Ep 52 - The accidental ganjapreneur, CampNova coincidental beginnings. An interview w/ Marvin Wilcher, CEO & Co-founder

We got a chance to interview Marvin Wilcher, CEO & Co-founder at CampNova during Mjbizcon 2021 in Las Vegas.  Who is Marvin and CampNova?   

CampNova is an e-commerce, technology marketing platform developed by experienced cannabis entrepreneurs. A premier cannabis and CBD destination, CampNova is a direct-to-consumers platform featuring delivery partners throughout the state of California. CampNova features brands, bonus limited edition exclusive releases from celebrities featuring pro-athletes, actors and influencers. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles and Oakland, California. 

CampNova also partnered with an impressive roster of cannabis brands associated with Tommy Chong, Julian Marley, The Game, Santana—and Mickey Hart of Grateful Dead fame, to name a few of the brands.  You can buy the best influencer cannabis brands.  Check out this episode to learn more about their influencer cannabis brands....

Connect w/ Marvin:
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Remember to subscribe to be notified of our next episode.  Check out our website for all of your Cannabis PR Solutions.  


 

Transcript

Ronjini Joshua: 0:05

Today we got to interview Marvin Wilcher, the CEO of Camp Nova. And if you remember, we did talk to Emery Morrison, quite a few episodes ago about what they're doing with camp green and camp Nova. But he kind of takes us back to the beginning of how he got lucky by getting into the cannabis industry kind of just by happenstance. So here, Marvin story. And let's dive into the green room now. We are here today with Marvin Wilcher, the CEO and founder of Camp Nova. Hi, Marvin, how you how you doing? Good, good. I'm excited to have you here and talk about, um, you know, mjbizcon, but also just kind of kept Nova and what you guys are doing with influencers? So first, I'd like to kind of start off your journey, how you got here, how you got started, and kind of tell us a little bit about your experience your cannabis experience?

Marvin Wilcher: 0:58

Yeah, well, you know, many years ago, back in like, 2005, I bought a property up in Yolo. County. And it was just sort of a place for us to kind of hang out on the weekend or whatever. It's like 20 acres. And, you know, had just been using it for those purposes. One of my neighbors came across to me, and he said, Hey, look, you know, I was thinking about moving these cultivators who are on my property, I got to move them because I've leased my property out to somebody else. Do you mind taking these guys? And I was like, Well, sure. But you know, is this legal? And he was like, Yeah, of course. It's legal. No, no problem. I'm like, Are you sure? He's like, Yeah, of course, I'm sure. And I'm like, okay, so came over, started talking with the guys. And then I was like, Well, what are we going to charge it? And of course, he says, well, let's charge him. $80,000. I was like, what? $80,000? Like, what do you mean to say, they're gonna they're gonna own my property? Yeah. Oh, yeah. selling the house, right? And he's like, no, no, no, is and they only need us like four or five acres. I was like, Oh, my God. So once that happened, I was in the cannabis business, right. So we did lease that the property that year was a successful grow. And then we started looking into it. And so ultimately, what we ended up doing was, we made sure that those guys got legal, we ended up with nine licenses. And that was back at the beginning of when legalization was taking place. So that was sort of my entry point into the cannabis business.

Ronjini Joshua: 2:25

And then from there, you guys did some other things around. So like, you're developing a influencer program, basically, around cam Nova, tell us a little bit about how that kind of picked up and got started?

Marvin Wilcher: 2:36

Yes, we'll see. To really understand how that flow goes. You have to go back to almost 2015. In 2015, Emory and I, my partner, we had a company that we founded called Wild stop, right. And that company was about mobile devices. So we had designed the program where we were going to literally have influencers, Justin Bieber, pretty much high profile guys, that would have their own phones, right? Yeah. So we designed to deal we worked it out with HTC. We were gearing up for it. It was pretty exciting. And were

Ronjini Joshua: 3:10

you guys like taking a beat from like Nike? Is it kind of like, you know, how athletes partnered with shoes, it's kind of the same.

Marvin Wilcher: 3:17

That really does have sort of the same vibe. Yeah. And we looked at that we did even some research on that. And we're like, Okay, we'll be the first ones here. Yeah, this and you know, at some point in the future, everybody will have, you know, the influencer phone. Right, right. So we were like, Okay, let's roll. And we started things moving. And it was almost ready to the point where we're about ready to launch. And then that was when HTC was having some challenges. And they sold that whole operation to Google. So once they sold that whole operation to Google, then we were left with very little options, because they sort of came to us at that point said, we're not going to be able to make the phone that we agreed to make, because we just sold this operation. Right. So what do you want to do? Right? It's like, okay, so you know, obviously, Emory and I were a little disappointed. We had put in actually years into putting that together, of course. And that was where we were like, well, you know what, Marvin, you're in the cannabis business. Now. How about if we just kind of figure out how to do this in the cannabis space. And that really was where we started thinking about how to do it. And that's when sort of the idea of Camp Nova was born.

Ronjini Joshua: 4:22

Yeah. So I really love that like the brands like how you're bringing the brands and the influencers together. And obviously influencer relations, especially in PR and marketing is like a big thing. So tell us, how do you work with the brands? Like, what kind of brands are you developing? And then how are you getting them to partner with the

Marvin Wilcher: 4:40

so so we we approach this in a couple of different ways? Like let's just talk for a moment about influencers, right? So the influencer side of the business here is really about we do a couple of things. One, we can take any product that in existence right now, and we can put it on our platform, sort of to create a profile where they have their product for sale, they have a video, which is sort of their pitch to the customer to get the vibe or whatever it is, they have photos, they have music, whatever it is that they want sorted represent their brand, you know, they can do this right here on the platform. So

Ronjini Joshua: 5:15

it's like a fan site,

Marvin Wilcher: 5:16

it is more right with a call to action to buy their specific product. Got it, right. So if you were to go and you look at meth man or somebody and you said, hey, look, here it is, look at the product. And then now just buy it that that platform does allow for that. That's what we've done there on that side. So we can bring on almost anybody in that regard. On the flip side, we're actually developing direct partnerships, right? So we signed to deal with two chains. So we'll help develop the brand from square one. Okay, okay, like everything that we can do from, you know, taking the logo and taking whatever is already there, and putting the packaging together and doing all that. And then setting up relationships with delivery operations, retailers, you know, distributors, all that stuff, we're sort of bringing somebody who's an influencer that has a market, bringing them into the business, right? And we handle all of it's kind of keep the paperwork minimal for them. Right. So that's really sort of the the two different sides and existing brands and we bring on and the ones that we help develop and bring them about.

Ronjini Joshua: 6:26

Okay, so you're basically saying like, let's say I was a, an entertainment entertainer. Yeah. And I come to you and say, hey, you know, I'm really interested in in developing a cannabis brand that from there. Yes, sir. From there?

Marvin Wilcher: 6:39

Yes, we would start from exactly that moment, we talked about your fan base, we talked about the kind of things that you want to do to kind of figure out the mood, yes. And then sort of understand your profile, okay. And then because there are some people who are like, Well, I only want to do CBD, I don't want to do the THC. I only want to do health products. I don't want to do high products, right? I want to do beauty or this or that. There's different sort of models based on the personality. And then we help develop that out and then build all of the marketing pieces around that.

Ronjini Joshua: 7:14

So what about on the other side? Like the product side? What products do you work with? To? Like, how do you match them up with a product? That's right for them?

Marvin Wilcher: 7:22

Yeah, well, that that's that is really sort of, like as an example, what if somebody says they only want to do super, super premium stuff, right? That's my brand. I'm like, top of the line kind of guy or girl, and I don't want to deal with anything less than, you know, Rolls Royce quality. So then what we would do is we would go out and find partners in the cannabis business that are cultivators or whatever, that are actually making premium products. Okay, right. There's where we then connect with them, bring them together and say, look, here's the most premium we can get. Here's all the marketing is does this work? And we bring those pieces together.

Ronjini Joshua: 8:03

Okay. So I mean, I think, you know, we're in an industry conference, obviously, this con. So, from a brand perspective, if I wanted to say like, Hey, Marvin matched me up with an influencer? Yeah. Like, is that an opportunity as well?

Marvin Wilcher: 8:16

So yeah, there's, there's also sort of like, what you would consider, you know, like, a representative of a brand. Right? Right. So if you want it to rep brand, yeah, and be out there and promote and help support a brand, then we would find some way for matching you with somebody who wanted a rep. And we would just figure that out, work out the deal, work out the paperwork, and you would be sort of one of the reps for that particular brand. It's

Ronjini Joshua: 8:45

kind of like, you know, when you go to the airport, and you see all the like, ads for like perfume and watches, you see all the celebrities and you're like, Okay, this person's with Rolex, or with Chanel, or whatever. Yeah, okay. Okay. That's very cool. I mean, like, I know, I remember speaking with Emery on the podcast before, and he's talking about his background in entertainment. So um, how do you guys I mean, that seems really like the influences you you're using are obviously like, really top tier like entertainers. So how do you guys like navigate that relationship? And how do you find out who wants to do what?

Marvin Wilcher: 9:18

What we do have a team? Yeah, of course. Yeah, we have. We have quite a few people who put the time effort and energy in sort of on a daily basis to not only market but to sort of create some relationships. Emrys focuses more on the marketing side. Yeah, I'm more sort of focused on the operational side of the business. Gotcha. But you know, what that team is really trying to do is keep their eyes open their ears open, reaching out, making connections, talking with, you know, whoever their representatives might be, and just trying to feel it out and see where it is. Sometimes you just run across people like we run across some skaters. And they're sort of they don't have to have like a huge following, but they You may have a very loyal following. And so we then start to learn about him and, you know, follow up until we put a deal together. But just generally, we've got a team of folks that are out there knocking on doors, talking to people trying to find sort of the right match of influencers. And of course, here's the interesting thing about you know, once you get into this, you find yourself almost as artists management, yeah, right. Yeah, that's this is a, this is a part that, you know, Emery is always reminding me about, like, what you're kind of getting in here to being, you know, artists manager, potentially a babysitter, all kinds of things that you could do here, when you when you go down this path, right? And that's sort of fortunately for me, that's sort of their side,

Ronjini Joshua: 10:43

you're like, I'm not touching it.

Marvin Wilcher: 10:44

Exactly. I'm gonna do that stuff. But you know, that's one of the things plus and minus about being in the space is that you really will have to manage relationships with people who are creative and dynamic and unique and sometimes even strange, right? That that, but that's what makes them incredible sometimes, right? Yeah. So you know, that is a real business in itself? Well, I

Ronjini Joshua: 11:11

mean, I, this is really interesting, because we talk a lot about the future of marketing, PR. I mean, obviously, I'm a PR person. So we talk a lot about what that's gonna look like what influencer relations look like. We've been talking about, like professional entertainers that are kind of well known in the music industry. But what about like, influencers that are like tick tock influencers and Instagram influencers? I imagine they could be doing the same stuff with the brand, too,

Marvin Wilcher: 11:34

they absolutely could. So one of the cores of what Wildstar was about was is about fans equals fanatics, right? And the fans, the abbreviation of that right fanatics is really about people and their, their sort of loyalty to you and their willingness to buy your products. Right. And so from that standpoint, you know, you can have people who have lots and lots and lots of followers, but sometimes those followers are not willing to buy product, right? Yeah, then you could have people that just have like 30,000 followers, and every single one of those follow, buy something or buy something. And so now you're really trying to judge and figure out which one of the ones that you want to go after. But you know, that is again, part of it. And that's where, since you've got tick tock, and people like that, and there's all these different platforms tick tock says new ones, some of those people have 345 million people. Yeah, you know, or more. Yeah, right, who are really following them? There's no reason why we can't go to some of those people. Yeah. And bring those people over. Yeah. But the process of developing brands is not one that just happens overnight. You know what I'm saying? So yes, we will definitely be looking at that as one of the spaces. If you're a tick tock person, you want to call us and see about the opportunity? Absolutely.

Ronjini Joshua: 13:00

Well, that's from the like the camp Nova, or for those from the influencer perspective, but from the brand perspective, because there's so many regulations in cannabis, too. And there's so many challenges in marketing. Yeah, I find that like, I mean, this would be a great opportunity for any brands to say, hey, I want to partner with these people to get our brand a little bit more recognized, you know, whether it's through a partnership, whether it's through like white label branding, or whatever, you know, because you, I mean, the the fact of the matter is, it's federally illegal. So like, we still have those, that red tape to deal with rotate. So you know, so that they can grow the brand until everything becomes clear for them. You feel like this is a great opportunity for brands as

Marvin Wilcher: 13:44

well. Yeah. Just brands in general. Yeah, yeah. Whether you're a shoe brand. Yeah. Any brand. Yeah, right, brand, whatever you are, I mean, this is sort of your opportunity to have somebody handle all of the pieces for you. Yeah, right. And you don't have to deal with that. You just have to continue to be your brand, be willing to promote the product that you're getting into, and just really connect with all of the fans and people that you're already dealing with. And that's us connecting.

Ronjini Joshua: 14:14

Right. So I mean, essentially, like you were saying before, it's really a technology platform to kind of enable business. Yes, yes. What do you see is kind of like the next step for camp Nov as you kind of keep going into this industry and maybe other industries. What is kind of like, the future of the Michigan?

Marvin Wilcher: 14:31

Yeah, yeah. So so if you look at where we are now, our primary focus is California. Yeah, Northern and Southern. We're going to be expanding more and more in California. So that the one click experience because this is sort of what it's about. You're a fan. You're like the brand. Yeah, you do one click and you get your product delivered. We're going to be moving across the country. So what we're going to be doing is going state by state until we get all the way across to every legal state. And that way, any fans that are like if you're a significant influence, and you have people in one state but not in another, you're able to take advantage of that, because we'll be sort of like Amazon. Yeah, you're kind of all over the place. And you've got that whole distribution network lit, set set up. That's where we're really trying to go. Is that take it nationwide? And then ultimately, worldwide? Yeah, because cannabis is legalization is happening globally, and you've got fans and influencers and other places, you know, whatever we may think about, you know, our influencers here. Yeah. And some other countries, you know, influencers almost gods, right. And so there are ways to connect up. Additionally, we'll be moving away from just exclusively excuse me, cannabis products, but we'll be moving into other areas. Yeah, a lot of a lot of merchandise, things that relate to cannabis, but are part of the sort of the social connection Yeah. Of that relationship with the fan.

Ronjini Joshua: 16:01

It'll kind of be like a hub for fans, right? Like, so anybody who's a fan of, let's say, two Chainz. You get any product that he represents? Yes. Where he wants to promote that he

Marvin Wilcher: 16:10

wants to promote on our platform, that's for sure.

Ronjini Joshua: 16:13

Yeah, that's really cool.

Ben Michaels: 16:14

Yeah. What I'm curious about is so with the influencers, and especially the influencer marketing, especially with cannabis, in the Instagram, and Tiktok community, have you had any big successes or anything to kind of navigate because I understand like that algorithm for Instagram is already trying to show less of the influencers, content to the to the people, because, you know, they're not monetizing that as much. And then also, on top of that, the cannabis stuff, especially like, um, like Tik Tok, and stuff is getting really limited. So have you all had any success navigating, you know, that aspect forward of how to how to connect, you know, to those 3 million followers of this awesome, you know, premium, great cannabis, yes, making that connection for them?

Marvin Wilcher: 17:03

Well, that that is part of the challenge. A lot of people have used Instagram to try to market until Instagram figures out what they're doing, which could be one day or one year, and then they're gonna just kind of close you down and wipe you out. And you're gonna be back to scratch. Which is kind of scary, right? Yeah. And so that means we get a chance to sort of fill a void. Right? So so the real, the real challenge of all this is transitioning, right? The transitioning of whatever your fan base might be on whatever the platform is, and moving them over. And, you know, like, on site, maybe, right? Because you're really even though you're accessing sort of your fans, you're not really having any direct information about those people. Right? Yeah, very limited information, Instagram, and otherwise, they're keeping that. So that's where we're building out where we're doing marketing, all around those platforms, trying to bring those people across over to our platform. And once they identify our platform, and see that that influencer, who's selling whatever that product is, has this sort of depth of other things that they're doing, which they might not be able to deal with at all. Because if you push it just a tad much, yeah, on Instagram, you're done yet. Right. You're done. Right. And so as a result, we are working strategies to sort of help whoever that influencers, you know, bridge over that fan base over to camp Noah, that's part of what we're doing as part of our marketing strategies.

Ronjini Joshua: 18:38

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I can see I just lining up all the all the things that you're saying and definitely artists management is, is right there. Like, it's like, that's the artist page is like they have all these things that they aligned with. And here's their Instagram feed, here's their, you know, tick tock, and then here's all the products that they love, you know, so like, I can totally see that it's such a fine line that you guys are spreading, yes. But better than you better you than, than me. So I appreciate that. Well, this is really exciting. I love the direction that this is going in. And I think this offers a lot of opportunities in the cannabis industry, as well as anybody who wants to like align with brands in general. Have you guys made any other headways into non cannabis? Like, I guess non cannabis brand partnerships yet or not

Marvin Wilcher: 19:25

yet? We are we're in process with a number of them right now. Okay. I mean, one of the things that you're going to see in the future is you're going to see a lot of sort of standard beverage brands. Yeah. Because this to me is one of the biggest opportunities for beverage companies. Like right now beverages don't make up a huge percentage of cannabis sells. But if you look out to the future, you can say, Wow, that's going to be a big business, right? Yeah. Because what's gonna happen is we are used to sort of drinking our highs, right? That's that's sort of all of us right? You You know that you go and you manage how much wine you're going to drink or you manage how much liquor you're going to drink, or whatever it is. And, and you know, as a result, you're able to get that high, nobody typically lets you over drink and get too much liquor spilled on your shirt or something. Most people don't realize that you've sort of got that buzz until they see it in your eye, right. Whereas the you know, the thing about smoking weed, everybody knows that you're smoking it when you're smoking it. So that's what's made gummies and a whole bunch of other things, and edibles. Sort of right. But then that also means that there are sort of like standard consumer packaged goods products, that are really having an opportunity to sort of bridge across. And so it's wide open in terms of the brand universe.

Ronjini Joshua: 20:45

So if you had any tips, we like to try to kind of close this out with tips, any tips for influencers or brands of like, kind of how to get more buzz as as they're kind of trying to establish their brand? What kind of tip would you have for people?

Marvin Wilcher: 21:02

Yeah, well, one of the things is don't rely on Instagram. Yeah, you know, that, that that can lead to, you know, your page getting shut down or whatever. But you're really gonna end up having to do more direct sort of connectivity. Outside of Instagram and other platforms, you really do need to find delivery partners, retail partners and other partners. Yeah, to help push products, more than just what's happening on Instagram or some of those places, right? Yeah. Um, you know, we do see ourselves slightly as a competitor to Weedmaps. We're a little different from that. But the idea is, is that you're going to have to really open up open your mind, look across all platforms, look across the internet in every possible way, and do a much broader marketing to

Ronjini Joshua: 21:53

customers. Perfect. Thank you so much. This has been a great interview. Absolutely. love to have you and hopefully we can have you guys back next time. You have a big influencer. Yeah, let us know who.

Marvin Wilcher: 22:04

Okay, well, we were doing it all the time.

Ronjini Joshua: 22:07

All right. Perfect. All right, so much. Thank you. The Green Room podcast is brought to life by green seed PR, the cannabis green tech focus PR agency, and a dedicated production team of editors mixers and show Booker's. A huge thank you to the vessel team for providing their studio for our recordings. Don't forget to subscribe and share the greenroom podcast with friends, colleagues, and family. That way you'll never miss an episode and we keep the lights on. If you're feeling extra generous, please leave us a review on your favorite podcast listening platform. You can also find us on Instagram at green seed PR and to the live video versions of all of our podcasts on YouTube. Would you like to be on the guest on the show? Or do you have a great guest referral? Awesome. Submit your guests at green seed PR comm slash the hyphen green hyphen room. Thanks for listening and be well