NisonCo: PR Agency Profile

NisonCo is the first cannabis-specific PR firm in the United States. Founded 2013 by Evan Nison in New York, the firm built its early reputation representing operators as the industry's regulatory foundations were still being drawn, and by 2022 Observer ranked it among the Top 31 Best PR Firms in America overall — recognition that reached beyond the cannabis category. In early 2020, NisonCo launched a dedicated SEO practice, and the firm has since expanded further into AI tooling and consulting, applying the same earned-attention playbook it built in cannabis to categories including hemp, CBD, psychedelics, crypto, and nutraceuticals.

Originally published November 2020. Updated Sep 29, 2026.

What does NisonCo do?

NisonCo runs an integrated PR-plus-SEO model for cannabis brands, dispensaries, cultivators, technology providers, and legal-industry clients working in cannabis, and now applies that model to hemp, CBD, psychedelics, crypto, and nutraceutical clients as well. The firm's core service lines — media relations, search-engine optimization, and (since 2026) AI consulting — are structured to reinforce each other: earned media placements drive domain authority; higher search rank drives credibility with reporters; both compound over time. NisonCo maintains active relationships with thousands of reporters and reviewers covering cannabis, CBD, and adjacent categories nationally.

The firm's specialty position matters. Cannabis operates under a patchwork of state regulations that keep most national PR firms out of the category. NisonCo's decade-plus of continuous work in the space produces media relationships, regulatory literacy, and a compliance instinct that generalist firms cannot easily replicate. When the cannabis market contracted, the firm rebuilt around a smaller, senior-led core plus AI-enabled systems rather than maintaining a headcount built for the earlier boom — Evan Nison leads strategy and client relationships, Duffy Graham leads SEO delivery, and Wilfred Maina Waimiri (with the firm since April 2021) handles media relations and day-to-day publicity across cannabis, AI, and other client work.

Why does NisonCo treat PR and SEO as one discipline?

NisonCo's operating thesis is that public relations and search-engine optimization are structurally complementary services, not adjacent ones. Earned media coverage produces backlinks that lift domain authority. Higher search rank improves the credibility signal to reporters who Google a source before returning the call. Blog content backfills both. As Generative Engine Optimization becomes the dominant discovery layer, the same integration extends: earned media is the leading input into AI-engine citations, and structured content is what makes the entity legible.

What has NisonCo's founder said about the firm's Q&A insights?

What makes a successful SEO team?

A successful SEO team needs to be able to constantly learn, experiment, and adapt processes based on what they learn. If you simply follow 'best practices' you can find online, you'll never be the best SEO agency. To be the best requires outside-the-box thinking, which is sometimes hard to do while also building a scalable company with systems and processes. Having a great SEO team also requires great employees who have a good working relationship. Although some of the work required for SEO can be repetitive, it should be fun too. Happy people who love what they do perform better as individuals and as a team.

Has SEO become essential to PR?

It can be easily argued that SEO, PR, and blogging are all nearly essential to each other. One can be done without the other, but they all help amplify the others and can create a cumulative exponential effect. For instance, links from SEO help your domain authority and rank, your rank helps your credibility with reporters, and blogs add fuel to that fire. There is also no better way to improve your domain authority and rank on Google than being an authority in real life. Establishing your expertise and legitimacy through the news media is the way to do that.

— Evan Nison, Founder, NisonCo

Why do PR and SEO services complement one another?

PR and SEO services go so well together because that's how they're designed. PR is public-facing — you work to get companies recognized throughout the media, forging relationships with journalists and inspiring people to want to know more about your company's mission. SEO, on the other hand, isn't as public-facing. It requires putting in work on the back end to ensure that viewership is enhanced naturally, tuning your business into key audiences that would otherwise be seeking out what your company does.

— Kelly Ebbert, SEO Specialist and Pitching Coordinator, NisonCo

How will the SEO landscape change as more cannabis companies come online?

The current SEO landscape will see some changes but nothing too drastic as more companies come online. At the moment there are many diverse companies with their own place in the landscape. As the cannabis industry continues to grow and more states legalize, I am excited to see what newer companies do to stand out. One can obviously be successful taking a traditional approach, but there will be companies that come and blow us out of the water with their original ideas. As competition grows, innovation is what will set the good from the great.

— Tony Ham, SEO Manager, NisonCo

Key takeaways

• NisonCo, founded in 2013 by Evan Nison, was the first cannabis-specific PR firm in the U.S. and was ranked among Observer's Top 31 Best PR Firms in America overall in 2022.
• Launched a dedicated SEO practice in 2020 and has since added AI consulting, expanding beyond cannabis into hemp, CBD, psychedelics, crypto, and nutraceuticals.
• Rebuilt around a smaller, senior-led team (Nison, Duffy Graham, Wilfred Maina Waimiri) plus AI-enabled systems after the cannabis market contracted.
• Core thesis: PR and SEO are structurally complementary, not adjacent, disciplines — a framing the firm now extends to Generative Engine Optimization.

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