Integrated marketing firm Gozoop has bagged the integrated creative and social media mandate for ‘pleasure’ store Love Depot, a brand owned by TTK Healthcare Ltd. The mandate will be serviced by the group’s headquarters in Mumbai.
About partnering with Gozoop, Arjun Siva, Head of Digital & eCommerce for TTK Healthcare said: “We are looking forward to our partnership with GOZOOP Group and to work collaboratively in this journey of fearlessly pushing the envelope and breaking boundaries. We want to make pleasure accessible for everyone and we look forward to engaging with our audiences through open dialogue and education which will drive acceptance.”
Added Amyn Ghadiali, President – Business & Integration, Gozoop Group: “In today’s tactical and transactional world of marketing, collaborating with Love Depot is a delight. Their dedication to purpose-driven marketing aims to alter the perceptions around pleasure and challenge stereotypes. Excitingly, we’re positioned to pioneer a new category while shattering it at the same time. One-line brief is to simply #BreakTheBox!” Gozoop Group has been at the forefront of the advertising revolution, providing leading brands of the nation with solutions that generate tangible results. Recently, the group entered into a strategic collaboration with Puretech Digital and formed GZPure to boost media and brand capabilities.”
Interactive Avenues, the digital arm of IPG Mediabrands India, has secured the e-commerce mandate for TTK Healthcare, a diversified conglomerate with a wide range of healthcare and FMCG products.
Interactive Avenues will be responsible for elevating TTK Healthcare’s e-commerce presence and increasing sales across key marketplaces and quick commerce platforms. Their mandate includes e-commerce strategy, content creation, media activation, catalogue management, and more.
Commenting on the association, Arjun Siva, DGM – Digital Marketing & eCommerce, TTK Healthcare, said: “We are delighted to appoint Interactive Avenues as our eCommerce agency. We’re confident their proven digital expertise will help us drive growth and efficiencies across eCommerce platforms, especially for our brands Skore & MsChief in the sexual pleasure category and Eva, our personal enhancement brand.”
Aparna Tadikonda, EVP – South, Interactive Avenues, added: “TTK Healthcare has significantly contributed to the advancement of India’s FMCG & healthcare ecosystem for over 6 decades, and is also a pioneer of the condom industry in India. We are thrilled to be working with them. We will focus on delivering a seamless customer journey and driving digital growth powered by our proprietary data-driven frameworks and tools.”
MsChief, TTK Healthcare’s sexual pleasure brand for women, has unveiled its all-new brand film. The new brand film traces the journey of five women from different walks of life who challenge the norm and shatter everyday stereotypes through their choices.
On the launch of the brand film, Vishal Vyas, AVP Marketing, TTK Healthcare said: “MsChief rejects the idea that women should settle for diminished or muted pleasure. Today, women are forging ahead with milestones in all industries and fields, have broken barriers in terms of pay parity and education, but the pleasure gap is something which needs to be addressed equally openly. MsChief empowers women to claim their pleasure with their range of products, and the brand film reflects that.”
TTK Healthcare launched D2C sexual pleasure fulfilment sex toys e-superstore called Love Depot. The launch campaign #ThePleasureIsAllYours crafted by ‘The Glitch’ was released across select digital platforms. To watch the film, click here. It only plays on YouTube, as it is an age-restricted video (based on Community Guidelines).
The film showcases the range of sex toys you can buy at Love Depot. It shows a spectrum of pleasure tactics amplified with sex toys. In the process, it highlights individual choices when it comes to sexual pleasure.
Sexual Wellness Market
As per earlier estimates the global sexual wellness market was valued at $74 billion in 2019 and expected to be $108 billion in 2027 and expected to grow at CAGR 4.62% between 2021 to 2027. Sexual wellness includes products like Intimate Hygiene, female & make grooming, sexual wellness, delay sprays, sex enhancer supplements, sex toys and pleasure products. Another report by Allied market Research places the sexual wellness market to be $2.09 billion by 2030 this report pegged 2020 market in India at $1.15 billion.
Lack of Sex Education
One does not need research in the social and culturally constrained Indian environment where there is a lack of sex education. Even though it is the land of Kamasutra, it is the land of heightened, oppressed and unexpressed sexual fantasies. Forget access to sex toys. Anything other than typical traditional accepted positions and demands – everything else is abnormal, unaccepted and seen as unnatural.
There is a massive chasm in the expectation and experience of sexual fulfilment. Understanding sex as a duty, a responsibility, and a way of giving birth to the next generation overpowers the need for sexual pleasure.
Sexual Pleasure slowly getting its Due
The current generation is slowly breaking these clutches. They are willing to express their individuality and choice and demand a new height of sexual pleasure, even if it includes using sex toys individually or with a partner.
The TTK survey points out that over 81% of the women are dissatisfied with their sexual life, and 71 never experienced climax. Understandingly the range of products in the Vulva owner section is more. And no doubt there is an equal percentage on the male side that has other problems.
In the Indian context, there is limited awareness of sex toys, which are considered more for personal use. The film does not miss the opportunity to break the misconception by pointing out that sex toys can even help couples reach a new level of pleasure. A visit to the site has me educated on the range and kind of toys that are available.
I admire the head of the marketing Vishal Vyas, TTK Healthcare, categorically introducing a few things while making the statement. He says, “Love Depot is built on one of the cornerstones of sexual wellness that we often let fall between the cracks: pleasure. … everyone deserves to seek and conquer the peaks of sexual fulfilment. It is structured to provide the shopper, regardless of gender identity or sexual preferences – an empowering experience, offering both choice and control. And it’s driven by a single-minded purpose – to close the pleasure deficit in the market”. One single statement that tells the story of the market.
LoveDepot.com
The site Lovedepot.com is well-designed. And as expected opens only after over 18 self-declaration. The copy like ‘we ship pleasure you manufacture it’, ‘Invite a little pleasure’, ‘Its official pleasure has an address’ and ‘Invite a little pleasure’ is to the mark.
Interestingly and rightly, a small quiz helps you choose the right product. I like the way the site asks you a simple question. The choice is, Are you a penis owner or a Vulva owner, instead of the usual Male or Female. And the section Penis love- starts with a cliché- why should girls have all the fun?
But choosing a sex toy until you have researched or know what you want is confusing. For example, the male section or the penis owners have multiple filters. So decide if you want a toy that is powered, non-powered or rechargeable. ABS plastic or silicon. Brands like Bathmate, fifty shades of grey, Satisfier and Tenga and Skore. And if you were looking for a masturbator or a penis pump.
Each product has sections like product details, features, how to use, faqs and user review. I feel it is underplayed and needs more information. Some seem more complicated, and as the how-to-use does not come with graphic visual or illustrative details, it can hold people back.
The user review seems a suspect, with the reviews’ names and dates looking like more of a copywriter job. And some of the text with Pheromone Activating Spray could be exaggerated and misleading product performance in case it was a press ad. Check it out; it is written well.
Delivery of Sex Toys
Love Depot promises attractively packaged products discretely delivered. But is silent on Pick-up space or time slots when the person can get them without worrying about others knowing. A long time back, some company (I don’t recall the name) tried marketing a limited range of sex toys but did not pick them up due to delivery issues. Maybe Love Depot has done the homework. Without a clear explanation of the process, the customer hesitancy will hold much back.
One has seen some of the sexual wellness products prominently displayed in large medical stores, but that is just awareness build-up. In a country where buying of sanitary napkins and condoms is still seen as a task, sexual wellness products have a long way to go. The digital platform for discovery- education and purchase will help the category. The dependence on the street shops for these products will drop with the ease of purchase on e-commerce.
Pricing is no Issue
Price is something that will not work as a deterrent in the market. As such, Love Depot has many international brands and its own products offered across a wide range of price points. The brand has always been at the forefront of the male contraceptive brand like Skore– keeping the pleasure component high.
Educating Prosumers and Consumers on Sex Toys
There has to be a lot more to address the choice-control and awareness of the toys and their proper usage. The act of getting Dr Tanaya Narendra (@dr_cuterus) on social media to co-create educational content for the consumer is the right step. And the thought that the doctor amplifies is absolutely right, “We must leave shame behind and empower people with what they necessarily have to know about their sexual needs. I am quite excited to be partnering with Love Depot, which will not merely be a product marketplace but will also be a platform that makes all visitors aware of their entitlement to pleasure, and at the same time, educates them on the role of innovative and contemporary pleasure-providing products”.
However, the prefix doctor educating the consumer makes it a problem. The brand may do itself and its customers good by extending the base and including an easy-to-relate character more like a confidant without a doctor prefix. Unfortunately, the best educator ambassador in this area- Sunny Leone, is with the competition- Manforce.
The Indian masses are not fully aware of sec toy usage. They are a curious lot, and the curiosity could lead to some mishaps.
Net-net
TTK takes another step to be ahead in the business of sexual pleasure. They need a lot more to do to educate the consumer. Initially ensuring discreet deliveries and building on acceptance of the products. Maybe some more product placements in OTT could help. Possibly restricted videos could be of help. But much more must be done to make it gain wider acceptance and drop the stigma of talking about or using it.
It might help to focus more on individual usage. As couple usage, in a way, hints at some lack of capabilities on the partner’s part to satisfy. Women feel inadequate to suggest, and the man is not inclined to offer anyway. So, it is. Catch-22 situation.
Skore condoms has launched a new campaign to position itself as more than just a condoms brand, showcasing its widest range of pleasure product offerings.
The ‘Get Naughtier’ campaign is conceptualised by Dentsu Isobar and comprises digital ad films as the primary medium of spreading the message and supported by digital activities, engagement building influencer activity, and branded content to drive the message over a period of six weeks.
Speaking about the campaign Vishal Vyas, Head of Marketing, TTK Healthcare Ltd said: “We have consciously made an effort to create content that will resonate with young people. We wanted to communicate succinctly that we are more than a condom brand, offering interesting sexual wellness and pleasure products such as Vibrating rings, and Flavoured Lube variants, to Pheromone Activating Spray for men and Pleasure Gel for women. In a category that’s hard to advertise, stereotyped with sleaze and one that invites moral trolling, consumers are barely aware of the diverse offerings in addition to the large range of diverse condoms we have. This campaign deals with these smartly and tries to normalize experimentation and extended playtime for couples’ sans judgement or guilt.”
Added Aalap Desai, National Creative Director, Isobar India: “The category, though creatively fertile, invariably invites a lot many restrictions and censor from mainline media. I am just thrilled that the client was willing to explore a digital only eco-space to market such never-before advertised products. Not only are the media touchpoints relevant to the consumers for whom the products are meant for, but also it’s one of those rare & truly integrated campaigns covering content, social media, performance, influencer marketing and OTT films via a singular narrative. In a way, the challenge thrown at us by the mainstream media only egged us to think naughtier!”
A post shared by Leeza Mangaldas (@leezamangaldas)
Skore Condoms from the house of TTK Healthcare has partnered with Isobar, the Dentsu India digital agency, to launch the ‘Cliteracy Drive’ – a fun educational campaign to spread awareness about women’s orgasm. The brand has collaborated with digital creator and sex educator Leeza Mangaldas to offer learnings through videos that educate consumers on the said subject.
Sharing his perspective on the campaign, Vishal Vyas, AVP Marketing, TTK Healthcare, Consumer Products Division said: “Skore is a brand that believes in empowerment. And with a product like OH! Pleasure Gel in the Skore portfolio – specially made to intensify female pleasure, we owe it to the women fraternity to address this issue that has been prevalent for generations. After all, for a brand to be relevant, it needs to touch the right nerve.”
Added Arjun Siva, DGM – Digital Marketing and eCommerce, Skore: “Skore has always believed that men and women should be equals when it comes to pleasure, and we have showcased this in our past communications as well. This campaign drives that conviction forward in a far more innovative and effective manner.”
Sharing his views, Rahul Vengalil, Chief Business Officer, Isobar India said: “Isobar is all about innovation and experiences. To drive home a brand thought, we need to look beyond just doing a video – which is one-way communication, and rather do interactive things that are memorable. This is an experience-led transformation that the Isobar brand strongly stands for; and Skore is the perfect brand, and this was the perfect brief, to showcase it.”
TTK Healthcare launched D2C sexual pleasure fulfilment sex toys e-superstore called Love Depot. The launch campaign #ThePleasureIsAllYours crafted by ‘The Glitch’ was released across select digital platforms. To watch the film, click here. It only plays on YouTube, as it is an age-restricted video (based on Community Guidelines).