In the last seven years, Wicked Pictures (www.wickedweb.com) has grown from a small but successful adult film and video producer to become one of the premiere players in the adult industry. The San Fernando Valley, California office that houses Wicked Pictures recently expanded to accommodate the newest members of the staff - but they aren't video people - they're Internet people, and they work for Wicked Pictures' new sister company, Wicked Interactive. The company was formed last October by Wicked Pictures' President Steve Orenstein and Aaron Karacas, a self-taught computer whiz whose background is in the mainstream.
Wicked Interactive made its official debut into online society at the January ia2000 in Las Vegas. There, the company pulled the wraps off Wicked's newly-renovated flagship site, WickedWeb.com (www.wickedweb.com), and also debuted Wicked Interactive (www.wickedia.com), which was specifically designed to showcase their offerings to webmasters.
"The Net is growing, we're doing stuff on DVD, and business is very good," says Orenstein. "[But] we're in our early stages. We're not really a technology company. We're not going to call tomorrow and say we invented this way of doing things that no one has ever done. That has never been our goal. Our goal is to have an adult business on the Internet and make the most money we can from it and have it represent the company the way we want to be represented.
"I'm not looking to throw away the video business," Orenstein continues, "but we have to be prepared if and when the market and consumers take a turn [toward Net-only entertainment]."
To that end, Karacas has spearheaded the launch of a number of new products and sites; he says that two of the sites, Wicked Casino (www.wickedcasino.com) and Wicked email (www.wickedemail.com), have surpassed the company's expectations.
WickedCasino is an online gambling site that webmasters can add to their own membership sites - for free. Players can win prizes such as DVD players and memberships to online-video sites while webmasters reap the benefits of increased traffic. Karacas says that a 50/50 referral program for webmasters is also on the way. Currently, WickedCasino receives more than one million unique visitors per month.
Wicked email allows surfers to get a photo from the Wicked archives every day in their e-mail; webmasters who sign up to carry the service are given a top banner spot on the e-mail, thus allowing them to solicit their customers daily. Wicked email is currently logging a staggering 16 million visitors per month.
Wicked is also in the process of launching three new sites: a new pay-per-view site, offering full-screen, streaming video (optimized for cable modems and DSL) of their entire film and video catalog at www.wickedppv.com; exclusive live events, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage from their latest films and videos at www.wickedlive.com; and an online greeting card service featuring still photos and audio files of numerous adult stars at - you guessed it - www.wickedcards.com.
"We're going to be really creative with the live events and see what we come up with," says Karacas. "Because Wicked Pictures produces adult videos, it's easy to come up with concepts."
So, what about adult webmasters who want to hone in on some of that appeal and creativity? "We are preparing to make everything available for webmasters," he reveals. "It's just if and when we decide to release. But it's still the same benefit for consumers or webmasters. We are bringing the Wicked content to the Internet."
Perhaps most significantly, Wicked Interactive is in the process of building a comprehensive database for Wicked Pictures. The plan is to enable Wicked Interactive to deliver content to consumers online at the same time it's released on VHS and DVD. Karacas says their material will be available in "every major format for the Net," including Real Audio, JPEG, QuickTime, and Netshow. In addition, the company's collection of still images will be available on a searchable database.
"We're not trying to scramble around to purchase content or find new content," says Karacas. "We're producing content for the videos and at the same time, we're producing content for the Net. We're keeping our consumers in mind and whatever we do for our consumers, the webmasters can take part in that, too. They get our name and what we have created for a long time and they can benefit from our product recognition."
"I don't know what the other video companies are doing," confesses Orenstein. "The difference between our company and one like Vivid is that they have a larger budget to throw at the Internet to get a jump-start. We don't. We have to come up with creative, innovative ways to generate that revenue, whether it's the casino or the e-mail program. We're just trying to take an approach that matches the way we run the company and use the company name and maximize it."
Karacas echoes Orenstein's thoughts: "You've got to position yourself to be there when end-users will be ready [for Net-only entertainment]. That's what I constantly want to do, push what we are doing. That's what Wicked Interactive is going to always be doing, looking at the next step - to develop around what we think is the future, not around what other people are doing. All of these steps are positioning Wicked Interactive to be the leader in reinventing online adult entertainment."
