from BNN - this weekScotts Miracle-Gro taking long-term view of legal cannabis market Lawn and garden giant Scotts Miracle-Gro is taking a very long view of the U.S. cannabis industry as it looks to establish itself as a key player in a post-legalization world, CNN reports. The company’s Hawthorne Gardening Company subsidiary has added several products and companies to position itself as the leading seller of cannabis-growing equipment such as hydroponics and lighting. Hawthorne accounted for nearly 30 per cent, or US$1.4 billion, of Scotts' overall sales in 2021, an increase of 25 per cent a year prior, CNN said. Another Scotts subsidiary funded RIV Capital’s purchase of a New York-based dispensary, positioning the company to eventually own a plant-touching business.
Marketing pot to consumers in the metaverse
The metaverse may be the next frontier that cannabis companies turn to in the latest effort to reach out to fickle consumers, The Wall Street Journal reports. The buzzy, Web3 platform is seen as a “wide open space” for cannabis marketers to be able to discuss their products without the same restrictions they could find on other social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. One dispensary opened its digital shop on a metaverse-like platform called Cryptovoxels, which has seen more than 1,000 people visit it each day even if they can’t purchase any items there, the WSJ said. Kandy Girl, another brand that sells infused gummies, bought land on the Decentraland platform and has sold more than US$30,000 worth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the WSJ reported. “When there’s a million people logged into a metaverse at any given time, that’s when it is going to make sense to staff [a virtual] dispensary with a real live human being,” said Ben Boyce, Kandy Girl’s head of marketing.