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Durée & Company Takes Home a 2023 Cannabis Marketing Association Seven Award

By August 15, 2023No Comments

A testament to Durée & Company’s established and esteemed cannabis public relations practice, we are pleased to announce that we are the sole winner in the “Best Use of PR” category for the 2023, first annual Cannabis Marketing Association Seven Awards! We won for our work with Columbia Care/Cannabist’s launch in West Virginia, a new cannabis market.

Duree & Company President and Founder Durée Ross accepted the award in person on June 23, 2023, at the Cannabis Marketing Association Seven Awards Show, held at the 2023 Cannabis Marketing Summit in Denver, Colorado. She was at the conference to give a presentation on crisis communication, through a special invite from the event organizers.

Our established cannabis practice and multifaceted work with brands in the cannabis space laid the groundwork for a very successful partnership with multi-state operator (MSO) Columbia Care and the expansion of its Cannabist brand in a number of U.S. markets. The PR/awareness campaign, with a goal to increase medical card holders plus advancement of medical cannabis use in West Virginia, happened from February–March 2022.

With Cannabist’s plans to enter the new medical market of West Virginia in five cities across the state, we created a campaign to position Cannabist as the go-to resource for a friendly, uncomplicated shopping experience for medical marijuana patients.

Medical marijuana was legalized in West Virginia in 2017, but the program only began implementation in 2021 following county approvals, with the first Cannabist dispensary opening in February 2022. Through proactive community outreach and a variety of earned media placements in February and March 2022, we had a unique opportunity to not only launch Cannabist in the state but to lay the groundwork for the store as a trusted leader in West Virginia.

Holding itself and the brands it carries to a higher standard, Cannabist is passionate about creating a space where all are welcome and only the best cannabis products are on the shelves. In developing our campaign, we were guided by Cannabist’s mission of delivering a ‘higher experience’ through its three brand pillars: higher standard, higher knowledge and higher calling.

Cannabis Marketing Summit Photo By CannabisCamera.com

By the end of the campaign, we garnered more than 64 million media impressions in just over two months. The media coverage helped to establish Columbia Care/Cannabist as a leading player in the cannabis industry in West Virginia and helped raise awareness about the benefits of cannabis products and educate the public about the safety and legality of using them.

We work with clients from multi-state operators to labs to cannabis lawyers and more, up and down the cannabis supply chain. For more information about Durée & Company’s cannabis practice, visit our cannabismarketingpr.com microsite, dedicated to our practice providing PR and marketing for clients in the booming CBD, hemp and cannabis industries.

Also for more information, call our Fort Lauderdale office at 954.723.9350, our Aspen office at 970.452.2195, or email us at info@dureeandcompany.com.

 

About Durée & Company, Inc.

Founded in 1999, Durée & Company is a full-service, well-respected and highly creative public relations and marketing agency serving a diverse client base of local, national and international consumer brands, landmark industries, business leaders and philanthropists from its offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Aspen, Colorado. Practice areas include nonprofit, hospitality, business, lifestyle, health and wellness, legal, real estate, yacht and marine as well as cannabis, psychedelics, and other emerging industries. Durée & Company is a member of some of the nation’s most elite professional organizations including PR Boutiques International™ (PRBI), The Florida Hemp Council, The Cannabis Marketing Association and is a corporate partner of Cannabis LAB. To learn more, call 954-723-9350; go to dureeandcompany.com; cannabismarketingpr.com; or psychedelicpr.com. Join the social conversation and follow Durée & Company on Facebook, Instagram, TwitterYouTube and LinkedIn at @DureeCoPR.

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