Do I Have to Be a Big MSO to Afford a PR Retainer?
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Multistate operators play a significant role in the cannabis industry. They’re some of the most recognized, mainstream brand names in the biz, and they have the funds and clout to back legalization movements across the country.
According to Cannabis Business Times, just eight MSOs operated nearly 800 cannabis dispensaries nationwide in 2023. That’s a lot of green. But to answer a common question asked by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) eyeing their advertising budgets and wondering how to gain an edge against their large-scale competitors, no—you don’t have to be a big MSO to afford a PR retainer.
B2C cannabis businesses of all sizes need brand recognition to move product into customers’ hands, and hopefully into their regular rotation. And B2B cannabis brands not only need to raise their public profile, they might also have to educate potential clients about the need for, say, genetics consulting or enterprise resource planning software. Getting the word out starts with PR.
Public relations, at its simplest, is nurturing media relationships and executing strategic communications to raise an individual or business’ positive public reputation. It requires a solid strategy, good timing and, above all, consistency. That’s where a public relations retainer comes in—paying for PR services a la carte makes it harder to hit those carefully crafted, pitch-perfect messaging notes again and again over the long-term.
That’s something that SMEs and boutique brands need just as much, if not more, than enterprise-scale conglomerates. By Q3 of 2023, there were over 42,000 active cannabis business licenses in the United States; just 300 of those companies were publicly traded, and another 2,000 were social equity licensees.
Meanwhile, tribally-owned dispensaries increased by 25% in that same year, particularly in states like Minnesota and New York, where cannabis legalization policy prioritized the needs of small business owners. Each of those licensed businesses has a story to tell their customers, from announcing a grand opening in local media markets to touting a success story in industry trade publications.
It’s simply not true that the majority of cannabis businesses should miss out on all the benefits of a PR retainer just because they don’t have a multistate footprint. Green Market Report found that by 2023, the valuations of smaller cannabis companies were nearly equal to that of larger businesses—rapidly narrowing a gap defined by market capitalization and liquidity. And consumer research across industries suggests that people actually want to shop small.
The Power of a PR Retainer
Indeed, independent cannabis brands should invest in PR for many of the same reasons why it’s a mistake for businesses of any size to cut PR and marketing budgets during an economic downturn.
So, how does a PR retainer work? It’s simple—for a flat monthly fee, brands receive a set number of hours of an agency’s time, which can be used for a wide variety of services: from proactive pitching product launches, store openings and collaborative partnerships, to crisis communications to media training. And those cannabis public relations services have wide-ranging benefits for companies of all sizes. With a reputable PR partner, small to medium-sized cannabis businesses can:
- Gain market visibility
- Build trust and credibility
- Establish brand executives as cannabis thought leaders
- Encourage customer retention and loyalty
- Maintain community engagement
- Move from local media coverage to regional or national outlets and name-brand cover stories
- Counter competitors' messaging
- Highlight innovative collaborations and brand activations to reach new audiences
- Leverage national and viral news moments into cultural relevance with newsjacking
Of course, brands can purchase those services a la carte at many agencies—including Grasslands, which does offer news release development on a project basis. That said, a PR retainer gives both brands and the agencies that serve them greater flexibility and opportunity to stoke attention for the long term.
Take cannabis distributor Nabis, for example. When the California company first started working with Grasslands, it was a fresh Y Combinator-minted startup. Today, Nabis has grown into California’s biggest cannabis distributor and operates in multiple state markets. The Nabis executive team has worked incredibly hard to scale their business. With PR efforts to match, Nabis’s media coverage scaled too, reaching national publications like Business Insider, Bloomberg and Fast Company, among others.
Or consider Embarc, a family of neighborhood dispensaries that facilitated cannabis sales and consumption at the 2024 California State Fair for the first time in the expo’s 170-year history. With a smart PR strategy powered by Grasslands, Embarc leveraged its historic collaboration with the California State Fair and numerous cannabis brands into regional and national media coverage in outlets like the LA Times, ABC News, NBC News, Yahoo and MSN. Embarc is no longer “just” a California retail brand; it’s an indelible highlight in the story of legalization, its consumer recognition got serious juice and it’s a source of inspiration for other brands looking to make their mark.
Nabis and Embarc are great examples, too, of how PR for cannabis businesses is PR for the cannabis industry as a whole. Until federal rescheduling (and full descheduling) come to pass, one of the most powerful narratives cannabis brands have at their disposal is a David-and-Goliath story of small, diverse business owners fighting federal prohibition and staking their own claim in a crowded market.
There are a lot of ways to maximize ROI on the investment in a PR retainer too. For example, small to midsize cannabis businesses can leverage cannabis PR to level the playing field with their bigger, better-funded competitors. Utilizing PR and marketing tactics to attract investors can be a potent approach to brand growth, especially in an industry where capital can be harder to come by than more traditional CPG sectors.
A PR retainer also makes it easier to craft echo strategies that extend the life of a news hit. With the right echo strategy, a great article can be transformed into marketing content that draws leads into the top of a brand’s sales funnel and pushes them toward a sale. From social media posts to case studies to marketing automation and becoming a speaker at cannabis industry conferences, there are all sorts of ways to amplify communications.
“Good PR pays for itself,” says Grasslands Account Executive Andre Hascall. “When brands see the value, the cost isn’t top of mind.”
Learn more about Grasslands Agency’s strategic marketing services and our proven process for brand building.