‘We’ve Accepted Mommy-Wine Culture; Why Not Cannabis?’—Meet The Woman Behind The Largest Weed PR Firm In North America
“We’ve accepted mommy-wine culture; why can’t we do the same with cannabis?” says Rosie Mattio, the woman behind North America’s largest cannabis PR firm. “As a high-functioning entrepreneur and mom to four daughters, I [proudly show up at my daughters’ school] in a weed T-shirt because it’s time we challenge outdated stereotypes about who uses cannabis.”
Rosie’s unapologetic approach to normalizing cannabis extends far beyond her personal life. As the founder of MATTIO Communications, she has spent the last decade transforming the cannabis industry’s public image, turning fringe conversations into mainstream media coverage. When she first started in 2014, cannabis was burdened by stigma, and “there were very few reporters covering this space… mainstream and lifestyle media were not reporting on cannabis at all. I had to work tirelessly for years to educate them about the industry,” she says.
Rosie’s early work reflects her ability to see opportunity where others saw barriers. Cannabis was still largely misunderstood, and few could have predicted the booming market it would become today. Drawing on her background in consumer packaged goods (CPG) PR, she recognized that the industry needed a champion to push it into the mainstream – and she was ready to be that trailblazer.
The global legal cannabis market is expected to reach $102.2 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.7%. In the U.S. alone, the cannabis market is projected to grow from $33.84 billion in 2024 to $69.25 billion by 2029. These numbers were unimaginable when Rosie first entered the industry, but they reflect the massive potential she saw early on.
‘We Had To Fly Reporters To California’
In the beginning, the challenges were immense. Rosie wasn’t just working against an uninformed public, she was also battling a restrictive legal landscape. Traditional PR methods weren’t available: sending product samples across state lines was illegal – and still is, and it was nearly impossible to convince skeptical reporters to write about a product they hadn’t experienced firsthand. But Rosie was resourceful and creative.
One of her go-to strategies involved organizing media tours: “We had to fly reporters to California to show them what was happening in the industry, through farm tours, meetings, etc. For instance, I hosted a media tour for Canndescent in 2016, and it wasn’t until 2018 that the first mainstream story was written about them in Vogue.”
Rosie approached public relations with a dual focus: education and advocacy. She worked to shift perspectives, challenge stereotypes and build trust with both the media and the general public. This was a long game, but Rosie had the determination to see it through. Gradually, her efforts began to pay off, and cannabis started appearing in mainstream media. “While we value the cannabis trade publications, which play an important role in the industry, we also worked hard to destigmatize cannabis and ensure that the news was picked up by mainstream media,” Rosie says.
Breaking Into The Mainstream: When Efforts Garner Results
Rosie’s efforts to bring cannabis into the mainstream weren’t just about landing stories in lifestyle publications, they were about positioning cannabis as part of everyday life. In the early days, getting cannabis products included in general gift guides, highlighting them as legitimate lifestyle choices, was a major milestone. A collaboration between Green Thumb Industries (OTC: …