Internext 2017 Explores State of the Industry

LAS VEGAS—The State of the Industry panel highlighted the final day of Internext as some of the top executives in adult entertainment took the seminar stage. In a spirited discussion moderated by MojoHost CEO Brad Mitchell Monday in Festival Hall C of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, the panelists shared insights about how they’re running their businesses and adjusting to the changing digital landscape. “We’re a technology company, and one thing I can say is invest in your programming people,” said Ron Cadwell, the founder and CEO of CWIE Holding Company, Inc., the parent company for CCBill and Cavecreek Webhosting, among other blue-chip firms. Cadwell emphasized how hard it is to find and retain quality talent and that when you do, it’s important to make the investment in their future. He was joined by Shirley Lara, co-founder and COO of Chaturbate; Cathy Beardsley, president and owner of SegPay; Steven Winyard, main board director and VP for ICM Registry; Jonathan Buckheit, CEO of FriendFinderNetworks; and Shay Efron, VP of sales, marketing and business development for PussyCash/ImLive. Lara said many market indicators point to a continued surge in live cams and that the sector isn’t oversaturated. “I feel for us in particular with Chaturbate we look at what’s going on with mainstream. And let’s look at what’s going on,” Lara told the audience. “We have Instagram and they have live [video]; Facebook, they have live; and now we have Snapchat and Periscope. All of those tentacles lead to live cams. What’s really good about that is millennials—they really are the driving force. “Forbes recently came out with an article that said they have 200 billion dollars in buying power—millennials. Millennials are used to turning on their cell phones, doing Snapchat, Periscope, broadcasting live. That kind of funnels into the next step of cams. So it’s not something that’s necessarily a trend, it’s something that’s going to be around for a long time in my opinion.” AdultFriendFinder’s Jonathan Buckheit revealed that “one innovation you’ll see from us later this year is integrating cams with dating. I agree with Shirley that’s it’s growing.” Lara added, “Dating is a great space to be in. The stigma is gone. I have girlfriends who have great jobs, support themselves and they’re on dating sites and that’s how they meet boyfriends and potential husbands.” Shay Efron noted, “Nothing breaks a good idea. A good idea pops all the time. But it also takes good timing and good execution.” Cadwell said it’s never too late to create something “massive.” Buckheit revealed his biggest challenge is “to try to keep more nimble and as a company to continue to innovate.” Efron stressed, “don’t forget who you are” and to not abandon “a personal approach” regardless how big your company grows. Mitchell indicated MojoHost is planning to launch a platform for designed for smaller businesses to use its services later this year. The annual legal panel featured heavyweight attorneys Lawrence Walters, Corey Silverstein, JD Odenberger and Ben Davidson discussing everything from the likelihood of the Trump administration to target adult to patent trolls. The general consensus was it’s unclear how much Trump’s Justice Department will zero in on porn-related prosecutions, but one thing is certain: they have larger concerns than the adult biz. “It’s only when we screw up and don’t pay attention that they’re forced to step in,” Silverstein said. “Don’t panic,” Odenberger added, noting, “Trump doesn’t have a cohesive ideology. He’s not a conservative; he’s not a devoted Christian; he doesn’t have an antipathy toward sex.” Odenberger suggested a sky-is-falling mentality about the incoming administration is merely “paranoia.” Davidson pointed out that “the only thing Democrats and Republicans can agree on is patent law" and making it easier "to defend against patent trolls.” In one of the lighter moments, Silverstein said he often mentions during panels “the U.S. copyright office has the largest porn collection in the country—and the world." He also responded to one audience member’s question about whether it’s necessary to film porn models signing 2257 documents and giving their consent to sex scenes. “Is it legally necessary? Probably no. Is it a great practice? Yes,” Silverstein said.   Odenberger recommended for directors to always keep the camera running during sex scenes, even during cuts in the action. “Kink puts [the camera] on the floor,” he said. The first panel session on Day 3 featured the one and only Christina FBQueen, a performance marketing expert whose focus is Facebook. Christina, who is originally from Budapest, Hungary, but now resides in Romania, did a special solo presentation about some of the do’s and don’t's of using Facebook Ads. The “soul and sass” of the FBQueen brand who started her craft 11 years ago presented “The Deep Dive Into The Facebook Ad Accounts Misery” to an enthusiastic audience that peppered her with questions at the end of her 25-minute speech. “I’ve never had a real job,” Christina said. “I’ve been living and breathing Facebook marketing since when I was 14. My main focus is performance marketing and lead generation on Facebook. I believe whatever I cover will apply to whatever niche, whatever vertical you’re in.” Christina said her passion is “to inspire women in Facebook marketing to become financially independent.”  “If I can do it so can you regardless of how old you are,” she said, adding, “I am the happiest person on earth.” The FBQueen said that “Facebook is a bitch” but the traffic there is high quality. “It’s a love and hate relationship,” she quipped, before describing the different types of Facebook bans and how and why a person will get their account shut down. The key is to run your campaigns while avoiding flags for unusual activity or any number of policy violations.   “You want to be creative with your ads but you have to be compliant. You have to rely on your marketing skills. Play around with colors. Certain colors have a high click-thru rate,” she said. “Think of Facebook as a cold environment with blue and light grey.” She recommended using colors such as orange, pink or red in ads. “I tested this 100 million times and when you use red in your ad you will get the click-thru,” Christina noted. The self-made marketing guru also suggested "piling up a lot of accounts so you don’t get surprised and emotional” when your account gets banned. She also noted “you don’t want to call out the user in your ad.” “If you put ‘you’ in the tagline you will automatically put your account into review. That’s just one thing you have to look after. You want to avoid also getting your ad flagged by the users.  She said to refrain from calling users “poor or rich” or referring to an ethnicity. “Facebook wants to make sure sure no one gets offended.” She added, “You don’t want to use unrealistic statements,” and also told everyone to avoid using cleavage in their ads. “Videos do very well on Facebook, especially when you’re using warm colors,” she said. Christina said to check out The Ad Buyers Group on Facebook that includes lots of content and ideas about how to run properly—she checks it all the time. She also said she found that running ads on Instagram was “hit or miss” and not as effective as Facebook. Meanwhile, Revolution Force CEO Sean Christian left nothing to chance during his Affiliate Marketing panel that featured Alex Lecomte (JuicyAds), Egle Padilla (Exoclick), Alfonsus Kusuma (Madzuma) and Wouter Groenewoud (Traffic Company). Exoclick’s Padilla said the main geo right now is the U.S. but “at the same time it’s very surprising that countries like Japan, Thailand and India have a lot of traffic.” “I see in our numbers that they are becoming very important,” she said, adding that Philippines is also emerging along with Colombia, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia. She noted that in Thailand many VOD offers are converting and in Japan the dating offers have been working well. In addition to different geos that are getting conversions, the panel talked about the best times to run offers. “In my personal opinion as an affiliate it’s very important that you try everything,” Lecomte said. “You might have more sales during the night shift." Christian, one of the industry’s top moderators, worked the entire room, walking up and down the aisle with microphone in hand and directing specific questions at each panelist in between adding his own commentary. “As a media buyer and affiliate, my big offer this holiday season was sugar-free chocolate,” he admitted. Elge Padilla added, “I don’t know why, but pills are also becoming very important.” Lecomte noted that “it’s not about the landing page, it’s about the company and the story.” “User engagement is higher when they create a story,” he continued. “…This year the strongest point of our business will be about how to keep users engaged.”    In the first virtual reality panel ever held at Internext, several early adopters talked about how the technology is about to take another leap this year and production is ramping up with it. Anna Lee (HoloGirlsVR), Todd Spaits (YanksVR), Stefan Geisler (AmazingContent), Shelby MacRitchie (Reality Lovers), Jean-Claude Artonne (Terpon) and Michael Rapoport (Get Virtual) joined moderator Stewart Tongue (Engine Food) on stage for one of the show’s must-see panels. “There’s been an explosion of devices and possibilities in the past six months,” Artonne said. Lee, a director for HoloFilmsVR, pointed out that scenes are now going “from 20 minutes to like 70 minutes.” “Things are expanding, narratives are increasing. Headsets are getting better,” she said. Her company is now beginning to offer VR rigs they have developed for sale. Rapoport’s company is an ad platform for VR designed to not take away from the experience. “It’s really becoming immersive,” Rapoport said. “There is environment-driven VR and browser-based and with environment VR the possibilities are endless.” MacRitchie said she is now producing two scenes per week and eyeing more niches. Lee reminded everyone in the room about the appeal of VR content. “When you watch something in VR, you become part of the story. You take ownership,” Lee said. “You break the fourth wall. When you do have that level of immersion this person is an active participant whether they like it or not.” Rapoport predicted a VR explosion sooner than later. “It’s like a fire. More and more companies are going to start pouring gas into it, from real estate to gaming to education to tours, to this hotel,” he said. For more Internext coverage, click here.  Pictured: Christina FBQueen.