Though Todd Montgomery says it every year, it never ceases to be true. Last year was a banner year for Falcon: another two-part blockbuster that broke sales records, the relaunch of one of its popular lines, the successful switch to a new distributor.
"We saw growth across all revenue streams," notes Montgomery, president and CEO of the Falcon Family of Companies and its operating company, Conwest Resources. "Since we have acquired the company, we have nearly doubled our revenue."
The new focus came during the third quarter of last year, when Montgomery spearheaded a brand examination to help the company better target each of its lines. "When we looked at the market and at our existing brands, we believed that Mustang provided the greatest opportunity for us to re-brand one of our existing brands and really differentiate it from Falcon and tap into a lucrative consumer segment."
So they hired a consultant to create a new brand identity for Mustang, and hired John Bruno of Massive Studio to be the line's dedicated director. They also hired an exclusive photographer and an exclusive model.
"We decided that we would no longer cross-pollinate talent," Montgomery says. "The Mustang guys have hair on their bodies, they aren't that unapproachable kind of beautiful body that's perfectly toned, hairless. It's more of a natural body type with Mustang... it's about real and gritty, blue collar guys having an edgier aesthetic and also engaging in more types of edgier sexual acts with one another."
Nine Mustang releases are planned for this year, with a jump to 12 in store for 2007. New Falcon releases (directed by Chris Steele) will also be joined by new-to-DVD offerings, including the new anthology series offering "best of" model compilations.
"By the end of 2007, we will have released everything in our library, so our challenge is, now that everything's released, how do we roll out new product?" Montgomery says. "So what you're going to see is a significant ramp in the number of new releases that we release across the Falcon-Mustang-Jocks brands, and you're going to see some derivative product of each of those brands. We're looking at potentially relaunching Falcon International."
The Jocks line, currently on hiatus, will receive a Mustang-like resurrection next year. As for the Falcon brand, Montgomery notes there won't be radical changes to the formula that has 32 years of success behind it. Beefcake, the first release of 2006, continued the tradition of gorgeous men in gorgeous settings having hot sex. The Big Dick Club focuses on a younger model set, while Spokes 3 builds on a successful series.
"The big movie for us this year is going to be very different. We're approaching it like we're actually creating a [mainstream] movie with really hot sex," Montgomery says. "The two-parter will move away from exotic locations toward a very fantasy-based, scripted film with lots of dialogue, very plush settings. If you look at some of the big films from the straight industry, those were very much like a mainstream movie that had sex, and that's the kind of concept or idea we're seeking."
Montgomery adds the studio will change the timing of the release. He also promises a few differences in marketing strategies. That will be aided by Pulse Distribution, which Falcon switched to last year. "We have nothing but admiration and respect for Paladin," says Montgomery. "But we looked at how we wanted to grow our wholesale channel, and the capabilities we were looking for in a distributor were not necessarily compatible with what Paladin was able to provide.
"We felt that Falcon was such an incredible brand and a brand that needed to be cared for and treated very differently than other brands, that we felt that the only way to do that was to find a distributor that was really willing to focus on our brand exclusively, at least initially. And, unfortunately, Stan [Loeb] represents everybody and we couldn't ask him not to do that."
The new relationship has been phenomenal, says Montgomery, with the key to success being the proactive nature Pulse has provided with customer service to sub-distributors. He calls it a true partnership, and Pulse has helped them increase wholesale numbers each month.
Falcon's overseas numbers have also been encouraging, with MPG (Millivres Prowler Group) helping the company re-establish itself as the brand leader in the United Kingdom, and Scala Agenturen B.V. providing continued growth in the rest of the European Union.
While Falcon scrapped plans for a clothing line, it is relaunching its novelties line, working directly with a manufacturer to revamp and repackage its products. The highly successful Signature Supercocks will continue, along with butt-plugs, balls, dildos, and battery-operated vibrator products. The line is scheduled to relaunch no later than July.
On the technology front, Montgomery says they have undertaken a strategic review of all its Web properties, which will expand with such initiatives as separate Mustang and Jocks VOD, membership sites, and stores. "What we want to focus on is the user experience, the content, and let someone else worry about how they deliver that and how they host and maintain that."
It promises to be an exciting year, but also one of recovery. While 2005 proved to be a banner year, there was a cloud hanging over the success.
"Last year was a mixed bag, because we lost a dear friend and my business partner Terry Mahaffey," Montgomery says. "To deal with the fact that he had passed, obviously shadowed last year. Terry was for a long time the heart and soul of this company. He provided a spark of creativity that really helped reestablish us and create better product, and that is something he really ingrained in everybody here and something that we take very seriously. Not only as part of what we need to do as a company, but also his legacy."
Contact info: 800-227-3717; FalconStudios.com. Distributed by Pulse Distribution, 888-797-8573, [email protected].
