Cannabis PR

Cannabis PR is the practice of earning media coverage and credibility for licensed cannabis businesses — getting operators quoted in trade and mainstream business press, booked on podcasts, published in industry outlets, and represented accurately when consumers ask AI assistants about brands and dispensaries. It combines media relations, normalization storytelling, awards, and generative engine optimization (GEO) — all within strict, state-by-state advertising rules.

The fastest paths are answering journalist requests from cannabis and business reporters on HARO, Connectively, X, and LinkedIn; pitching sales data that tells the industry's business story; operator bylines on compliance and retail; podcast guest spots; and industry awards. Featured surfaces all of these in one chat and drafts responses that avoid health claims and respect your market's rules.

PR budgets vary widely with scope, goals, and the partners involved. Featured itself is free to start, with paid plans at $39/month (Lite) and $79/month (Pro, billed annually) — and every plan includes every capability: journalist requests, podcasts, bylines, awards, monitoring, and GEO tracking. Many cannabis companies and their agency partners run Featured alongside their existing PR programs.

GEO is the practice of improving how AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini describe your brand. When consumers ask about dispensaries or products in your state, those answers are built from press coverage, reviews, and industry content — and AI systems treat the category cautiously, making accurate earned media matter more. Featured audits your AI visibility and flags mischaracterizations.

AI engines cite brands that appear consistently across credible sources: cannabis trades, mainstream business coverage, retail data cited by media, and podcasts. That means earned media is the input to AI visibility. Run a GEO audit to see where you stand today, then close the gap with journalist requests, bylines, and podcast placements — and measure weekly.

Yes. Featured owns and operates HARO (Help a Reporter Out) and Connectively, and an expert is connected with a publisher every 6 seconds across the platforms. Cannabis topics — rescheduling, hemp-derived products, dispensary retail trends — are among the most frequently requested source categories, and Featured matches you to relevant queries automatically.

Ask Featured to build a media list of reporters who have covered your topic in the last 90 days — for example, “journalists writing about cannabis beverage growth.” You'll get names, outlets, beats, and recent headlines, so every pitch references the reporter's actual work instead of going in cold.

Journalist-request responses can land placements within days, since reporters are on deadline. Bylines and podcasts typically take 2–8 weeks from pitch to publish, plus compliance review for your markets. AI visibility moves more slowly: expect roughly 1–3 months for new coverage to shift how AI assistants answer, which is why continuous tracking beats one-off audits.

Licensed operators and dispensary owners, MSO comms teams, ancillary brands, and agencies scaling compliant coverage for cannabis clients. Agencies are among Featured's power users: the co-pilot handles opportunity discovery, drafting, and monitoring around the clock, so strategists can spend their time on messaging, relationships, and counsel.

Start with industry award programs and best-of lists, checking state eligibility, then let Featured track entry windows and criteria. For podcasts, Featured's database tracks 814,000 active shows; describe your operation in plain language and it returns cannabis business shows that actually book licensed operators.