People of the Internet: Pornhub wants you to design its first mainstream ad campaign. After all, who else has a better handle on its product?
The adult site has launched an online contest to find its next creative director, whose first order of business will be to construct a “safe-for-work” national media campaign promoting the brand. It is time to let your mind wander.
Pornhub is an ideal client. According to Pornhub president Corey Price, 35 million people already visit its site every day. Now he’s hoping “to reach the next 35 million through mainstream media.”
Entrants can submit their work for consideration at pornhubcampaign.tumblr.com and are encouraged to include ideas for print, out-of-home and TV ads. The site has only been live for a few hours, but the site already houses a range of submissions.
One features rabbits seemingly kissing, accompanied by the tagline “It’s only natural.”Another, designed to be placed in public bathrooms presents Pornhub as an alternative option for those whose pickup lines are failing.
“As opposed to Internet advertising, where you can show some nudity and people will click, conveying our message through mainstream media will be challenging,” the creative brief on the contest site reads. “We need to promote Pornhub through a G-rated ad campaign without risk of offending, while still being a bit cheeky and fun.”
The contest is Pornhub’s latest attempt to edge itself into the mainstream. It has already found success attracting ad budgets from non-adult brands such as movie studios, software companies and major musical acts.
The contest also serves as a great piece of marketing in itself, of course. It has already been written about by major media outlets including Time and Business Insider, and a range of smaller blogs.
Pornhub has already demonstrated its content marketing nouse with its insights blog, which turns its traffic data into hilarious and genuinely interesting stats about its users’ viewing habits.
More in Marketing
Meta’s Threads ads arrive fast, but advertisers move at their own pace
Threads ads are here, and so is the predictable wave of testing.
Privacy fatigue is setting in after Google’s cookie U-turn. But the search for alternatives hasn’t stopped
Third-party cookies are still widespread but they’re no longer foundational. The shift is already underway, it’s just no longer waiting on Chrome.
Confessions of a media buyer on Google’s third-party cookie U-turn and how it helped a ‘largely lazy’ industry innovate
For media buyers, it’s been a wild time filled with false starts, urgency and many delays to an ever-extending deadline.