Marijuana Business Magazine March 2020

Marijuana Business Magazine | March 2020 52 and Penske while working for PepsiCo as brand director for Gatorade. “First, we target geographically and from an age standpoint because we want to always be compliant. We have digital partnerships to make sure those who are receiving our advertising are only in states that are legal (for cannabis sales) and that the audiences are of age.” STAYING COMPLIANT Most states require a certain percentage of a publication’s audience to be older than 21, and because regulations vary from state to state, Vana uses technology that enables what founder and CEO Sheldon Owen calls age-gating and state- gating to ensure a cannabis company remains compliant when targeting advertising to potential customers. “Each brand is trying to accomplish a unique goal and trying to attract a specific type of customer,” Owen said. “They want to branch out from the traditional stoner market. They can only branch out in the states they’re licensed in—and only to people who are 21.” The company, which verifies the state-issued license of every brand before allowing them onto the platform and works only with licensed cannabis and CBD partners on compliant marketing, has created a network enabling it to reach more than 220 million unique consumers per month. “What it’s designed to do is to allow the publishing community to finally get comfortable with cannabis advertising,” Owen said. “CPG (consumer packaged goods) professionals are taking over organizations and looking to advertising to help them grow. They want mainstream audiences. Compliance is the underlying aspect—it has to have compliance built into it and be able to serve the government warnings by state.” Vana produced a white paper, which is used to educate the brands, retailers and prospective clients the company works with, that looked at the parallels between cannabis and the alcohol industry. Alcohol regulations fall under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, but those rules deal only with “truthful labeling” instead of advertising practices. Thanks to Vana, Los Angeles-based Bhang’s ads have appeared on several mainstream websites, including Hearst Media-owned Cosmopolitan, Delish, Men’s Health and Popular Mechanics. Bhang, which sells both THC and CBD products, targets older-millennial to younger-Gen X men and women. “Currently there is an algorithm that is working to place the ads, so we are not specifically selecting publications, just demographics or geolocations. But we do look at performance by product and by publication,” Bhang Chief Marketing Officer Samantha Collins said. “The ads have been very effective in driving awareness, and our brand Bhang had a very high click-through rate compared with competitors.” COLORING BETWEEN THE LINES Bhang CEO Jamie Pearson said some publications, including the Huffington Post, won’t accept money from cannabis businesses, but they will accept payment from companies such as Vana, which can get advertisements placed on the site. “What intrigued me about Vana is they are the mainstream, compliant alternative to Weedmaps,” Pearson said. Until cannabis is federally legal, it’s unlikely television networks will permit it to be advertised. However, Owen said it’s only a matter of time before over-the- top media services such as Netflix and Hulu permit it—but only if it’s done in a systematic and compliant fashion. “If it’s not compliant, they’re not going to put themselves at risk,” he said. “Both the publisher and the brand will be liable.” & Marketing Art of The Branding Vana uses “age-gating” technology to be compliant. Courtesy Photo Jamie Pearson Courtesy Photo