Every New Year is another chance for a fresh start, and often, a re-start — where ongoing projects get a new lease on life — with a renewed sense of optimism and vigor on the part of their creator. Sometimes the motivation is simply to finish what you started. Sometimes it’s a matter of seeing new opportunities in an existing product or service. Other times, you need to do something different, from the ground up.
Whatever the reason you may have for refreshing past projects or starting new ones, you are not alone.
At the recently concluded XBIZ 360 event in Hollywood, I had the opportunity to moderate the billing panel and ASACP’s age verification workshop, and also conducted video interviews with exhibitors at the popular Mix & Meet event. I spent a lot of time interacting with a wide range of adult entertainment industry movers and shakers, and came away with a very positive vibe — where the consensus was not only that many adult industry segments have turned the corner and are now increasing their revenues — but some are now also poised for explosive growth as new technologies and business models unfold.
The common thread among the most optimistic players was the uniqueness of their latest offers, which was underscored by the role that the breakthrough Oculus Rift immersive technology is playing in the new version of the Red Light Center 3D virtual world, whose parent company Utherverse Digital Inc.’s CEO, Brian Shuster, gave the event’s Digital Keynote address, and who demoed the device to attendees.
Another example was the Fleshlight/Kiiroo World Premiere, which debuted the latest in haptic sexual technology, where touch sensitive dildos remotely control a user’s Fleshlight — providing the ultimate in two-way cam driven connectivity, where a performer’s actions are felt and not just seen. Existing videos can also be encoded with the appropriate commands to “match the action.” The Fleshlight/Kiiroo demo further featured a video showcasing its integration with Oculus Rift.
The future of porn will be unlike anything you have ever seen before, and will revolutionize the industry.
Beyond these high-dollar efforts, smaller operators are also making moves — releasing new offers while upgrading old ones — and coming up with some excellent and innovative products, services and sites in the process.
On a personal level, I’ve pared down my projects and will continue to cast away the dead wood while focusing on my favorites — such as my gamified free site: hand built, valid HTML5 and CSS3 compliant, she’s ready to rock and just needs me to add more content and some more traffic. It’s the challenge of old school webmastering in 2015 that appeals to me, as I figure out the workarounds to the site’s iOS / HTML5 audio compatibility issues and other minor puzzles. For me, it is a perfect example of passion over profits — developing a unique and addictive user experience that lays the groundwork for more.
My site is the result of me wanting to take the same content and repackage it into a unique presentation — countless other sites offer the identical non-exclusive content that I am offering, but none are doing it in the same way as I am — because sometimes it’s not the steak that sells, it’s the sizzle.
A mainstream example of this can be found in my home state of New Hampshire, which recently launched its first scratch-and-sniff lottery ticket — the $1 “I Heart Bacon” scratch ticket that pays winners up to $1,000 — and rewards all players with a distinct bacon aroma when it is scratched...
N.H. was the first state in the nation to offer various “lotto-type games and numerous scratch games,” pulling in a reported $280 million in 2013. Many other states have joined the lottery frenzy, adding competition to the scratch ticket market and leading The Granite State to offer this unique scent slant — which garnered 700,000 ticket sales in its first week, taking the top slot in $1 ticket sales.
“The [N.H.] Lottery is focused on developing new and fun ways to engage customers,” New Hampshire Lottery Commission Executive Director Charlie McIntyre stated. “The ‘I Heart Bacon’ scratch ticket combines two things people love: the chance to win cash and the wonderful, enticing smell of bacon.”
To promote the new ticket, lottery officials will give away the scratch tickets with free slices of bacon at several locations throughout the state during the month of January. The smell of bacon, it seems, spurs sales, and the rate of repeat buys of these tickets is climbing rapidly.
Just when I thought there was nothing that would distinguish lottery tickets from one another than the common size, shape, cost, payout and obligatory catchy name and graphics factors, this porky wonder comes along, upsetting the creative apple cart.
Take a lesson from this out-of-the-box thinking and see if there’s something different that you can do to freshen up or launch an offer in 2015 — the timing may be better now than it has been in a long time.
