Valoya Announces Its Spectrum Technology Licensing Program
The LED grow light manufacturer has announced a licensing program making its patented technology available to LED manufacturers and horticultural LED fixture providers.
PRESS RELEASE - Valoya, the research driven LED grow light manufacturer, has announced a licensing program making their patented technology available to LED manufacturers and horticultural LED fixture providers.
Valoya’s extensive patent portfolio in the field of horticultural LED lighting is a result of significant innovation and investments into R&D over the past 11 years. The patents are in the field of light spectra for plant cultivation and lighting applications. At the moment, the portfolio consists over 100 patents, all of which can be reviewed at valoya.com/patents.
"We have always been curious about the possibilities of light and how its potential could be pushed further to make cultivation of crops we use for food or medicine production more efficient. When we started in 2009, LED meant piercing purple light produced by red and blue chips. We were the first to apply wide spectrum LED light to plants in our experiments and to introduce wide spectrum light to the market. We are now in a business phase where we can extend this intellectual property and know-how to other companies wishing to produce premium quality horticultural LED luminaires through our licensing program," comments Lars Aikala, the CEO and co-founder of Valoya.
The research and development at Valoya does not stop. "After having conducted over 600 plant trials on over 300 plant varieties/species, we have an understanding of plant response to light, unmatched by other LED companies in the market. The focus remains on advancing horticulture through developing even better spectra and helping our customers grow. We are happy we get to share this expertise with other companies now," comments Nemanja Rodic, marketing director of Valoya.
To learn more about Valoya's patent licensing program, please click here.
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In the Face of Restrictions and Limited Channels, Cannabis Marketers Turn to Out-of-Home Advertising–Here’s the Right Way to Do It
Cannabis brands are faced with significant challenges in their marketing efforts, but out-of-home advertising has emerged as the advertising channel of choice for many businesses.
The continued legalization of cannabis across the U.S. is expected to drive a surge in advertising spending in the coming years. Case in point, market and consumer data provider Statista projects that ad spending by cannabis companies in North America will grow from $661 million in 2018 to $3.89 billion over a 10-year period.
While growth expectations are dramatic and impressive, cannabis brands are faced with significant challenges in their marketing efforts. Many channels, including Google and Facebook, do not accept cannabis ads, and the ones that do come with many complex restrictions.
In these relatively early days of cannabis legality, out-of-home (OOH) advertising has emerged as the advertising channel of choice for cannabis brands. In addition to being one of the few remaining mediums capable of reaching a mass audience, OOH offers fewer restrictions than other channels, is cost effective for early-stage brands, and is proven to influence consumer attitudes and behaviors like web or foot-traffic to dispensaries.
But OOH planning for cannabis brands also requires awareness and real-time tracking of the ever-changing labyrinth of regulations and laws dictating where advertising can be placed and what can be shown in an ad. These laws differ not only by state, but by county and individual municipality. And with more than 1.5 million screens and displays, the U.S. OOH market is complex even for a traditional brand, let alone one that also has to navigate numerous restrictions on content and placement.
However, with investments and advancements in data aggregation technologies and the emergence of new campaign planning tools and platforms, it is possible for cannabis brands to quickly and safely leverage OOH to grow their businesses.
By adhering to these five key considerations, cannabis brands can leverage OOH safely, legally and effectively.
1. Look Before Leaping
Cannabis legalization occurs on a state-by-state basis. No two states have exactly the same sets of laws and guidelines. As a once-banned activity becomes legal in a given state, there is a rush to market with a flood of advertising activity. Take the time to truly understand the regulatory nature, and any sensitivities, before launching headlong into your advertising efforts.
2. Be Mindful of the Space You Are In
Yes, new data-driven planning tools and platforms enable the quick and easy identification of usable and compliant locations. However, even after ensuring that the selected inventory complies with all the necessary regulations, consider whether the message is truly appropriate for the community and surrounding areas where it will be seen. Just because you can promote your product on a particular OOH screen doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Criticism and community blowback come into play, even when you’re operating within your legal rights.
3. Create a Sense of Shared Accountability
Sometimes, despite best efforts, issues arise. Have a plan in place ahead of time to manage complaints, incoming press inquiries or any other speed bumps. Establish a culture of shared accountability among all partners so that issues can be tackled quickly and effectively.
4. Leverage Partners
Today, any company can easily buy a billboard by calling up the media owner, but by working with an OOH specialist agency, cannabis brands can access a wider range of opportunities and capitalize on the experience and volume they manage to secure the very best locations and audiences for the best price. Specialist partners can also make it easier to navigate the complexities of OOH campaigns with turn-key and end-to-end solutions covering planning, execution, price negotiation, payment and reporting.
5. Ensure Every Channel Has a Seat at Your Table
Finally, too often, OOH is added on at the end of the wider planning process, as a secondary consideration or something “nice to have.” This is true both for cannabis and mainstream brands. To maximize the role of all channels in a marketing plan, bring everyone to the table from day one as the strategy is being developed. Marrying the vision from the start ensures ideas come to life across every brand communication and creates greater chance of success in delivering on business objectives.
Shabnam Irilian is managing director for Talon Outdoor, an out-of-home agency delivering creative, technology-led and integrated OOH communications.
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Colorado CBD Product Manufacturers May Sell Into State-Licensed Cannabis Dispensaries
Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division has issued a clarifying memo on how industrial hemp businesses may interact with the state-licensed cannabis market.
Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) has issued a clarifying memo on how industrial hemp businesses may interact with the state-licensed cannabis market (adult-use and medical cannabis dispensaries, as well as product manufacturers). While some states have begun to debate how the hemp industry may work with the THC-laden cannabis industry, Colorado’s latest compliance tip explains one way forward.
Industrial hemp companies may not transfer any plant material (flower, trim, fan leaves or whole plant) to any licensed cannabis business.
Rather, those industrial hemp companies may provide other manufactured products, included concentrated extracted cannabinoids, to food and storage facilities registered by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Those businesses may then work with licensed cannabis testing companies to acquire a certificate of analysis before selling into adult-use and medical dispensaries. (Required testing for industrial hemp products includes potency, microbial contaminant, residual solvent contaminant and metals contaminant testing.)
This new policy will go into effect July 1.
In 2020, Colorado is anticipating upwards of 120,000 acres of hemp. The latest MED compliance tip (and others like it) arrives at a time when the state is considering how best to shape its hemp program—with a wary eye cast toward the expiration of the 2014 Farm Bill provisions later this year. Beginning with next year’s planting season, states will need to conform to USDA oversight granted by the 2018 Farm Bill. Some states, like Ohio, have already done this. Colorado is sticking with the rather looser, more research-oriented 2014 Farm Bill rules for this year.
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NACB Recommends Regional Cannabis Legalization Strategy in the Northeast and Midwest as States Reopen
Mark Gorman, the association’s executive VP and COO, says adult-use cannabis legalization can provide states with a new source of revenue as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Association of Cannabis Businesses (NACB) is urging the governors of seven Northeastern and seven Midwestern states to adopt a regional cannabis legalization strategy as states reopen following the COVID-19 pandemic in a move that Mark Gorman, the association’s executive vice president and COO, says will provide states with a new source of revenue as they face budget deficits in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
“Their budgets are going to be really stressed, jobs are going to be hard to come by and this is an industry … that can be an economic engine to bring some vitality back to the economy,” Gorman told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.
NACB, an organization that creates national standards for the cannabis industry, sent letters to the governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Massachusetts in the Northeast, as well as to the governors of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kentucky in the Midwest, highlighting the benefits that a coordinated regional approach to adult-use legalization could create for industry stakeholders, such as the adoption of standards regarding quality controlled manufacturing, as well as responsible advertising and marketing programs.
“The organization started out a few years ago with a great idea, which is to create responsibility standards for the cannabis industry,” Gorman said.
To date, the NACB has adopted national standards for packaging and labeling, advertising, lab testing, security, infused products production and storage, and hemp in an effort to help create transparent industry regulations.
“For cannabis, it’s the Wild West out there in terms of advertising and marketing, and it’s probably not something the industry is going to be able to get away with, the more it becomes legalized,” Gorman said. “One of the things that NACB is trying to do is create a responsibility standard for the industry that will actually help to move legalization further ahead.”
A regional approach to adult-use legalization, he added, would allow both cannabis businesses and consumers to more easily grasp the industry’s regulations in the absence of federal regulation, as well as prepare the industry for federal legalization.
“That’s going to kick off a whole new ballgame—it’s going to be like interstate commerce,” Gorman said. “[This] way, you’ll already have a consistent set of rules, at least more consistent than you would otherwise have.”
While NACB is currently drafting its specific recommendations for a regional legalization strategy, Gorman said consistent tax policies and rules governing the sale of cannabis would be a good place to start.
“Having some unity there … is helpful for the consumers and it’s going to be helpful for the businesses, too,” he said. “There is a lot of money to be made in state excise taxes and sales taxes from legalization, and a lot of jobs to be created. I think it’s a benefit to the state if they’re not competing with each other on legal policies, retail sales policies and distribution policies.”
Even social equity policies could be considered at the regional level, Gorman added, to help states advance that aspect of their adult-use cannabis programs.
“These aren’t big, aggressive, new ideas—we’re just trying to get sensible rules to allow people to continue to make a living,” he said. “I think it’s time somebody in this industry tries to bring some unity to the task of writing rules and regulations to govern this industry."
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Industry Groups Launch ‘Hemp for Our Future’ Campaign as Coronavirus Crisis Continues Devastation in Health Care Sector
The campaign echoes the “Hemp for Victory” film that the U.S. government produced and distributed during World War II.
The “Hemp for Our Future” campaign is a new social responsibility effort that shines a spotlight on the possibilities of the hemp crop at a particularly fraught juncture in the industry. Not only is hemp a relatively new legal crop for American farmers, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has quickly changed how industries work to support one another.
Hemp farmers around the U.S. will join forces with industry groups and other private businesses to produce and donate certain goods and materials for frontline health care workers. These may include food, clothing, hand sanitizers (produced in newly converted processing facilities) and personal protective equipment.
"One in seven people in Kentucky were struggling with hunger before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and now that number is even bigger," said Chad Rosen, CEO of Kentucky-based Victory Hemp Foods, in a public statement. His company contributed hundreds of pounds of hemp hearts to local food banks. "As a superfood ingredient manufacturer, we are trying to do what we can with what we have to help the greatest number of people. We decided to start by donating hundreds of pounds of nutrient-dense hemp hearts to food banks in the communities where we live. We are also encouraging others to take similar action, because even small acts can have a big impact.”
The campaign echoes the “Hemp for Victory” film that the U.S. government produced and distributed during World War II. At the time, another critical moment of crisis for the country, American farmers were encouraged to grow hemp crops to support the war effort and develop fiber materials for the military. The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, a prohibition on the crop, was briefly lifted for just this purpose.
"Hemp for Our Future is currently focused on helping health care workers and others on the frontline of the COVID-19 crisis, but the network we have created will be able to continue doing good well into the future," said Hemp for Our Future co-founder Courtney Moran, of Agricultural Hemp Solutions, in a public statement. "It is a meaningful way in which we can unite and strengthen this new industry, while also illuminating the utility and sustainability of this amazing crop. Now that commercial hemp production is federally legal in the U.S., we can put it to use to meet our country's industrial material needs, while also regenerating our soils and rural economies."
The campaign was co-founded by Vicente Sederberg LLP, Agricultural Hemp Solutions and Friends of Hemp. Shawn Hauser, partner and chair of Vicente Sederberg's Hemp & Cannabinoid Law Practice Group, said in an interview with Hemp Grower that the crop is positioned in 2020 as a helpful vehicle for real chance and impact in the U.S.
"Hemp is uniquely suited to be utilized for thousands of product types, from textiles, to plastics, to super foods, topicals, building materials—the list goes on," she said. "As we see front line workers in need of everything from food to durable clothing material, as we see masks becoming standard uniform for our country, and as we see businesses innovate utilizing shields and separation mechanisms to operate safely, hemp materials are a clear solution. Hemp, a natural plant fiber, is a non-toxic, durable, and often bio-degradable material that has a host of beneficial properties. Making materials out of hemp, rather than many alternatives, is good for our planet."
"Hemp for Our Future" member organizations as of late May include:
Agricultural Hemp Solutions
Cannabis Doing Good
Colorado Hemp Company
Colorado Hemp Industries Association
EARTH Law LLC
Friends of Hemp
Hemp History Week
Hemp Industries Association
Hemp Road Trip
National Cannabis Industry Association
National Hemp Association
OP Innovates
Oregon Industrial Hemp Farmers Association
Oregon State University Global Hemp Innovation Center
Texas Hemp Educational Organization
U.S. Hemp Building Association
U.S. Hemp Growers Conferences & Expo
Vicente Sederberg LLP
Virginia Industrial Hemp Coalition
Vote Hemp
"Growers can connect with others who are involved in their communities to ensure supply for the materials that could be helpful to their community," Hauser said. "Through the Hemp for Our Future website, companies will be able to connect with others involved in their community."
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