The hardest part is creating ads for intimate goods companies. Advertising opportunities in this segment are very limited due to the ambiguity of the product. The main difficulty lies in the fact that it is impossible to show the "product by the face".

This ad has an age limit of 18+, which means that it is strictly forbidden to show ads during the day, not all TV channels will broadcast the video even in the evening. Advertising activity These products are mainly carried out on the Internet (various publics, forums, groups) and in print advertising.

With the advertising of shops selling erotic goods, everything is more or less simple. As a rule, they dispense with outdoor advertising and with an offer to look for new experiences. Sometimes they are used for advertising with the participation of life size puppets.

Advertising placement on a similar outward construction in St. Petersburg costs about 15,000 rubles a month, with a duration of 4 hours a day, taking into account the work of two promoters and the rental of life-size puppets / costumes will cost about 10,000 rubles.

Much harder to create high-quality visual advertising, which will not annoy with its frankness. The main thing in advertising of intimate products is to get away from black humor, vulgarity and banal jokes associated with their use.

The rabbit image is very popular in condom advertising. What is a rabbit associated with if you put the 18+ badge? The rabbit is positioned both as a lover of active, quick sex, and as an animal that can reproduce quickly and a lot. Condom firm Tulipam has developed an ad with the slogan "Play first, then have kids." We see rabbits playing in the clearing. There is no vulgarity or vulgarity, but the general meaning is clear.

Slogan "Play", a pair of female and male legs in the same denim pants. We intuitively understand what we are offered to play.

Chocolate flavored condoms

There was a place for condom advertising and. The slogan of the advertising campaign: "You are safe with durex." Any man will be pleased to pass through such a turnstile after a hard day's work. Or through several turnstiles ...

The approximate cost of such advertising is from 4000 rubles for 1 turnstile; on turnstiles, as a rule, it is sold in packs of 255 turnstiles (in St. Petersburg). This example taken from foreign practice.

Advertising of erotic content, as mentioned above, is prohibited from being shown on television, and therefore the Internet is becoming the main advertising channel. It plays an important role here. Here is one of the most popular from Durex advertisers. He was also taken on the air and TV channels.

According to the plot of the video, the guy is going on a date. he walks down the street, and his sperm mince behind him. He sees his girlfriend, and sexual desire makes itself felt. Sperm are eager to fight, the girl is at a loss. But the reliable Durex condom will keep her calm. Such videos are not always shown on television.

Another Durex ad campaign appeals to human greed. Durex is launching a series featuring baby products with a price tag to show how you can reduce costs by using early protection.

The hardest part is to create advertisements for products that are usually kept silent. The purpose of this advertisement is not only to sell the product itself, but also to minimize embarrassment when buying this product and convey to the audience the need to use protective equipment for their own safety.

For the employees of the New York office of the company (and at the same time for their neighbors and just passers-by), Wednesday morning began with fun. More than 50 women and several men came here to protest Facebook's advertising policies. More specifically - for the part of it that limits the promotion of goods and brands marked "for adults".

The action was held under the slogan "All orgasms are equal", referring to gender discrimination in advertising on FB.

The protesters behaved quite peacefully. They were not going to smash the Facebook office or restrict the movement of passers-by. Many stopped by the activists themselves to look at their posters and learn more about the purpose of the event.

Facebook censorship robs people of fun and brands profit

The organizers of the action are Dame Products and Inbound, well-known manufacturers of intimate toys in the USA. They are outraged by the ban on advertising of their most popular product - vibrators. Facebook and Instagram reject such ads, but they also give the green light to advertisements for potency and breast augmentation products. General manager Dame Alexandra Fine is sure: this is nothing more than gender discrimination. You can advertise goods for men's pleasure, but not for women's. Therefore, Dame Products and Inbound are asking Facebook to review its advertising policy.

Such restrictions cut off oxygen for manufacturers of intimate toys, whose products are designed specifically for stimulation and pleasure. And this hits not only brands, but also consumers, according to Dame Products and Inbound. Many women are embarrassed to buy artificial phalluses in offline stores, and the only way out for them is to order them on the Internet. At the same time, phallic images are widely used in advertising of means for potency and other goods for men.

Facebook is ready to make concessions

The company announced its readiness to consider the demands of the activists. A Facebook spokesman told reporters that an open phone line with Dame Products and Inbound had already taken place. In the near future, it is planned to make adjustments to the advertising policy regarding advertising of goods for adults.

Meanwhile, the organizing brands continue to inform the public about advertising discrimination on social media. Dame Products and Inbound have launched an interactive website with examples of accepted and disapproved ads. Site visitors can play the game

I have two degrees: technical (MAI) and economics (Financial Academy). In 2003, I created the WebProfy Internet agency, engaged in consulting, and spoke at industry conferences. Things were going very well. Suddenly they made me a lucrative offer and sold the studio. I rested, was on vacation, thought about what to do next.

... and then - goods for adults

Around the same time, a friend turned to me with a request. She had an online toy store for adults (stripmag.ru), and she left for permanent residence in Asia. She did not want to quit the business, and she asked me to help with it in Moscow. The successful development of the project further led us to the decision to continue this business together as partners.

The situation was not very positive: there was only enough working capital to rent a 150-meter warehouse, where 3 people worked. Having delved into the business of an online store, I realized that this almost unprofitable business can be turned into a fast-growing and developing one.

The fact is that in 2008 e-commerce was already beginning to grow - people began to actively buy on the Internet, and there were all conditions for development. And products like adult toys are especially handy for online shopping. It is easier for a person to order a thing on the website and receive it in a bag without a logo than to come to a store. Many are embarrassed.

Fundraising and team building

I got my hands on an already existing project, albeit one that did not bring income at that time, so it did not require investments from scratch. Thanks to the growth of e-commerce, we very quickly became profitable only through direct advertising and word of mouth. And the income from work was enough for business development. I also invested in the development of the project my resources from the sale of a web studio.

At first, the staff employed fewer than ten people. First of all, I assembled an IT department and, then began to form a call center (now it employs five people, one of whom has been working since the company was founded).

Today we employ about 30 people, and we outsource some tasks to contractors.

In the first year, the turnover of the online store increased 10 times to 3.5 million rubles. We became the largest customer of one of the few distributors of adult products at that time.

Then we started receiving requests for wholesale of goods and decided to introduce ourselves as a wholesale player. We believed that e-commerce has a great future and from the very beginning we focused on working with online stores. In 2010, we opened the Supplier of Happiness company.

How did you come up with the name

By the way, they came up with the name very quickly. Helping our storekeeper to answer the letter, I noticed how he signed: "Sergei, supplier of happiness." I realized that this phrase very well reflects the mission of the company.

Dmitry Korobitsyn

I sincerely believe that our products help people to be happy. Marriage and happiness are inseparable. And if a marriage is backed up by good regular sex, it is almost impossible to destroy a family. And Sergei, by the way, still works in the company as a “senior storekeeper”.

Market features

The Russian market for adult goods is younger than the western one, but it has developed and is developing much faster. It is believed that the first sex shop in the West appeared in Germany in the 1960s, and in Moscow in 1992. But not everyone bought, most came out of curiosity, like in a museum. And Russian entrepreneurs quickly developed this idea.

Now there are about 10 distribution companies in Russia. There are more than 300 adult stores in Moscow alone, according to Yandex.Maps. The intimate goods market is showing steady growth, and this is attracting start-up entrepreneurs. Large distributors, as a rule, specialize in one direction: American goods, someone works with their brands, someone in Siberia, someone in Moscow ... We also have our own chip, a unique feature - dropshipping service.

Dropshipping

I learned about dropshipping in 2011, it was then actively developing in America. Dropshipping is a business model where a supplier is responsible for delivering orders to customers instead of an online store. He takes care of all the assembly, packaging and delivery of orders and charges a small commission for this service.

It was clear that this model is very difficult to implement in Russia. The main limitation is that people are not used to paying with a card on the website of an online store, there is no trust in the seller.

Even now, according to our data, only 15% of all buyers pay with cards. And our country is huge. If you were aiming for a federal scale, you had to come up with a very powerful logistics system that would solve all the issues.

We thought about the possibilities and risks for a long time, and then we mobilized and prepared the service for launch within a month. At the end of November, at the Practice Days event, we publicly announced a service called Real Dropshipping. The dropshipping service allowed the company to grow in all respects in a short time. We grew by 25-30% annually, and with the launch of dropshipping, we are steadily adding 50-60% every year. Thus, by the end of 2017, the company's turnover in dropshipping alone amounted to 14.5 million rubles per month.

When did the first offline store open?

A significant part of our wholesale customers are classic offline stores. To better understand how they work, in 2016 we opened two of our own. One on Kutuzovsky Prospekt in Moscow and another in Korolev.

We do not consider this area as a priority, there are no plans to create a federal network of sex shops. But we need to feel the demand, the needs of the customers. The profitability of our offline stores is just over 30%. 30-40 people come to us a day, a third of whom leave with a purchase.

Business promotion

Dropshipping is always an educational activity. Both then and now I have to explain what dropshipping is and how it works. At first, I actively promoted the company myself: I spoke at conferences, conducted e-commerce webinars. In 2011, we launched an email marketing channel, now there are about 100 thousand subscribers in our database. We also have a Telegram channel for online stores, two Facebook groups and an industry portal.

From the readers' side, there were many questions about what products are actually most often bought there. The well-known online store has shared a list of products that are most popular in Russia. Before that, no one made such ratings. The rating turned out to be very indicative. Here, for example, many people think that only perverts go to sex shops, and normal people have nothing to order there. The rating showed that the most popular products are right for traditional couples. So Mizulina can sleep peacefully, with morality in our country everything is in order.

Books are good to read. You never know where they will come in handy. Especially when it comes to the novel "Fifty Shades of Gray" James. This book broke all sales records. However, not only the publishing house was lucky, but also the sex shops. The fact is that the book tells about the love of a 22-year-old British woman and her lover, a young millionaire Christian Gray. Gray, a lover of experiments in the style of BDSM, shows his beloved the world of submission and domination, hidden from her until that moment, where pleasure and pain are closely linked. Probably, it was thanks to Al James that BDSM goods - lashes, leather belts, ropes - turned from an attribute of fetishists into an absolute hit of adult stores and the object of dreams of millions of readers of the novel around the world. In a condom shop, the first place in the ranking is occupied by handcuffs in the style of this book. The handcuffs are made of metal with a cold shine and are engraved with the quote "You are mine".

The condom shop features a complete collection of 9 toys and 11 book accessories. We recommend supplementing the handcuffs with a set for a young physicist with a set for bondage. It consists of a satin mask and special universal soft shackles for arms and legs at the same time. Play as daring as Gray!
In the photo next to the handcuffs are vaginal balls, a butt plug and a vibro-ring on the penis from the original collection.

Moving on. In second place is Djaga Djaga Rose lubricant. It is unlikely that in our time there are people who do not know what a lubricant is, but just in case we will explain. Lubricant is an artificial lubricant. It is indispensable, for example, if you use a condom or latex toys, since prolonged rubbing against rubber dries the skin. This lubricant is gel-based, which means it doesn't run or evaporate like water-based lubricants. The scent of a rose sets up partners in a romantic mood :)

In general, the Thai brand Djaga Djaga is known for its attentive attitude to the selection of the composition of its products. The company does not use parabens or synthetic oils. Lubricants contain only natural ingredients and essential oils- roses, jasmine, ylang-ylang, peppermint. These are all natural aphrodisiacs. The scent of these plants is believed to have an aphrodisiac effect. There is also a hypoallergenic lubricant that is suitable for allergy sufferers and people with sensitive skin.

Bronze medal for the We-Vibe toy for couples, the most sought-after product in its category. This is the third generation of the toy. Manufacturers equipped it with a remote control, added several modes of operation, increased power and took care of water resistance. At the end of last year, the fourth version was released, which promises to break all popularity records in 2014. Designers have reworked the shape, selected a material that is more pleasant to the touch. We-Vibe 4 can operate for 3 hours in a row without recharging.

This toy is ideal for couples as an extra stimulant. It is small and therefore can be used during direct intercourse, and not only during foreplay.

In fourth place is again a lubricant, this time Pjur Cool with menthol. They love contrasts in sex - affection and roughness, hot wax and silk, hot skin and ice. Pjur Cool gives you an incredible feeling of use. Quite an unusual thing that will definitely help you feel something new.

The German company Pjur is one of the best in its niche. It produces high-quality lubricants for every taste and occasion: in addition to the "classic" ones, also anal, moisturizing, regenerating (for dry and irritated skin), prolonging (prolonging erection), toning (with pepper, cinnamon, ginger and cocoa).

The fifth place is taken by a lace Hustler catsuit jumpsuit. What it is? Literally from English - "cat clothes". Remember Halle Berry's Catwoman? Where is she all so sexy running around in overalls? Largely thanks to this image, these catsuits appeared! It turns out that the girl is either dressed or not dressed: the fabric is quite dense, but there is a deep neckline. The catsuit fits well on any figure due to the elasticity of the material and hides all the flaws;) This catsuit is considered the best representative of the category.

And again we remember films. :) Have you seen the movie "The People vs. Larry Flynt" with Woody Harelson? It was Larry Flynt who created the erotic empire Hustler - the world leader in the field of erotic lingerie, clothing and shoes, toys, videos and magazines. Hustler is always insanely sexy, be it lacy lingerie, police officer, secretary, nurse or mechanic costume! Lingerie for BDSM (leather corsets, gloves, bodysuits made of leather belts), pestises (nipple stickers), fetish shoes, for example, transparent shoes with a heel height of 21 cm or scarlet patent boots and, of course, cool sex toys.

Sixth place - the vibrator for stimulating the clitoris Qvibry. Designers have obviously tried for a long time to make this device as unlike the huge latex penis that ordinary people imagine when they hear the word "vibrator". In addition, there is a silk bag included - just in case. Interestingly, this vibrator is charged from the USB port. It is divided into two parts, mimics a USB flash drive and connects to a laptop. Those who used it, they say, you can even disguise yourself at work. Nobody will guess.

I guess these condoms need no introduction. This is the Japanese Okamoto brand. The thinnest condoms in the world are produced. They are even included in the Guinness Book of Records. Their thickness is 0.03 mm, which is 2 times less than that of conventional condoms. Okamoto condoms do not feel at all on the skin. If you want a full experience combined with safety, they are for you.

The Japanese company Okamoto produces the most popular condoms in online stores. It is noteworthy that they are practically not sold in pharmacies. Lovers of special sensations may be interested in black condoms, which are particularly durable. There are also oversized, anatomically shaped, the thinnest and simply ultra-thin. Since making a choice is often difficult, you can buy a complete set right away and test everything.

Seventh place. Of course, this rating would be incomplete without a rubber member. Dildo Toyfa is a good old classic of the genre, improved thanks to modern technologies... Absolute realism. Plus a suction cup (can be attached to any surface). Lubricant included! In the Toyfa line, almost any size and shape of phalluses are presented, which stand out for their realism among the representatives of this category.

Toyfa offers customers a huge selection of toys for couples, dildos, penis attachments, vibrators, handcuffs, shackles and other things useful for a variety of sex.

The ninth place in the ranking will delight men: this is the MaleEdge Pro penis enlargement device. Unlike the authors of the spam mailings "Increase your penis by 40 cm in 2 weeks", only the manufacturers of this device have developed the only scientifically proven way to enlarge the penis. According to them, the enlargement is due to stretching: you put a special attachment on the penis, which gradually stretches the skin. Thus, the organ grows in length and width. Manufacturers promise + 29% in length and + 19% in thickness in 6 months.

MaleEdge is designed and manufactured in Denmark. Condom-Shop.Ru presents a line of their products from inexpensive to more advanced devices.

Another hit recent years- trainer for women, vaginal balls Anasteisha K-Balls Single. Helps to train the muscles of the vagina and pelvis. There is a whole science of training intimate muscles - imbuilding. Such exercises not only increase the sensitivity of the vagina, they are also very beneficial for health: they prevent blood stagnation, prepare the body for childbirth or help recover after it. Specifically, these balls were designed specifically for the exercises of Arnold Kegel, an American gynecologist who recommended that women pump intimate muscles for the prevention of diseases of the rectum and genitourinary system.

Anasteisha is a series of high quality adult products that are also medical products. This confirms their high quality, efficiency and safety.

Condom-Shop.Ru is the largest hypermarket of intimate goods in Russia. This rating was compiled based on the results of 2013 and takes into account the statistics of orders both in kind and in monetary terms, it included only the best of the best. The competition was very fierce: 250 thousand items were sold in just a year.

What are the advantages of Condom-Shop.Ru?
1.Wide assortment: there are 15 thousand items in the store. All of them are certified and safe for health.
2. Free round-the-clock consultation on the website or by phone. The consultants have a medical background.
3. Fast and convenient delivery in Moscow and Russia (courier service, check-in terminals, Russian Post). When ordering for a total amount of more than 3000 rubles, delivery is free.
4. Complete anonymity of the buyer: if you use the services of a courier for delivery, the order will arrive in an opaque courier package without mentioning the name of the online store and the contents of the package. When the goods are delivered by Russian Post, the dispatch is carried out in 1 class, the box will not contain any information about the store or the contents. You can also pick up the goods yourself and anonymously from 600 points of delivery to more than 100 largest cities Of Russia
5.In Moscow, the order can be received the very next day, goods are delivered to most cities in Russia within 2-6 days.

Until March 8, 2014 in Condom-Shop.Ru there is a grand sale of toys, lubricants and erotic lingerie with a 40% discount. Please your loved ones on March 8! Girls, and you do not expect a special occasion to please your men :)

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Valeria Dmytrenko

Valeria Dmytrenko

Promotion of a sex shop using contextual advertising. Requirements and restrictions in the topic 18+

Adult motives in advertising generate a lot of questions, controversy and discussion. Their main share concerns the moral and ethical side, which has come down to us in the guise of moderation of advertising systems and rules for advertisers. And there are so many nuances in these rules that they deserve a separate article. Therefore, here we are not talking about how to sell effectively, but about what difficulties can be expected when working with such a topic.

Google Ads Rules

I'll start with the "surface", namely, with what the system initially warns us about in this section of the help. There are 3 things to consider in the first place when launching an ad: the category to which your product belongs, the ad format, and geo targeting.

It is very important to distinguish between 3 categories for yourself:

• Sexual Content;
• "For adults only";
• "Not for every audience."

There is also mention of minors in a sexual context, adult content in family viewing and marriage ads, but in the case of a sex shop, these are the three main categories to deal with.

Content that falls under the category of "Sexual Content" is prohibited from promoting on Google Ads.

It is very important here to pay attention not only to the category to which the product belongs, but also to the media materials used on the site (not only on the landing page).

It is also critical for you, as an advertiser, to feel the difference between this denied display content:

And this, the display of which is available with restrictions:

Below I will explain why it is so important for you to understand this difference.

Format

Everything is quite simple here.

There is also a small but important note from Google on this page that needs to be noted:

But even text ads on networks are subject to personalized ad restrictions:

And the last important point is geo targeting... Some countries have special restrictions.

You can check the target country for specific legal requirements here.

There are also restrictions on advertising of products that affect reproductive function, which include condoms.

In addition, there may be a problem with sales restrictions. medicines prescription.

These are the main points that you can read before launching.

Now let's move on to the "pitfalls". They can be divided into 2 groups:

• system errors;
• support errors.

They closely overlap with each other.

Naturally, the topic is controversial, the materials on the site are often too, so the system mistakenly determines the category for which it is necessary to limit impressions, and rejects them.

That is why I wrote above about the fact that you yourself need to understand what category you belong to. And also, you need to check if everything is exactly according to the rules in order to contact support otherwise.

But, here you can run into incompetent specialists. Unfortunately, it worked out for me. The system mistakenly rejected search ads as "Sexual Content."

When contacting the chat, the specialist replied that the problem was in the availability of condoms, although the targeting was not to those countries where it is prohibited. I sent a link to the help in the chat, the specialist wrote that he would answer later.

After that, the following answer came to my mail:

The reason for the rejection "birth control" was assigned erroneously in the search, since this restriction applies to personalized advertising (audiences, platforms, keywords in the display network). And advertising of these products is prohibited only in certain countries.

“Half-naked girls” were present only on the cards of the “underwear” category, that is, they clearly did not reach the content that the specialist indicated in the letter.

In these cases, our understanding of the rules of the system is important.

If you are convinced that this is indeed a system error, then it is better to make a minimal change in the rejected ads and resubmit for moderation.

I did just that in this situation. As a result, the ads are approved and the ads are shown.

I am not writing this to discredit the Google Ads support team, but rather to warn against wasting time and money.

For the sake of fairness, it is worth noting that in 2 similar situations in the same account, experts immediately sent for a second moderation, informing me that this was an error.

But the problem is that after such a letter someone can redesign the site, which requires investment of time, money and other resources.

Also, during the preparation of the article, text ads in the Display Network were tested.

The ads were moderated, but, unfortunately, they did not start showing.

So, working with such a topic in Google Ads, you need to carefully study the existing restrictions and check your assortment, content and targeting.

But in general, if you have a quality product, then even if blocked, you can compete for an account. Such advertising is not prohibited in Google Ads.

Facebook Ads Rules

Very little can be said about this. On Facebook and Instagram, it is forbidden to promote advertisements for adult products, with the exception of contraception, while not sexually suggestive.

But in reality, everything is much more serious.

After that, absolutely any ad that I submitted for moderation was rejected for the same reason.

The same thing happened even with the promotion of publications, regardless of whether they contained external links or not.

This is due to the fact that both moderation and appeal are not made by living people, but by facebook bots. That is, in this case, the system “marked” my account as promoting adult products.

In general, it is better not to rely on such topics on Facebook and Instagram, since in such a situation the account may be blocked altogether.

Output

When promoting goods for adults, it is necessary to familiarize yourself in great detail with the placement rules regarding this direction.

It is important to consider the category, geotargeting and ad format in Google Ads, because depending on these parameters, different factors are taken into account. Also, many sections of the rules overlap, so it is worth familiarizing yourself not only with those related to the promotion of services for adults.

There are other alternative sources: teaser networks, newsletters, organic social media traffic, and others.

In addition, you should familiarize yourself with what an ad account can be blocked for and how to solve this problem.