Constellation Brands' investment in the world’s largest publicly traded marijuana companies is already paying off.

In its earnings report Thursday morning, the company behind Corona beer, Svedka vodka, and other alcoholic beverages said its two investments into Canopy Growth Corporation has already netted it more than $1 billion in unrealized gains thanks to the marijuana producers surging stock." 

"Reported basis results reflect $639 million unrealized gain for an increase in fair value of the initial investment in Canopy Growth Corporation; $1.3 billion unrealized gain has been recognized since investment in November 2017," Constellation Brands said in its earnings release.

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BOULDER, Colo., Oct. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PRESS RELEASE -- Front Range Biosciences, an agricultural biotech company specializing in tissue culture propagation of high value crops, has announced that it has completed a $10 million Series A round of financing with participation from Phyto Partners, WelCan Capital, Salveo Capital, Cornerstone Opportunity Partners, Sand Hill Angels, Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of New York, New York Angels, Altitude Investment Management, and other new and returning investors. This marks the largest fundraising by a U.S. cannabis biotech company to date.

"This financing will help us accelerate our Clean Stock program in Colorado, California and Canada, in addition to aggressively pursuing IP development and resourcing our varietal development program for hemp and cannabis," said Dr. Jonathan Vaught, CEO and co-founder of FRB. "As cannabis and hemp legalization spreads throughout the United States and internationally, there is an increase in demand for clean, quality crops--this capital will also enable us to expand our capacity to meet a small portion of that demand. We appreciate the support from our early investors and are pleased to welcome new investors to the family as we execute on our mission to provide growers with a wide variety of disease-free and true-to-type plant stock."

"We are excited to participate in follow on funding for FRB," said Larry Schnurmacher, managing director of Phyto Partners. "The management team has been successfully executing on almost every KPI put forth in our initial due diligence and their business plan. FRB is experiencing incredible growth in a short amount of time and is poised to take an even bigger step forward as the cannabis supply chain continues to mature."

While traditional cultivation practices served the industry well in its infancy, they are unable to support the maturing cannabis industry and meet growing demand. Producers are looking to adopt scientific and modern agricultural practices that promote a robust supply chain. FRB's Clean Stock program leverages tissue culture, the sterile propagation of baby plants through duplication on a nutrient culture medium of known composition, to solve operational problems such as disease, inefficiency, inconsistency and scale.

"FRB has a proven track record of developing a unique platform to improve yield and quality within crops, particularly in the emerging hemp and marijuana space," said Michael Gruber, managing partner at Salveo Capital. "We are thrilled to have the opportunity to invest in and partner with an innovative and disruptive company that we believe has tremendous growth potential. We look forward to working collaboratively with the entire FRB team to help promote significant value creation in the business."

"We are impressed with FRB's ability to scale their business and solve a key problem in the industry. This latest round of funding demonstrates their capacity to attract capital from institutionally trained and sophisticated investors," said Vikas Desai, partner at WelCan Capital. "FRB is a prime example of a cannabis company with a deep, experienced management team and a true institutional caliber operation, with many similarities to a traditional biotech company."

In addition to hemp and cannabis, FRB also provides Clean Stock for other high-value crops including coffee. In March, the company partnered with Frinj Coffee to supply Clean Stock coffee rooting cuttings to farmers across Central and Southern California. In June, the company expanded its cannabis Clean Stock production into California through a partnership with Faith and Family Farms, a 100 percent family-owned cannabis cultivation facility located in the Salinas Valley. FRB is now taking orders for late 2018 production.

For more information on Front Range Biosciences, please visit http://www.frontrangebio.com.

As with any industry, advertising acts as a bridge between cannabis businesses and consumers. Digital advertising—meeting the people where they are, on the internet—is a growing phenomenon. But, as many cannabis business owners are finding out, the digital sphere is not always friendly to the cannabis world.

So, what’s the move?

You need to get your message in front of your prospective customer base. You need digital channels to do so. With a minefield of uncertain policies toward cannabis businesses across many of the most popular social media platforms, it’s hard to know where to allocate resources.

Dorota Umeno, principal at Canna Ventures, describes the nuances of an effective digital advertising strategy and best practices for businesses across the cannabis supply chain.

What are some common restrictions that exist for cannabis companies when it comes to digital advertising?

Cannabis references in copy, content, images are discouraged, disallowed or straight-up banned on mainstream digital advertising and social platforms. 

Cannabis industry businesses, including those offering ancillary services who want to promote themselves on any of the dominant, not-officially-cannabis-friendly advertising or social media platforms have to engage in significant self-censorship. They need to sanitize their ads or content to minimize or disappear cannabis references or keep them vague. This affects references to any components of marijuana, including terms like CBD.

For example, for the primary online advertising platforms like Google Ads (formerly AdWords) advertisers have to avoid using cannabis or related terminology in the ad copy; avoid images in display ads; and avoid both words and images on the landing page. Failing to do so might result in ads not getting approved, getting disapproved, or the account being shut down altogether. The frustrating part of this is that at times it is possible to slip some ads past the censorship, but it requires ninja skills and luck. The key to success is flexibility and creativity. Don't just have a Plan A, have a Plan B and a Plan C in place. Any campaign can be digital if there's a link bringing the audience to your website, your shopping cart, or your physical location to buy. 

Where can cannabis companies place digital ads?

Depending on the nature of the product or the service, cannabis companies may be able to advertise on mainstream platforms, like Google Ads, Bing Ads, Amazon and the social platforms. Otherwise, there is a world of more or less established cannabis friendly platforms out there, such as Mantis, Leafly, Traffic Roots, 420network, High Times and more. 

What kinds of digital advertising campaigns work well for cannabis companies?

The answer depends on the nature of the product or service being offered. The best campaign is the one that reaches your ideal audience where they are in a way that resonates, gets them to click on your ad, view your video, read your post or follow a link back to your website or physical store to learn about and buy your product or service. In our experience the best approach combines different channels and platforms to engage your audience where they may be at the time.

What website design advice can you offer cannabis companies?

Prioritize function over form. Design for clarity and ease of navigation and for mobile first. Make it easy for visitors to find and access your website, help them figure out right away who you are, what you offer, and what you want them to do with a call to action and easy to see navigation.

Visually pleasing design matters, but it is secondary to functionality navigation, good content and a bug-free, user-friendly experience. Ensure that whoever builds your website knows the best practices for technical and on page search engine optimization (SEO). 

What social media strategies can cannabis companies integrate into their digital advertising efforts?

This one is tough, because social media for cannabis companies of late has been hit or miss. Everyone has read about Facebook disappearing cannabis companies from search, [or] indiscriminately banning pages also on Instagram. Some companies are able to successfully maintain a presence on social media platforms by being very careful to avoid overt references to cannabis or related terms and keeping images neutral. Those companies can benefit from content boosting and advertising, and attracting engagement and sharing, and even sales through a social presence. A consistent content strategy with posting and boosting works best, but proceed with caution. 

What are some overall digital advertising best practices for cannabis companies?

Keep it stealth, avoid overt references to cannabis on mainstream platforms. Have a Plan B in place in case your Plan A does not work out. Do not put all your eggs in one basket, have creative ready to run on multiple platforms and deploy with caution. Hire an experienced digital agency.

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During her treatment for breast cancer, Mary Paris couldn’t sleep. Her pain was “horrible,” she said. Until, she said, a doctor explained how medical marijuana might help her.

The 60-year-old Mundelein resident, who said her cancer has metastasized to her bones, said that using medical marijuana helps her not only sleep, but also feel improved mobility with less pain.

Like Paris, many cancer patients in Illinois are seeking medical marijuana throughout and after their treatment.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, between 2014 — when it began approving applications for medical marijuana — and September 2017, it had OK’d 24,000 patients. A year later, the total is 44,000.

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