiver.

“My reaction, obviously, was of shock. I was shocked that it was such a 180-degree turn from basically being barred for life to being told that they had on their own reviewed the case and had basically reversed their decision,” Saunders toldCBC News.

But not everyone is this fortunate.

Nineteen-year-old New Yorker Audrey Elise Lorber had 19g of cannabis and a medical permit on her person when she was subject to an airport search in St Petersburg, according to a release from the city court’s press service.

According to the court, Lorber, who was travelling as a tourist with her mother, “kept the narcotic for her personal use.” Although she had a permit, it was only valid within the U.S. and “is not valid on Russian territory.”

Lorber has been charged with possession and remains in custody, awaiting a hearing at a Russian district court.

It appears both travellers believed themselves to be exempt from the laws of the countries they visited as the cannabis in their possession was for medical use, despite the fact that a cursory Google search would have made it immediately clear that this is not the case.

Cannabinoids are federally regulated in Canada, so whether you’re in possession of a THC or CBD product, regardless of whether it gets you high, regardless of whether it’s for medical purposes, regardless of what the laws say about cannabis consumption in Canada — you can not bring a cannabis product in or out of the country, and you are not exempt from legal consequences abroad because the drug is legal in your native country.

Although lax cannabis laws have lulled many North Americans into a false sense of security, spending five minutes doing your homework before embarking on a trip can save you from a lifetime ban abroad — or worse.

One of the first reports to be published in the first ever peer reviewed cannabis journal highlights the importance of consistency of cannabis profiles for patients.

Over the last ten years cannabis has been either legalised or decriminalised in a number of countries including America, Canada and Australia, which has led to an explosion in the volume of cannabis production. This has, in turn, led to an increase in the number of different cannabis strains that are available to customers – all with different chemical profiles to each other.

Published in the Journal of Cannabis Research, the report emphasises that, currently, there are no baseline genotypes for any strains and that steps need to be taken to ensure that products are genetically congruent. However, there is no way for suppliers, growers or consumers to definitively verify strains

Cannabis profiles: federal status is a barrier

As cannabis has a Federal status as a schedule one drug it is excluded from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) protections, meaning researchers are meeting errors and inconsistencies in their studies.

The report notes: ‘The genetic inconsistencies will often manifest as differences in overall effects…. Differences in characteristics within a named strain may be surprising for a recreational user, but differences may be more serious for a medical patient who relies on a particular strain for alleviation of specific symptoms.

‘There is no consistent genetic differentiation between the widely held perceptions of sativa and indica cannabis types. Moreover, the genetic analyses do not support the reported proportions of sativa and indica within each strain, which is expected given the lack of genetic distinction between sativa and indica.

‘There may be land race strains that phenotypically and genetically separate as sativa and indica types, however, our sampling does not include an adequate number of these strains to define these as two potentially distinct genotypes.’

Looking at strains

The study consisted of reviewing 30 different strains from a total of 20 different dispensaries or donors in three American states where cannabis is legal. A total of 12 of the strains studied were classed as commonly used due to their availability in dispensaries and online information about them. Some of the popular strains that were studied include Jack Herer, Durban Poison, Purple Kush, Girl Scout Cookies, Sour Diesel, OG Kush and Chemdawg.

DNA from the strains were extracted using a modified CTAB extraction protocol with 0.0035 – 0.100g of dried flower tissue per extraction and profiles were compared to several online databases. The results showed a number of genetic inconsistencies in the strains acquired from different facilities.

The researchers found that sativa type strains – Durban Poison and Sour Diesel – have contradicting genetic assignments and that a number of hybrid type strains have differing levels of admixture both within and among reportedly similar strains, concluding that ‘reported ratios or differences between sativa and indica phenotypes are not discernible using these genetic markers’.

The report states: ‘We found high support for two genetic groups in the data but no discernible distinction or pattern between the described sativa and indica strains. If genetic differentiation of the commonly perceived sativa and indica types previously existed, it is no longer detectable in the neutral genetic markers used here. Extensive hybridisation and selection have presumably created a homogenising effect and erased evidence of potentially divergent historical genotypes’.

Breeding inconsistency

The report notes the impact of breeding on inconsistency amongst individual strains, highlighting how intensive efforts to create novel strains has amounted in the merging of the two types and has blurred previous separation between the two types.

In order to communicate the spectrum of effects of each strain to patients the categorisation of strains by differentiating between sativa and indica looks likely to continue.

The report said: ‘Instances we found where samples within strains are not genetically similar, which is unexpected given the manner in which cannabis plants are propagated. Although it is impossible to determine the source of these inconsistencies as they can arise at multiple points throughout the chain of events from seed to sale, we theorise misidentification, mislabelling, misplacement, misspelling, and/or relabelling are all possible.

‘In many cases genetic inconsistencies within strains were limited to one or two samples. We feel that there is a reasonable amount of genetic similarity within many strains, but currently there is no way to verify the “true” genotype of any strain. Although the sampling here includes merely a fragment of the available cannabis strains, our results give scientific merit to previously anecdotal claims that strains can be unpredictable.

‘Maintenance of the genetic integrity through genotyping is possible only following evaluation of genetic consistency and continuing to overlook this aspect will promote genetic variability and phenotypic variation within cannabis. Addressing strain variability at the molecular level is of the utmost importance while the industry is still relatively new’.