Vivid Entertainment Group celebrated its 20th year in adult entertainment in 2004 by continuing to go places that no other company has gone before it.
It is not hard to find evidence of Vivid's market reach. No less than three Vivid billboards occupy prime locations on Sunset Boulevard. The company closed book deals, placed its name on snowboards, introduced Vivid Cigars and rolled out a line of casual apparel in the past year. It also continued doing what it does best — making high-end adult titles that couples can enjoy with what it considers the most beautiful girls available.
"2004 was a strong year for us in every different facet of our business," Vivid co-owner Steven Hirsch said in an exclusive interview with AVN. "We started to see some real growth in our {video-on-demand} business and our international distribution business as well. The beginning of wireless is becoming a major driver of profit for this company, and so is the Internet.
"Our core business of DVD distribution continues to be very strong, and it's now being supplemented."
Hirsch continued, "The adult industry is not unlike the entire entertainment industry in that it is once again evolving. We pride ourselves on being on top of every different aspect, every new platform that's available."
But what Vivid remains best known for is its glamorous lineup of exclusive performers, a few of whom are world famous.
"Vivid makes stars, it's important to know that," Howard Levine, Vivid's national sales manager, told AVN. "It still means something to be a Vivid Girl."
The company is taking 11 Vivid Girls to the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas this month. The roster reads like a who's who of porn stars: Jenna Jameson, Tera Patrick, Janine Lindemulder, Savanna Samson, Briana Banks, Sunrise Adams, Tawny Roberts, Mercedez, Malezia, Monique Alexander and Lexie Marie comprised the all-star lineup at press time.
"I've never said we're going to have a finite number of girls exclusive," Hirsch said. "We will continue to go after the best girls out there. Although some of them only do 2-3 movies a year, it's important that we are able to go with the absolute best girls. We never broke it down to how many girls."
Marci Hirsch, whose title is vice president of production, actually handles numerous different projects within the company. She ultimately does "whatever comes up."
"Vivid's like a child that's now 20," she said. "I started 13 years ago when the child was 7."
In addition to working closely with the Vivid Girls, this year Marci became the point person for Vivid's unprecedented literary deals with Harper Collins and Avalon Books, something she found challenging.
"It is really a whole different world," she said. Hirsch has worked with four different editors with Harper Collins and two at Avalon. "They have their own set of rules. We're sort of used to doing things our way, and we had to make some concessions."
The Harper Collins deal is for books based on Vivid, such as sex tips from the girls in "How to Have a XXX Sex Life." Meanwhile, the Avalon book deal is for erotic novels, where a Vivid Girl is the female heroine of the book.
"For those the most important thing for me was that the girls be portrayed in the book the same way we market them," Marci Hirsch said. "I didn't think it would make sense to have Mercedez as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl when she is Latina. I wanted readers to know something about the girls they were reading about."
Marci Hirsch revealed that the follow-up to "How to Have a XXX Sex Life" would be "Vivid's Big Book of Sex," which will be a combination of script pages, lists, photos, letters to the girls and "things that we've compiled over the years."
"People aren't shy around us," she said. "They go with the assumption that we've seen and heard it all. Because of that they are comfortable enough to share too much, and it always is interesting."
She said that recently she has fielded more phone calls from mainstream TV and movie producers wanting footage and promotional material such as posters.
"There are a lot more things in Hollywood that have some reference to our industry than ever before," she said.
It is that type of brand awareness and demand for Vivid in the marketplace that helps Levine and his sharp sales staff churn out big numbers.
The former professional hair stylist and stand-up comedian (who also performs magic tricks) has only worked for two companies in adult, beginning his porn journey at GVA West —in San Francisco over 20 years ago. Levine took over as sales manager of GVA —in 1985 and had lifted its sales volume from $65,000 to $300,000 per month before he left for Vivid in 1990.
"I always like to compare Steven to Walt Disney," Levine said. "I thought Walt Disney was a genius, not only a marketing genius, but he also surrounded himself with really good people. The people that Steven surrounded himself with have been loyal, from the warehouse people to Marci, to everybody in between. It's easy to enjoy working for Vivid and Steven, and I am proud of the fact that I've only worked for two companies in my entire adult career. I don't think a lot of people can say that."
Steven Hirsch called Levine "a key in the success of this company."
"It's still exciting," Levine told AVN from his Chatsworth office. "I can't do something I don't like. Being with Vivid has always been exciting. There is always something new. The whole Club Jenna thing is exciting for me. It's a whole different ballgame. The same thing with the Tera Vision stuff. The numbers are exciting to me. Steven signing these new girls all the time is exciting. They're not run-of-the-mill girls. They're top-of-the-line, and that makes my job a whole lot easier. If the girls are beautiful and the people want to see them, it makes everybody's job a whole lot easier to have a product that's saleable."
Levine continued, "The cream always rises to the top. Steven has always believed that. Steven could've made a real cheap product, but he makes the best stuff out there. I truly believe that with all my heart. I believe in my product. "
Levine, who now has a sales staff, still handles the large accounts.
"I try to maintain the relationships I've had with everybody," he said. "Anybody can call me at any time. We all work together — {Dave Peskin, Michelle Liss, Nicole Murillo and Kevin Z. Johnson}, who assists everybody. We work as a collective unit. We find that it works best that way."
Levine also made it a point to thank the distributors.
"Even more so the sales people who work for the distributors," he said. "Those people don't get an award. They don't get a cruise to Aruba. Those people, and I sincerely mean this, have been the backbone of Vivid's success for a long time."
StevenHirsch said that Vivid would continue to utilize the talents of directors such as Paul Thomas, David Stanley and Chi Chi LaRue, among others in the coming year.
"It's always been important to us to make movies that make some sense," he said. "We're not in the gonzo business. We never really have been. Our movies are story-driven, visually driven, but have something to say as opposed to just a number of sex scenes strung together. With {Paul Thomas}, we have someone who has really perfected his craft and is immensely talented."
Vivid is taking steps to further brand its name in 2005 with comprehensive market analysis, David Schlesinger, vice president of licensing, told AVN.
"2003 was the year we decided to form a licensing department. These deals take a lot of time from the negotiation of contracts to putting product on the shelf, so 2004 was the year we got to see a lot of our early labor come to fruition in the form of tangible goods," Schlesinger said. "We've really grown this part of our business, and it's a large focus of us moving forward."
Schlesinger said that he has been doing critical market analysis, comparing "how Vivid sees itself and how the world at large sees Vivid, and where products make sense."
Schlesinger, who has been with the company for almost seven years aside from a brief hiatus, said the Vivid logo is a key component in branding initiatives.
"We use it as a real branding statement," he said.
Meanwhile, in the coming year the company plans to introduce Vivid Pasties, Vivid Glass Toys from Phallix Glass and a Vivid signature hotel room at The Block at Tahoe (theblockattahoe.com) that will include amenities such as a hot tub, a stripper pole, a collection of vintage video cameras and Vivid's entire library of movies.
Hirsch, who like Levine is from Cleveland, said that reaching the 20-year milestone served as new motivation.
"We have been on top of our game for many years, and it's always a challenge to continue to reinvent ourselves in new and fresh ways. But I feel that we've done that," he said. Nowadays, he looks at the big picture. “… I devote my time to taking a step back and growing this business as best I can. We're looking at all of these new revenue streams that didn't exist and it's important to me that we're part of all that. I'm very happy with our progress and I enjoy coming to work every day. It's a challenge. I'm excited about doing it every day.”
Now Hirsch & Co. come to work in Universal City, as the company relocated its headquarters from its longtime base in Van Nuys in 2004. The Vivid logo that adorns the side of the new building is clearly visible from the 101 Freeway, one of the busiest thoroughfares in the Los Angeles area.
"We're not afraid for people to know us. We're not ashamed," Marci Hirsch told AVN. "We're proud of where the company is in 20 years. Who would've thought?"
