Nature's Way - Recycling, of course, is a watchword of environmentalism. It's only natural (or rather au naturel) for the adult Internet world - which, in its own way, beautifies the environment - to adapt an ecological idea to its field. Recycling is a waste not, want not concept. But instead of materials such as glass and plastic, for instance, taking up valuable space in landfills which blight our ecosystem, recyclers reprocess used bottles into asphalt roads; food waste becomes valuable fertilizer; and so on, as our consumer society's refuse is transformed into useful products in a re-creative process that not only avoids polluting, but saves space and generates income.
Like Rumpelstiltskin weaving straw into gold, content providers, Web masters, et al, can have their own Midas touch by adapting some recycling principles and giving users a second, third or more chances to buy their material. Repeat usage is the essential, applicable recycling notion for Internetters intent on maximizing profit. Reusing material in a variety of venues and forms is a kind of renewable energy. Repackaging and remarketing the same source content, as well as traffic, into and to as many mediums and formats as possible can give adult Netizens more bang for their buck.
Modern Times
Formats, venues, and machinery can become outdated - sometimes very swiftly - when new hardware and software come online. The days of French postcards are long gone. And whatever happened to eight-track tapes, betamax, and LPs? They're archaeology now, gone the way of the Roman Empire.
Under the impact of home video and computers, DVDs, CD-ROMs, the Net, satellite TV and cable channels, etc., most adult movie houses have gone the way of the aforementioned, nearly extinct technologies. But while technological innovations and advances make some mediums archaic, technology offers and opens a progressive plethora of possibilities and opportunities. And different technologies feed off of each other in the techno-food chain.
An example of one technology piggybacking onto another is provided by Influx (www.influx.com), which runs pay sites, and provides video-streaming content and online videotape sales to other adult Web sites. According to Clark Chambers, Influx's Marketing Director, video producers "send us videos to offer DVDs from. We take videos and add the programming and graphics to create digital video discs, of course, which they can resell to a whole new [market], and hopefully, a market with a great future."
He adds that DVD technology enhances the quality of features originally shot in the video format. Chapter stops, (which, to a degree, render the fast-forward button of remote controls obsolete), interviews with models, and outtakes are examples of what Chambers dubs the "amazing" upgraded ability of DVDs. And in the near future, viewers will "be able to link directly to the World Wide Web from the DVDs, by clicking at specific places in the features. This will take fans directly to a particular Web site, that could have, say, an interview with the director, with more info about the film, his career, etc.," Chambers states.
Influx Director Roger Post adds that somebody who previews tapes and DVDs prefers making their purchasing decision based on seeing scenes streamed online, rather than on the box cover in a video store. Post went on to say, "we found that the consumer likes the ability to buy content in whatever form they want. Instead of cannibalizing from, say, video sales, in favor of Web, it actually compliments it."
Cable Guys and Gals
Eric Gutterman, Vice President of Domestic Sales for Leisure Time Entertainment, points out that another lucrative market and technological venue for content is via cable and satellite television. According to Michael Kay, President of Pleasure Productions, his company "produces movies for cable television, including licensing to New Frontier Media." Pleasure titles such as Looker and Flesh for Fantasy are released as videos and DVDs, and can also be seen on the TeN Channel and the Pleasure Channel, both owned by New Frontier Media. These channels are available via satellite, and can be seen on dish networks at home. Pleasure also licenses its features to companies that do hotel pay-per-view, which are made available to guests by way of actual videotapes located in the hotels, Koretsky explained. He added that "our budget considerations are specifically larger because we develop the content for all of these places, not just for the home video market."
Do the Hustler Hollywood
With all these different avenues for adult material, can a triple-X version of Planet Hollywood be far behind? "Sure, yeah, that's kind of something that has some serious potential down the road," Vivid's Schlessinger asserts. Theresa Flynt-Gaerke, Vice President of Retail Operations for Hustler Entertainment, Inc., says the upscale Hustler Hollywood adult store, which includes a trendy cafe on prestigious Sunset Blvd., is a major step in that direction.
Theresa - whose father, to stretch a point, had his X-rated life recycled into the Tinseltown feature The People vs. Larry Flynt - calls Hustler Hollywood's design "very bright and inviting. It just takes the dirtiness away from the old-style porn shops. It's just making it a clean environment, and we're targeting women, which is a lot different than old porn parlors. I personally feel women have been ignored in the design of sex stores over the years." Hustler Hollywood features an entire wall of DVDs, DVD-ROMs, interactive CD-ROMs, and various virtual sex products.
Synergy between Hollywood blockbusters and retailers, such as fast food chains - think Taco Bell and Lucas - is another potentially profitable route. Theresa says she'd consider selling accessories, such as vibrators used by porn stars, at Hustler Hollywood, which already features personal appearances, as do many adult venues which present favorite porn stars.
Labors of Love
How are the actors, actresses, and models compensated for their work that is sold in multip le mediums? In general, most companies, such as Pleasure Productions, pay talent on a work for hire basis, as a one shot deal. Whether the feature is released in one format or in many, the thespian receives the same remuneration. Pleasure's Koretsky says, "they get paid just for the performance."
Vivid's Schlessinger comments, "[the talent] gets paid a fee, and then we will renegotiate with her, based on the repurposing of that content. It's very situation-based." Schlessinger explains that Vivid Girls are signed to exclusive contracts to Vivid Video. Each agreement is different, depending on the actress, and whether or not she lives in Los Angeles. The contracts basically stipulate that Vivid Girls will do X amount of movies in X amount of time with X amount of personal appearances. During the term of the contract, the actresses can only do adult-related projects with Vivid Video."
According to Katherine Moore, the National Director of Communications for the Screen Actors Guild, mainstream actors often are paid for clips, reuse, residuals, and the other ways their performances and images are used. But the union does not represent adult performers "because there is no collective bargaining in the industry."
Recycling Traffic
In addition to content, traffic can also be recycled, moving customers from one company to another, mutually compensating all those involved. Sexuality has, per person, a singular sensibility, and alliances between different content providers and Web masters can help cater to the multitude of individual tastes out there in cyberspace.
For example: a content provider can have a number of front-end pages geared toward different psyches for a garden variety of customers. There could be heterosexual, bondage, girls, etc., and if, say, Videosecrets, doesn't get a sale on these, the client is recycled through and sent from company to company, such as to Cybererotica or Python. These sites can then bounce the traffic back to VS, and instead of the hetero site popping back up, perhaps "Bangkok Sluts" appears, giving the client an option to view an entirely different service, featuring Asian girls. If this doesn't result in a conversion, the traffic can be sent to another company, such as Pornholio, which can bounce the consumer back to VS again. A completely different VS page, such as crazysex.com, can pop up. As the customer is recycled through, the hope is that his/her desire is eventually catered to at a specific site.
As Roger Post of Influx puts it, "we try to not let our traffic get away from us, once we get it. We try to give them as many possibilities to give us their money within our network of sites. We think of both content and traffic as kind of a raw material, it's like owning a coal mine. And you want to exploit that as much as possible. And so, the more ways you can repackage something you already own, that you've already paid for, there is more possibility of deriving revenue from it."
Post went on to say, "we have some good alliances with folks who offer complimentary products. We actually don't do anything live so we have relationships with live vendors, so we can trade our services, and that way we're able to offer live, as if it's our own, and they're able to offer our video or our stills, as if it were their own." Influx also has a mutual agreement with other companies to send traffic back and forth between them.
Cyber-Synergism's Mike Rick declares: "Some people think in terms of a product, and how many people they can sell it to. We actually think in terms of the customer: How many things can we sell to that customer? A totally different angle."
The how and where of selling products is another factor to bear in mind. In this day and age of mail order and E-commerce, it's easy to forget that traditional brick-and-mortar retail outlets are another way of generating income. Hustler Hollywood's Theresa Flynt-Gaerke says her upscale sex shop "targets women... [who] have been ignored in the design of sex stores over the years. And now, realizing the disposable income women have, and we shop more than men, it's only right that we have stores for them. Because they're the ones using the sex toys." Theresa says over half her clientele is female, and adds that another target market for the shop is couples, who enjoy after theatre "latex and latte it's a hip hang-out."
Recycling Web masters
And it's not only John Q. Public that can be recycled. According to Mike Rick, Cyber-Synergism provided Web masters with photos, which Cyber-Synergism then put into a gallery to be offered to Web masters. "As we got more and more Web masters, we reckoned that we needed to offer different services. So, we're basically recycling the customer, we talk them into videos, live girls, erotic stories, Web services. So we recycle our own Web masters. We call it incestuous," Rick says.
Influx's Chambers gives another example of how adult firms can cross-fertilize each other: "Video producers may be recycling material by selling us the rights to titles they no longer produce, or have catalogued. They'll give us the rights to stream that to Web sites. We then look at these clips, cut them into different categories, they may appear in a couple of different categories, or actions, or partnerings throughout our video catalogue, which then goes out to other adult sites."
Etopia
Reformatting and reusing the same source content in as many venues as possible - photography, video, compilations, DVDs, CD-ROMs, MP3, audiotext, live feeds, satellite and cable TV, e-greeting cards, live appearances, et al - are all part of the arsenal that adult entertainment has at its disposal. Doubtless there remain new technologies that will help to put you on the path to maximum profit in the years to come.
