Weed-Focused Digital OOH Network Sparks Up In Marijuana Dispensaries

August 22, 2017 by Dave Haynes

The digital out of home business model that sees network operators put screens in retail venues for free, making the investment back through advertising sales, has a long history of failure. But it can work, usually when the content is focused and the potential advertisers – like pharmas – have limited options to reach consumers.

That’s why something called Cannabis Club TV may have a shot at getting a foothold in medical marijuana dispensaries, and in the increasing number of jurisdictions where recreational marijuana product sales are now legal.

The Santa Cruz, CA-based startup follows the traditional path of putting screens in venues for free, running contextually-relevant content and selling ads – with venue operators presumably (it’s not stated on the website) getting a revenue share for hosting the screen.

The pitch is: Cannabis Club TV is the first broadcasting OOH/OTTtv/PPV (Out of Home/Over the Top TV/Pay Per View) network devoted to the cannabis industry, certified by Tommy Chong – at dispensaries, on the internet, on your home TV and via a mobile app.  The rapidly-growing network produces and publishes the latest cannabis-related news, entertainment and business content straight into dispensaries’ waiting rooms and sales floors across the nation while simultaneously helping to facilitate a marketing and branding reach for businesses like never before.

By installing our proprietary broadcast hardware into high traffic well-established dispensaries, Cannabis Club TV provides solutions for brands, dispensaries, and patients.

Tommy Chong, if you are younger and perhaps not someone who’s around the weed culture, is a comedian – part of the Cheech and Chong duo that was very big among stoners in the 70s. I have not heard a Cheech and Chong bit since I was about 17 – an extraordinarily long time ago – but they’re clearly still a thing.

Chong will do a travel show that will run on the network, and presumably get made available to other mediums like streaming TV networks.

I’ve long thought this rapidly emerging industry is really well-suited to digital signage. You’ve got a lot of products with strange, unfamiliar names and properties, and limited ways to get that information across. As the industry grows, a LOT of first-time customers will be wandering in and looking for ways to get oriented. Staff are the first line of help, but if they’re busy, it will be up to marketing material.

I think promotional screens and menu displays are what dispensary operators should be putting in, and maybe my only caution to these operators is to not look at this DOOH network as THE solution. While it appears from the website there are capabilities for store operators to insert their own content in the programming, that content will not be on the screens all the time.