The Gen Z Sex Toy Brand Taking on Big Tech

Sex might sell, but the truth is for sexual wellness brands, it doesn’t. That's the issue facing a growing number of pleasure producers, which are accusing platforms like TikTok, Google and Facebook of censorship. Among them is Lelo, a Swedish-founded brand that sells vibrators, Hex condoms and more across 160 markets. Billed as the “Apple of sex toys," the business came to life in 2002. In recent years its popularity has been boosted owing to design-driven products and a Covid-19 lockdown boom. The market for sex toys is forecast to grow to $62 billion by 2030 according to Grand View. Progressive Gen Z-ers represent a significant growth opportunity for advertisers in the space. Recent research from social agency Fanbytes by Brainlabs revealed, for this generation, sex is becoming an expression of “self-care” and sex toys a vehicle for “self-discovery.” Elsewhere, Mintel found Gen Z women over index for their use of sexual enhancement products, including vibrators and lubricants. With Sales Up 263% in Quarantine, This Sex Toy Encouraged Everyone to Stay Home “In the eyes of Google, we’re no different from a porn star,” explained Lelo’s paid content team lead for the U.S. market Valentina Holjevac. “Our website is categorized in the same way any adult entertainment site would be, even though it’s fun, artistic, tasteful and educational.” Lelo, known for its vibrators, massagers and BDSM products says it's being censored by platforms like TikTok. “We can’t use the traditional ad channels like Google ads, Instagram or Facebook,” she continued. "It's ironic because we all grow up with this idea that sex sells, but I guess it sells everything apart from sex toys.” Tech turn-off TikTok’s stringent community guidelines ban nudity and sexually explicit content (depicting penetrative or non-penetrative sex, sexual stimulation or fetish, or "erotic kissing"). The guidelines explicitly state that educational content is an exception to the rules, however many creators have reported having such content blocked entirely or made ineligible for monetization. In the eyes of Google, we’re no different from a porn star.Valentina Holjevac, paid content team lead, Lelo Over the course of 2022, Lelo has been skirting this censorship with a campaign on TikTok designed to raise awareness and buzz around its range of toys for women. The result was a campaign from Fanbytes by Brainlabs which didn’t show products or mention the term “sex” but instead replied on comedy sketches and educational content to drive clicks to the website. It worked, garnering 1.8 million views and 13,000 clicks, as well as 65% engagement rate. Lelo also noted an uptick in brand awareness and sentiment. https://www.tiktok.com/@leightonwhyte/video/6971465588346555653?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7109860251914913285 https://www.tiktok.com/@tiddygoals/video/7063947580727741742?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7109860251914913285 For Holjevac, the past few years have seen a marked shift in how consumers discuss sex and sexuality, especially when it comes to women’s pleasure, but the tech industry simply hasn’t caught up. Her suggestion to TikTok is to appoint a partnerships expert to work with brands like her own, or a team that verifies the content of posts from sexual wellness companies and the creators they work with. "[It would be ideal] if they could develop some kind of partnerships program where they could flag which channels or tags were safe, or have a person checking the content who could flag it as safe." Though TikTok denies the practice of "shadow banning" (when platforms make certain content less visible for users without removing it) Holjevac insisted Lelo's content has been subjected to this. "It's unfortunate, because you're then missing out on content that is engaging or informative." She empathized with just how much content TikTok has to moderate, especially given its younger userbase, but she is firm in her belief that sexual content shouldn't be penalized unless it's "harmful or vulgar." A wider issue Lelo isn’t alone in coming up against challenges with the way tech platforms moderate content deemed to be explicit. U.K. business Lovehoney told Internet Retailing in January how Google’s SafeSearch SEO feature prevented more than 700,000 adults visiting its website in the run-up to Christmas 2021. It has filed hundreds of complaints with the Alphabet-owned company. 2 Female Sexual Wellness Companies Call Out the Ad Policies of MTA and Social Platforms The feature is designed to protect young people from accessing sexual content, however it’s rolled out to every user whose age Google can’t determine. In July, Love Honey unveiled a tongue-in-cheek billboard campaign which explained step-by-step how customers could disable the feature. U.K. brand Lovehoney took out ads complaining about Google's SafeSearch feature last year. When it comes to Facebook and Instagram, rules around this kind of content also negatively impacts sexual health brands, particularly when it comes to women. In January 2022, The Centre for Intimacy Justice examined 60 women’s health companies (across products like lubricant) which had previously faced ad censorship online. All their ads (100%) were rejected on both Facebook and Instagram over the last three years. Moreover, almost half of these companies had their accounts suspended during this period. In several instances, the ad policies penalized only content relating to women and non-binary individuals’ sexual health, while men’s sexual wellness brands that displayed suggestive content were approved. Lelo wants TikTok to start a partnerships program for sexual wellness and pleasure brands. Sonia Gordhandas, account lead at Fanbytes by Brainlabs, agreed that of all the social platforms TikTok's policies were preventing Gen Z in particular from learning about sex in an environment familiar to them. Brands like Lelo aren't telling people to have more sex, they're just telling people to enjoy it.Sonia Gordhandas, account lead, Fanbytes by Brainlabs "TikTok is overtaking Google as a search engine for young people," she said. "So you're naturally going to have people using it as a place to learn and discover about their own sexuality. This means topics like orgasms and gay sex are useful for them, so painting all this sexual content with the same brush means even TikTok is losing out." She called for a more sophisticated way of discerning between content types. "We need to develop a rhetoric where sexual pleasure isn't seen as a bad thing, it's not something you censor or something that should be demonized. Brands like Lelo aren't telling people to have more sex, they're just telling people to enjoy it. Having more content around that normalized can only be a good thing." With a whole generation looking to social media to inform them about sex and dating, you can expect to find queer influencers, discussions about consent and TikTok-famous gynecologists on young people's feeds. If platforms and brands can't find a way to work together to ensure there's enough progressive content to satisfy these desires, they might just be missing out on a golden opportunity. 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‘It’s Not a Dirty Word’: The Gen Z Sex Toy Brand Taking on Big Tech

Lelo asks TikTok to stop censoring its content as though it’s ‘porn’

Rebecca Stewart

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Rebecca Stewart