Mobile Entertainment

Why is adult mobile a frankly underperforming media channel when it should, by rights, be one of the most powerful new sectors of the mobile content space? I think it’s mostly down to retailing. I’m convinced the marketing tactics employed by high-street retailers could be the secret to unlocking the true commercial potential of the sector.

Selling adult content should certainly not be the sole domain of large, corporate brands or aggregators. Instead, they should pursue a strategy we view as ‘aggregating consumers’ instead of ‘aggregating content’. The model we prescribe is comparable to that of supermarket chains that have perfected the art of engaging high yield, impulsive consumer purchases during every single visit. The modern hypermarkets offer deals such as discounted petrol prices to entice customers to their doors. Once there, people invariably ‘pop-in’ to pick up non-essential bits they would have otherwise neglected. Every part of their “in-store experience” is meticulously crafted; from the captivating smell of freshly baked bread piped through entrance air vents to  the best-selling or higher margin items appearing on-shelf at eye-level to the impulse buys’ that are a permanent fixture at today’s checkouts.

All of this “tactical retailing” has come about over years of studying customer-purchasing trends, human behaviour and the emotional psyche of the modern consumer. We believe the exact same approach needs to be applied in a mobile environment.

Trouble is, there’s such a void between what’s for sale, how it is sold, and what consumers genuinely seek. From our experience, very few people know how to manipulate both mobile and adult skill sets with an knowledge of what we call the four Cs - consumer context that converts content.  Juniper’s recent report summed it up when it said: “...perhaps the key hurdle to ensuring mass adoption of adult services…is ensuring that content is made available which customers want to buy.”

But putting in proper retail methods does work. Let me leave you with a real-life example. Cherry recently supplied a tier one network with some, “well-retailed” white-label content to fill a temporary deck placement left by one of the big-name adult providers. Sales went up by more than 20 per cent. Why? Because it was strategically presented and offered content people genuinely wanted to buy.