Playboy’s Online Libido
PLAYBOY’S LAWSUITS against Netscape Communications Corp. and Excite apparently are more than mere trademark disputes. At stake may be leadership of the adult online market.
As Playboy’s Joel Grossman said during Chicago Direct Marketing Days last month, Playboy hopes to become the “adult Disney” online. It is now creating a “dominant destination site,” amounting to a portal.
In lawsuits filed in February, Playboy accused Netscape and Excite of abusing the Playboy trademark by delivering banner ads for non-Playboy Web sites when consumers punch in the search words “Playboy” and “Playmate.”
In selling the Playboy name to hard-core sites Excite “hijacked and usurped” Playboy’s goodwill and name, the complaint alleged, according to published reports. Excite was recently sued by Estee Lauder on trademark grounds.
It’s a big market: In 1997, adult sites generated some $1 billion in revenue “not captured by mainstream estimates of the total consumer market,” said Grossman, a vice president at Playboy Enterprises Inc.
Though he wouldn’t comment on the suits, Grossman described Playboy as a global media brand with a multifaceted online strategy. For example, it is creating cross-promotional opportunities with firms like Rhino, Dark Horse Comics and several others.
Its online activities include Playboy.com, which is supported by advertising and merchandise sales. Initially the site recycled magazine content, but it now carries original editorial matter and a Reuters news feed, among other things.
“People go to Playboy.com expecting to see Playmates,” Grossman said. “We provide much more.”
Playboy.com draws 60 million page views per month from 850,000 active users. They check out an average of eight pages per visit. The demographics are upscale-75% between the ages of 18 and 34, 80% college educated and half with household income over $50,000.
“The people who read the magazine and who go to Playboy.com are different,” Grossman said. “We didn’t know that at the beginning.”
Another online service is Playboy’s Cyber Club, for which subscribers pay a base charge of $6.95 per month. It now has more than 28,000 subscribers from 75 countries, and is known for its low churn rates.
There are at least two other merchandise sites, Critics’ Choice Video and Collectors’ Choice Music. Playboy hopes to eventually deliver adult movies online, bypassing state laws regulating cable.
Though Playboy offers everything from merchandise to chat rooms online, “we have only begun to tap the existing assets,” Grossman claimed.
