 We're so happy to be here, and I am Erica Fite. And I'm Katie Keating. And so we're going to take you guys to a place that might make you feel a little bit uncomfortable or a few people uncomfortable, because we're going to talk about sex. And even though it's 9.40 in the morning and never too early. Even though it's surprisingly still taboo in some circles for conversation. And even though mere words might make people not feel so comfortable, we're going to do that. So the words you see here might not be your usual office vocabulary, but at our office, it's pretty much just another day on the job. And that's when we're working with one of our very favorite clients, which is Lion's Den, a 48 store adult retailer. And it's been a really great experience working with them the past couple of years. Needless to say, it's changed the conversation in our office a lot. And it's also changed the conversation that they have with women. So as a bit of background on Fancy, our agency, we founded it about eight years ago. Because we thought it was high time that an advertising agency put women first. As we know, women are responsible for over 80% of buying decisions. They're a hugely important consumer group. And at the time that we founded the agency in 2011, 97% of the people responsible for making and approving the ads were men. So we wanted to do things differently. We wanted to make work that was interesting and motivating and especially relevant to women. We wanted everything that we did at our agency to be in service of elevating what mattered to women. And when we talk about what matters, we talk about all the stuff that matters, even the stuff no one else will talk about, like at least not out loud, in polite conversation. And these are things that are normal parts of life, like periods and menopause, and finance, and mental health, and like Erica said, sex. Right, so when we decided to pursue some clients in this category, we did an awful lot of Googling. And Katie here did a ton of totally manic search history clearing. Yeah. And it was just obvious that some of these places, or most of the sex toy stores, were just ready for a revamp. They were not welcoming places for women to go at all. I mean, look at that, would you want to shop there? So it honestly started to seem like it might be too much of an uphill battle. But then we came across this quote from Pete Potanzini, who's the director of marketing for Lyonston. And he said, these days, we need to attract women and couples not just to thrive, but to even survive. Yes, because it turns out that there are traditional offerings, which were DVDs and videos available on the side of the highway. Just weren't quite cutting it anymore. And that was due to the digital world, because of course, any of their customers could get anything they wanted, all the content they could wish online for free. But in order to stay in business, they really needed to sell stuff in the real world. And to do that, they needed to talk to women and couples. So that's when we knew that we were born to work on Lyonston. Because we knew a matter to women. And we thought that if we could change the perception of Lyonston, it could make a really big difference in women and couples' lives. And we just thought maybe we could do some really fun creative. So what did we do? We just picked up the phone and called Pete. I called Pete. Katie had just this crazy nervous breakdown. She ran to the couch. She put her head down. She went to pull over her head. And she was just like freaking out. She totally exaggerates. I really only did like 90% of that. I was, I'm going to say, I'll be honest, I was nervous. This was not a normal conversation in our office at the time. This was certainly not a category that I had any experience in after my career in the big agency world. Yeah, so we just put her on a plane to Ohio. Yes, Columbus, Ohio, the epicenter of the Lyonston empire. I've traveled around the world for my job. I've gone to remote parts of Africa and the southern peninsula of Haiti. And I have to say that that stretch of highway on I-71, outside of Columbus, was some pretty rough terrain. I mean, from the moment Pete picked me up at the airport. And this is the first time I'd met the guy in person. And we're in his car. And we're talking about Pornhub and vibrators and male enhancement pills. And I am having this insane internal monologue at the same time that's going like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, just be normal, just be normal. Pretend like it's what you talk about with all your clients. And I'm just like, yeah, of course, yes. And then we go to the stores. And it gets weirder because now it's like we're a couple and we're shopping. And we're talking about the merits of like phallic versus designy vibrators. And I am losing my mind. And it was a really, it was a really, it was crazy. It was a totally crazy experience. I was very happy that they didn't send me. No, actually, I kind of wanted to go. No, I just really thought, what am I doing here? And how did this all happen? And why didn't we really was wanting her to be in my place at that point I tried. So then we just we started to get used to it. Everybody started to get used to it. And the more we sort of talked about it and learned about it and knew more about women's sexual wellness and empowerment, the more we knew we were doing completely the right thing. It became less about doing some great creative and much more about making a difference for women because we realized that the world truly needed this work. There were women across the entire country that needed to have orgasms. And there were some women who had honestly never even had an orgasm ever. And they just needed the confidence to be able to walk into that store and get whatever they wanted. And we had to help them because I mean, if we didn't help them, who was going to help them? So this had become a public service. And so we just rolled up our sleeves and we got to work in handcuffs. Right, there were a couple of restraints, you might say. The first was network sensors. So part of this assignment, the first assignment from these guys was a 32nd traditional TV spot. So we needed to make a trip to Lion's Den as normal as a trip to the grocery store for women except we couldn't say anything or show anything that you could actually get once you got there. And it turns out though that those network sensors were actually easier to get past than the digital sensors. Facebook has like a 20 foot wall around their platform. They won't allow ads at all for adult products or services unless they're for family planning or contraception. But even the family planning and contraception ads can only focus, not just focus, can only mention the family planning and contraceptive parts. They like, pleasure is totally off the table. And then we had our own creative standards, right? Cause it's our agency when we're women focused and we didn't want to do anything tacky or demeaning or embarrassing to women or our agency. We wanted to do work that was more meaningful, that was gonna put women in control, that was gonna speak to them in a way that no one else would. Using humor and fun and told the truth that sex is a normal part of everyday life. Yes, so on top of all of those handcuffs, we now just loved our client Pete. He's such a great, great guy. But it turns out he had a very like, super small. Tiny. Really like, just a micro budget. But luckily, that doesn't always affect performance. No, it does not. Despite all of that, we were able to do some really fun work that managed to get women in couples comfortable with the idea of shopping at Lion's Den. And that shift really happened starting with video that was pushed out on their social and digital channels, connected TV, YouTube, and broadcast, like we mentioned. So let's take a look. Okay, so in that video, we appealed to women by putting sexual wellness squarely in the camp of self-care and showed that it's just as important as any other daily workout. This next video, we showed couples that there's no time that's not the right time for a little connection and fun. What makes granny granny? First, there's the pork loin. Am I right? And then there's the knitting. That one piece jumpsuit she made for me sure turned a lot of heads. And of course, her collection of glass figurines. Watching your every move. So raise your glasses. Happy birthday. Another way we helped Lion's Den claim their space in the digital world was by taking part in cultural conversations that were happening online, like International Women's Day. We created a original poster, distributed it widely across their social and digital channels and displayed it throughout their stores. And this really helped to bring women and the cultural conversation into the retail environment. And the response they had was so great that they did it again this year. And we also used Instagram to serve as a daily reminder that intimacy belongs in your everyday life. But there were some restraints there, too, as you can imagine with what we could show. So hence, stick figures. So we were starting to, as you can see, we were starting to create a new Lion's Den in the digital world. But the real world still had a little catching up to do. So, hello, ladies' nights. Posters, radio, digital, social, that all brought women into real life events across all the stores and gave them a safe space to ask questions, check out products, and just really have fun with each other. And we just heard that they had their first ladies' night of 2019, a couple of weeks ago, and they had the best week that they had since our client, Pete, started with the company seven years ago. Yeah, so we were feeling pretty good about how we'd help elevate the brand. And, but like a good proactive agency, we thought that we should talk to the people. So we suggested some online research. And the results, oh, here we go. And the results were kind of interesting. For one thing, there were things we'd expected, like the way people felt about Lion's Den and proved when they saw the work, and no one was too interested in buying DVDs anymore. And some things were very surprising, like people absolutely love the name Lion's Den. And they are just dying desperate for more lingerie. So anyhow, that survey information helped Pete convince his upper management that they should continue to invest in this new direction for the brand, talking to women and couples, rather than trying to sell a bunch of DVDs. And it also helped inform some new products and stores for the future. Yeah, so the campaign's been running for a little over a year now, and we have definitely helped to improve the conversation and normalize it for sure and move that cultural needle. And the best part is we did it with work that gave women license to own their sexual health and claim their satisfaction and not feel shy talking about it. I mean, suddenly women who never would have considered Lion's Den were starting to give it a shot. And here, true story. So we were speaking about Lion's Den a while back in Columbus, and a woman who was working backstage at the event just ran over to us and she pulled out her Lion's Den VIP card and things like profusely, she's telling us that she loves to go there with her friends and thanks for making it such a comfortable, great place. And it just, it made us feel really good to make her feel so good. And now, as women, excuse me, women and couples are clearly becoming more comfortable with the idea of shopping at Lion's Den. Lion's Den is becoming more comfortable with the idea of getting off the highway and they're starting to open up more stores in pedestrian, more urban areas and we're really pulling for them to come to New York soon. And that, so what is the real story? Basically, we took a brand that was making a mint in the real world and was totally just falling apart due to the digital world. Then we reintroduced it in the digital world and it brought a lot more people into the stores and the real world. You got that? But regardless of which world we're in, we were able to influence it because we know women so well. Ultimately, you know it's all about the idea and knowing your audience and creating these authentic connections with them. And because of this, we were able to take a company that was suffering because it didn't have a relationship with women and turned shopping at their stores into a really positive experience for women. I mean, the clients psyched their sales are way up and in fact, after their last Valentine's Day, they had $7 million weeks in a row and so we'll show you our most recent video which was responsible for the rise. Keep going. I love you. Okay, I love you too. You love me? Yes. I love you too. We appreciate all of you. We do, we appreciate you. Thank you.