Tag Archives: buying

Navigating the Complexities of Out-of-Home Cannabis Advertising Nationwide

By Matthew O’Connor
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Cannabis hit major milestones in the first half of 2021. Adult use cannabis is legal in five more states, bringing the total to 16 plus Washington D.C. In addition, two pieces of federal cannabis legislation were recently revived by Congress. Even with these developments, the cannabis industry faces an uphill climb to navigate state and local regulations levied on its sales, operations, taxes and advertising.

Advertising regulations present big hurdles for cannabis businesses to overcome. With cannabis illegal at the federal level, traditional advertising avenues like broadcast and radio are limited to the states where it is legal. Still, many networks won’t touch cannabis ads. Major tech companies like Google, YouTube and Facebook largely bar cannabis businesses from online marketing. With cannabis advertising laws that vary state to state, companies face a hodgepodge of regulations with little consistency.

So, how are brands working within this messy regulatory framework? They’re turning to out-of-home (OOH) advertising. Here’s what to know about legally advertising cannabis products and brands through outdoor media.

A state-by-state patchwork of regulations

Medicinal cannabis has been legal in California for more than two decades, and adult use cannabis is going on five years. Yet, debate rages on over how visible cannabis advertisements should be in daily life. This isn’t just happening in The Golden State. Other states like Colorado and Oregon with established legal cannabis industries continue to grapple with how to regulate cannabis advertising in print and outdoor formats. Not to mention that states just getting into the legalization arena are playing catch up to get rules and regulations in place.

With the right partner, cannabis companies can navigate the nation’s mélange of advertising regulations to share their products, services and marketplaces. The best online OOH buying platforms are even equipped with cannabis filters that seamlessly identify cannabis-compliant OOH ad inventory.

Growing and innovating with out-of-home advertising

This dispensary ad appeared on Variety.com

While it’s the oldest form of advertising, OOH is a far cry from an old-fashioned advertising avenue. It’s a hot, dynamic form of communication that is poised for big growth alongside the cannabis industry. Sure, OOH includes more traditional highway-side billboards. But it also spans eye-catching digital billboards, taxi-top advertisements, building wallscapes, and digital vehicle charging stations – all of which are accessible through OOH buying platforms.

Such platforms make it easy for cannabis brands to effectively target consumers compliantly. Brands like Cookies, Eaze, MedMen and MONOGRAM have launched laugh-inducing, Instagrammable, and thought-provoking campaigns to build brand awareness. The Northern-California brand Cookies has mastered the art of cross-product branding, building an entire clothing line around its brand. Real California Milk even got in on the fun with a dispensary-inspired pop up and an OOH media buy. With OOH, cannabis businesses have effectively connected adult consumers with their latest products, promotional offers and physical storefronts, but also sparked conversations about cannabis legalization and decriminalization.

What to consider when leveraging OOH for cannabis advertising

If you work in the cannabis industry, are an agency partner or a small-business owner managing the advertising process, here are some things to keep in mind when planning your OOH ads.

  • Know the rules of where you plan to advertise. This is a fast-moving space. New markets are coming online. Regulations are being established and challenged. It’s crucial to find industry partners who provide reliable, up-to-date information on the status of advertising rules in the markets you’re in so you stay compliant and don’t jeopardize your business license.
  • Both Ivyside and Weedmaps are featured on this page

    Get into the practicalities. What do local cannabis advertising rules mean for your brand? Are there regulations that impact more than the location of an OOH campaign? Rules on creative artwork or words that are banned? A guide to regulations is likely laid out at the state level (see the states of Illinois and Massachusetts), but will ultimately be governed by local municipalities (see the City of San Diego). There are workarounds here. Just because you can’t show people engaging in cannabis consumption, cannabis leaves or products, it doesn’t mean your creativity is limited. Look no further than Weedmaps. The company launched its Weed Facts campaign across hundreds of billboards in half a dozen or more markets to highlight the many benefits of cannabis. One read: “States that legalized marijuana had 25% fewer opioid deaths.”

  • Determine specific goals for your campaign. What do you want to achieve with an OOH campaign? Are you looking to build brand awareness? Share a new product? Drive foot traffic to a physical location or prompt customers to visit your website? Are you advocating for change? Laying out your goals will drive your creative and the locations in which you launch your campaign. Speaking of launching, with OOH – especially digital outdoor ads – your creative can be up and running in 48 hours. Outdoor ads are customizable and with location tools, verbiage and design, can be directed to a specific cross-section of the market.
  • Measure Success. Barring state and local regulations, the OOH possibilities for furthering and promoting your brand are almost endless. Once your campaign is launched, the right OOH buying platform will enable you to track goals and success. With the ability to track and isolate OOH, you’ll be able to attribute conversions, measure your return on investment, compare performance by unit and optimize your campaign.

As regulations at the local, state and federal levels change and evolve, OOH advertising will remain the tried-and-true standard for cannabis companies to get word out about their brand, market their products and drive traffic to their websites and storefronts.

8 Mistakes Businesses Make When Managing Product Labels: Part 2

By Rob Freeman
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Editor’s Note: This article contains the last four common labeling mistakes that businesses can make. The previous four mistakes were published last week here. 

Mistake #5: Planning Just-In-Time Inventory Too Close to Production; Effecting On-time Deliveries

Using JIT (Just-In-Time) management is common throughout North America. JIT involves manufacturers and suppliers trying to minimize, or even eliminate, their inventory. This approach relies on suppliers to deliver materials just before production is started. When this method is done properly, it is a very efficient way to minimize production costs, but when companies do not prepare for a “crisis” situation, they will have nothing in stock to fall back on.

Minimizing inventory costs is always a challenge. It’s a never-ending contradiction trying to maintain low inventory costs while factoring the percentage of potential new growth. Calculations can fluctuate from month to month, especially when industries rely on commodity ingredients or are impacted by sudden regulatory changes like we see with the cannabis, food packaging, and health supplement markets. Front runners in these markets practice minimizing their product label inventories, but their needs might quickly change from one day to the next. They do not want to place a one-time annual label order for each SKU. If an ingredient runs out of supply or a regulatory change affects their production profile, they would be sitting on unusable labels that will go to waste.

Best Method Approach: Think in terms of what the bottom line effect will be when factoring how you should manage your inventory. Try not to reduce your inventory too low. This could cause your company to experience shipping delays when complications arise with suppliers or quality control. You should have at least one-to-two production cycles worth of inventory available for those “crisis” moments.

Rob Freeman, author of this article, is the Director of Business Development and Marketing at Label Solutions Inc.

This backup inventory can also help reduce paying for excessive rush fees. Sometimes businesses can experience unexpected demand for a product, especially when companies consolidate production plants, acquire other companies, or have a new product launch. Supplier material shortages can greatly impact internal quality control and delay delivery times. Building a strong business relationship with your label provider is key to working around business demands and potential problems; which in turn, will help your label provider ship on-time deliveries so your production deadlines are met.

Mistake #6: Selecting the Lowest Price, But Approving the Wrong Materials for Your Product Needs

Sometimes clients buy the lowest priced labels without their procurement department knowing what the label specification requirements should be. It’s always a good business practice to shop for the best price, but it is equally as important to make sure you understand what you’re buying for that price.

Label providers vary on the quality of work they do, value-added services they offer, their production expertise, and the quality of material they use. Additionally, the hidden potential costs to lowest price shopping is that once the construction of those labels fail, it could cost you much more than a simple reorder.

Best Method Approach:Establish clear and concise procedures so your production team can forward the necessary criteria for your procurement department to have during the buying process.

brands want strong, eye-catching labels that stand out online, on the shelf, and/or on the retail floor. On a separate note, some businesses and manufacturers don’t care how long their brand and contact information remains on their product after the purchase. This gives them the flexibility to buy extremely low-quality material, but the outcome is a much lower brand awareness reminder at the end of the product’s use. But if your business model is such that you sell a “one-time use” product and all that you need is the label to survive through the POS, then the cheapest materials and lowest price might be your best solution.

In most cases, brands want strong, eye-catching labels that stand out online, on the shelf, and/or on the retail floor. Manufacturers want their labels to remain on their product, so their customers have a reminder of what they need to buy again or the ability to reread product use instructions and label warnings. Even if you don’t require the most expensive materials, using good quality, durable substrates and inks is always a solid approach.

Mistake #7: Not Preparing for Oil Based Products

One of the most popular products expected in retail for 2019 will be essential oils and/or CBD infused oil ingredients in foods, drinks, and wellness supplements. One of the most common mistakes relating to oil-based products is that entrepreneurs often forget that oils can soak into paper substrates and/or disperse certain inks, even when laminated.

Whether your product is on display in retail, or being sampled at a trade show, the last thing you want to be concerned about is your product name and contact information smearing or washing out. Even the smallest drop of oil can seep into a paper label and spread the ink to the point that you’ll have your own little tie-dye action on the label. That might look cool to some, but you lose your branding and the perception with most retail customers will be that your company is either cheap or is not professional.

Best Method Approach: There are affordable films such as polypropylene materials that will allow you to print the look you want while still protecting your branding and product. From cooking oils to industrial grade oils, the approach is the same but may require different types of films and ink solubility, so each bottle and container has oil resistant labels that maintain a professional look.Whenever one of our clients launch a new product or changes the intended surface conditions for label application, testing the label is always extremely important

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, remember that you don’t need to select all the label materials on your own. Your label provider should help you settle on the best solution.

Mistake #8: Not Properly Testing New Labels and New Product Surfaces

This is one of the most common and overlooked issues. Whenever one of our clients launch a new product or changes the intended surface conditions for label application, testing the label is always extremely important. This is especially critical when dealing with high quantity orders.

Best Method Approach: Testing parameters should be outlined by you and your label provider so both parties understand how long the label and the ink consistency should remain on the surface after purchase and use of product. There are wide variations of testing, so it will depend on the type of product and the intended industry.

For example, testing hand-applied, durable labels on powder coated metals for the boat and trailer industry require a completely different testing method compared to tests for typical food and beverage products that are machine applied. Usually, with uniform container products like food clamshell packaging, beverage cans, and supplement jars, all you will need to do is make sure to test labels on your production line, so your team is confident with the results.

Final Thoughts

In summary, preventing just one of these mistakes can yield huge cost savings no matter if your company is a start-up or a large corporation. Even if these eight common mistakes do not directly apply to your own issues, hopefully the “Best Methods” approach will give your company ideas about how you can prepare for future product releases, reduce product label issues, and improve your own quality control metrics.

If you have topics relating to product labeling that you would like me to discuss, please write to info@easylabeling.com. Be sure to save this article and forward it to your peers for future reference.

Cannabis M&A: Practice Pointers and Pitfalls When Buying or Selling a Cannabis Business

By Soren Lindstrom
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The Stage is Set

According to the Marijuana Policy Group, the U.S. cannabis industry is expected to reach more than $13 billion in sales by 2020 and create more jobs than the U.S. manufacturing industry. According to Viridian Capital’s Cannabis Deal Tracker, there were close to 100 M&A transactions in the U.S. cannabis industry in 2016 and approximately $1.2 billion was raised in equity and debt. As the cannabis industry has grown more mature and businesses begin to have more capital available, the M&A activity within the industry is poised to grow significantly over the next years to assist businesses gain necessary scale and take advantage of synergies and diversification.

The Obvious Wrinkle

U.S federal law has prohibited the manufacture and distribution of cannabis since 1935. The U.S. regulates drugs through the Controlled Substances Act, which classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug (i.e., drugs determined to have a high potential for abuse with no currently accepted medical use and a lack of accepted safety regarding their use). Yet, more than 25 states have by now legalized cannabis for medical and/or recreational purposes and, as a result, there is a clear conflict between such state laws and existing federal law. To possibly help bridge that conflict, the U.S. Attorney General’s office in 2013 issued guidance directing the federal government not to intervene with state cannabis laws except in specific, limited circumstances, but, contrarily, the DEA has shown no desire to re-classify cannabis. To add to the confusion, President Trump and the new U.S. Attorney General have provided mixed statements and signals about their positions.

All of this means that it continues to be risky to acquire cannabis businesses. The requirements to legally grow, distribute, prescribe, and use cannabis for either medical or recreational purposes vary widely by country, state, and local jurisdiction, making it tricky to determine whether such businesses can be legally combined, in particular, across state lines.

Pick the Right Team of Advisors

When preparing to sell or buy a cannabis business, it is important to pick the right team of advisors. Your regular legal counsel, accounting firm or CPA may not be the right advisors for a cannabis M&A transaction. Choose a legal counsel that not only has experience with cannabis laws and regulations, but also has cannabis M&A experience and can offer expert advice on areas like IP, employment, tax matters, etc. Similarly, verify that your accounting firm or CPA has real experience with financial and quality of earnings analysis and due diligence.

Conduct Gating Due Diligence Up Front

In any contemplated M&A transaction, it is wise to prioritize your due diligence investigations. There will always be some more prominent risks and business objectives in a particular industry or with respect to a specific target business. It will be more cost and time effective if those specific risks and business objectives are prioritized early in the due diligence process. These can dictate whether you even want to pursue the target further before you dig into a deeper and broader due diligence investigation. Conducting gating due diligence up front is even more important in an industry like cannabis that contain complex and thorny regulatory hurdles.

So, before you spend money and time on a broader legal, business and financial due diligence investigation, have your legal counsel analyze and confirm that the potential transaction is feasible from a regulatory perspective. This will include whether it is possible to obtain or transfer necessary local and/or state licenses and whether a combination or sale can occur across state lines if necessary. Early on in the process, It is also advisable to request that the target business complete a legal compliance questionnaire or discuss with the target its regulatory compliance program, policies and training. Such up front due diligence will either clear a path to negotiations and broader confirmatory due diligence or flush out “red flags” that may kill a possible deal or require the buyer to investigate further before proceeding.

Important Terms and Pitfalls in the M&A Agreement

Generally, a sale or purchase agreement for a cannabis business does not appear to vary much from a similar agreement in any other industry. However, the complex environment and the premature nature of the industry impacts certain deal terms and processes in different ways from most other developed industries.

Here are few examples to keep in mind when preparing and negotiating a sale or purchase agreement:

  • Third Party and Governmental Consents: Buyer’s legal due diligence must focus on the consents that may be required from seller’s suppliers, customers, landlords, licensors or other third parties under relevant contracts. Additionally, the due diligence should focus on consents and approvals required by local and state regulators as a result of the sale. The M&A agreement should contain solid seller representations and warranties about all such consents and approvals and any such material consents and approvals should, from a buyer’s perspective, be a condition precedent to closing of the transaction.
  • Legal Compliance: A buyer should not agree to a boilerplate seller representation about the target’s compliance with laws. Be specific and tailor seller’s legal compliance representation to relevant state and local cannabis laws, regulations and ordinances. From a seller perspective, be careful and thoughtful about any appropriate exceptions (including the federal prohibition) to be disclosed to buyer in the disclosure schedules underlying the sale or purchase agreement.
  • Financial statements: The cannabis industry is very fragmented and consists of many small businesses. Many of these small businesses do not have financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP and may consist of only management prepared financials. In that scenario, a buyer should have its financial advisor do an analysis of the financials available and ask seller to provide a representation and warranty about the accuracy and good faith preparation of the provided financials.
  • Escrow: Typically, a buyer will request some part of the purchase price be placed with an independent financial institution for a period of time post-closing as a source of recovery for losses as a result of breaches by seller of any of the representations and warranties in the definitive sale or purchase agreement. Due to the federal cannabis and banking regulations, many of the larger commercial banks will not provide financial services to cannabis businesses, in particular if the business touches the plant. The parties must therefore consider alternatives, including local financial institutions with more relaxed compliance requirements or perhaps place the escrow in a trust account of a law firm or other independent party.
  • Working Capital Dispute Procedures: Similar to the escrow, larger accounting firms generally do not provide services to cannabis businesses. Due to the rapid evolution of cannabis related regulations, if the terms of the transaction include provisions for a post-closing working capital/purchase price adjustment and related dispute procedures, it is advisable to not name an arbiter in the agreement. Instead, parties should agree to mutually select the arbiter if and when a dispute should arise.
  • Indemnification: Because of the tricky legal environment of the cannabis industry, it may be prudent for a buyer to request, at the very least, that certain parts of seller’s legal compliance representation and warranty not be subject to the “regular” caps, deductibles and other indemnification limitations. Also, if a buyer has unearthed a significant issue in its due diligence investigation, it should consider asking seller for a special indemnity for such issue that would be indemnifiable regardless of buyer’s knowledge of the issue and not be subject to the general indemnification limitations.
  • R&W Insurance: If there’s a lot of competition for the purchase of a target, particularly in a bidding process, it is now common for buyer to offer to purchase a representation and warranty insurance policy (“R&W Insurance”) to possibly gain an advantage by limiting the seller’s post-closing indemnification exposure. The good news is that many of the R&W Insurance carriers do offer such insurance in connection with the sale and purchase of cannabis businesses. However, typically, R&W Insurance cannot be obtained for insured amounts of less than $5 million. Experienced M&A counsel can advise of the advantages and disadvantages of R&W Insurance and assist in the negotiation of the related terms.

The above are just some examples of what to expect in a cannabis M&A transaction. Every M&A transaction will have its unique issues that will need to be appropriately reflected in the sale or purchase agreements and good M&A practices will continue to evolve with the industry. If you are an owner of a successful cannabis business, buckle your seat belt and be prepared for an exciting ride as the industry gets closer to significant consolidation.