“The younger generation will go for these products.”

Give Pleasure Products has paid tribute to the global selfie trend in a unique way – with two new products, #Selfie Masturbation Cream and #Selfie Pleasure Gel. In our EAN interview, Give Pleasure Managing Director Nigel Powell talks about the new products and the latest developments in the lubricant segment.

Lubricant gels consisting of natural and/or organic ingredients are the latest trend. Do you agree with this statement?
Nigel Powell: Yes, definitely. As brands and manufacturers try to meet the needs of an ever-changing market and society, it makes sense to expand your offering and adapt to these new opportunities. These health and wellbeing approaches will obviously also help give exposure to more mainstream sales channels.

How can it be that this specific demand is only now growing to a large extent in the erotic market?
I don’t know how much it has grown and I’m not totally convinced that it will in the erotic market. And if people in the erotic market move to buying an organic lube, they’re moving from buying another erotic market lube. I think there’ll be limited growth as, even if a new lubricant user discovers the benefits of liquid products because they’ve tried an organic lube, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to buy it from an erotic retailer.

Will we see more and more organic lubes in the future and how will Give Pleasure Products react to this?
Maybe one day we’ll have some. But for now, we’re concentrating on fun, cool branding aspects of liquid products such as our #Selfie products.

Today, most distributors or wholesalers and even many retailers have their own lubricant line. What do you think about the flood of private labels or private label products?
It certainly is a flood and it can make it harder for brands. It allows distributors and wholesalers to effectively become the manufacturer so why wouldn’t they. Some consumers want to pay as little as possible for all of their products so there’ll always be a demand. But there’s plenty of room for brands to sit alongside the private label liquids. It’s the same as toys. Some people want better quality and are quite happy, and feel safer, paying more.

“Some people want better quality and are quite happy, and feel safer, paying more.”

When talking about the future of the erotic market, people often predict that mainstream companies will eventually discover this market for themselves. Companies from the cosmetics sector are predestined to roll up the lubricant product category. Is that something to worry about?
It’s often mentioned and nothing happens. They continue to distance themselves from sex.

When will the well-known lubricant brands of our market penetrate the mass market on a grand scale?
Sadly, I think it’ll still be several more years yet. Until attitudes towards sexual pleasure change and vastly become more mainstream it’ll continue to be slow going.

Let us talk about the latest developments at your company. In spring, you launched the ‘lubeshot tubs’, the ‘lubeshots travelsize’, and a ‘lubetube display’. Can you give us some info about these?
Again, it’s just about offering your products in different ways to help catch the attention of new customers. The lubeshots just came on their own to start with, in brown cardboard boxes of 250 pieces. Now they’re presented in lots of different ways, to give retailers something new and to help them make more money. The lubetube display is perfect for the 6 x 100ml bottles (Premium Aqua Gel, Silicone+, Raspberry Kiss, Cheeky Cherry, Horny Devil Warming Gel and Ice Breaker Cooling Gel) and comes with 4 interchangeable sexual orientation headers. It’s an uncomplicated range that won’t have your customers scratching their heads wondering which does what.

How important is it to provide the trade with instruments to present your products in the most effective way, or to offer your customers products in various sizes to attract new customers or generate impulse sales?
It’s very important. In an increasingly challenging market you can’t just have a bottle on a shelf. It needs something around it saying ‘hey, look at me!’.

Your focus here seems to be on the brick and mortar business. Is this your main distribution channel?
No, although I really do love the look of our products on physical shelves. It makes me feel very proud. Plus, they’ve earned their space. The retailer knows it’s a respected brand and excellent quality. Online retailers can list hundreds, even thousands of lubricant SKUs. It does give great choice for the customer but can also be confusing. Some online retailers have started going a similar way as bricks and mortar retailers and reducing their offering to fewer, more select brands.

With the #Selfie Masturbation Cream and the #Selfie Pleasure Gel, you have extended your Give Lube line. What can you tell us about these new products?
These are great, fun products and a new branding approach to liquid products. There’s still an aversion from some people who say ‘I don’t need lube’, yet offer them the same product and call it pleasure gel or masturbation cream they’re up for it. We all know the hugely familiar, world-wide known concepts of both the selfie and the hashtag. Combine these with a product and the suggestion that the ultimate selfie is masturbation, this results in exciting, modern and forward-thinking products, #Selfie® Masturbation Cream and #Selfie® Pleasure Gel.

#Selfie® Masturbation Cream is a water and silicone-based cream and #Selfie® Pleasure Gel is an extremely thick, water-based gel. Engineered to last as long as customers do, these formulas are moisturizing, skin kind and perfect for the ultimate selfie. After all, it’s sex with someone you love!

Is it true that you have secured a trademark for the #Selfie brand? That sounds as if you are having bigger plans with it?
Yes, we have and yes, we do. Whilst at and since the launch at eroFame, our Chinese and Hong Kong distributor has taken on the #Selfie Pleasure Gel and a large US distributor has enquired about us licensing the #Selfie brand for them to manufacture and distribute in the USA. Also, ABS Holdings, our mainland Europe distributor, reports a lot of interest from large EU buyers and stated that ‘this is going big’.

Whilst initially these are the first two products, the #Selfie branding allows for an array of products to follow.

Who is #Selfie for? Who is your target group?
The younger generation will go for these products. Along with the huge growth in male masturbators, a masturbation cream naturally compliments these types of products. I also think the #Selfie Pleasure Gel will be bought by those who ‘don’t need lube’.

In a press release from mid-August, you stated that the #Selfie products would be ideally suited for viral marketing. Can you talk about results?
I can’t talk about the results yet as we delayed the launch of the product until eroFame. Since then it’s about getting the sales channels in place. There is no point hoping that something will naturally go viral in August or September when the product is not on the shelves. We’ve created a range of ‘#Selfie – Sex With Someone You Love’ posters and banners, along with a range of Social imagery with sizes tailored for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. As these products are ideal for social media promotion Give Pleasure Products and our trading partners can create fun, low cost and potentially viral campaigns through competitions and promotions, to not only help sell the product but to drive traffic and help sell other products too. An easy example would be a competition where the best selfie holding a selfie wins a voucher/vibrator. The fun, modern concept of the products is also very newsworthy and has the potential to be picked up by mainstream media.

What does Give Pleasure Products have planned for the coming months and beyond?
A holiday! Then some more fun stuff and another great idea.