El Planteo, the leading cannabis news outlet in the Spanish-speaking world, has announced a new strategic partnership with Mantis Ad Network, the premier programmatic advertising platform catering to businesses with ties to high-growth, highly-regulated industries. This collaboration aims to tap into the massive Spanish-speaking audience in Latin America, Spain and the United States interested in cannabis and related topics.

As a media outlet focused on innovative issues, El Planteo covers a wide range of topics including cannabis, hemp, psychedelics, music, ecology, cryptocurrencies, gaming, gender and sexuality. With over 500,000 monthly readers on ElPlanteo.com and reaching millions of readers through its distribution partners, El Planteo has a strong presence in the Spanish-speaking community. Boasting 140,000+ followers on social media and 1.5 million monthly impressions, the outlet is 2/3 female-founded and predominantly run by a female team.

Mantis Ad Network, founded in 2014, has made a name for itself by connecting quality brands with the largest audience of cannabis and CBD enthusiasts anywhere on the open web. Hundreds of industry-leading publications are directly integrated with the Mantis Ad Network today, including Leafly, MJ Biz Daily, All Bud, Strainly, Medical Jane, THC Farmer, Grasscity and more, making Mantis the largest endemic advertising platform of its kind. In addition to exclusive endemic audience access, Mantis offers media buyers the ability to advertise online across millions of non-endemic websites and apps via their newest offering, the Mantis Exchange. The company has also found a lot of success with its Mantis Direct offering, a fully-optimized supply path connecting media buyers and sellers without any third party middlemen fees.

Javier Hasse, co-founder and CEO of El Planteo, expressed his satisfaction with the partnership, saying, "El Planteo did a pilot test with Mantis Ads and the results were super impressive. Forget Google Ads, this is the future: our publication got 10x the ad revenue working with Mantis than we were getting previously with Google. This is a game-changer for El Planteo, as it allows us to focus on what we do best, creating great content, while leaving the heavy lifting of ad sales to a trusted partner like Mantis."

This partnership comes at a time when traditional advertising platforms, such as Facebook and Google, have imposed strict restrictions on companies associated with the legal cannabis industry and ancillary markets. In 2020 alone, the cannabis advertising "blackout" left approximately $6.5 billion in ad spend on the table. As a result, industry-leading brands and publications have made the switch to alternative advertising avenues like Mantis Ads to grow their business.

“We founded Mantis Ad Network with the mission of democratizing access to premium media inventory and enabling brands to reach their desired audiences without the need for intermediaries. Our collaboration with El Planteo reinforces this mission by providing advertisers direct access to a rapidly growing Spanish-speaking cannabis market, while also offering El Planteo the opportunity to monetize their valuable audience through our platform. We are excited about this partnership and look forward to helping brands connect with this engaged and sought-after audience," said Matt Price, co-founder and CEO of Mantis Ad Network.

According to recent data, the Latin American cannabis market is experiencing rapid growth in 2023, with countries like Uruguay legalizing cannabis for adult-use, and others like Argentina or Colombia going the medical route. In Spain, cannabis clubs have continued to gain popularity since the plant was decriminalized for personal cultivation and use in 2015. In the United States, there are more than 41 million native Spanish-speakers, making it one of the largest Spanish-speaking countries globally.

Rather than having to invest in extensive research and outreach efforts, media buyers can leverage the Mantis Ad Network's existing publisher relationships and affordably priced self-service ad software to quickly establish a presence in this market and start connecting with Spanish speaking audiences as they browse websites like El Planteo. This can be especially beneficial for smaller brands with limited resources, allowing them to compete with larger brands on a more level playing field.