Mar 12, 2015 9:56 AM PDT    Text size: 

LONDON — Adult novelty firm Lovehoney.co.uk is reportedly seeing success over its recent promotion of Svakom’s Gaga — an HD camera equipped vibrator that Lovehoney calls a “Sex Selfie Stick.”

The Gaga has a powerful motor with six vibration speeds and includes an “intelligent vibration mode,” which lets the vibe intuitively escalate through each speed, gradually ascending into the user’s climax — which it records and uploads to the user’s PC or smartphone via FaceTime.

The device is available for £119.99 (around $180) and is available from Lovehoney.co.uk.

While the Gaga was actually launched last year, Lovehoney’s sex toy category manager Alice Little sensed a marketing opportunity following the success of “selfie sticks,” which enable mobile phone users to take self-portraits from beyond the normal range of their arm’s length.

Dubbing the Gaga the “Sex Selfie Stick,” Lovehoney TV enlisted sex expert Annabelle Knight to demonstrate how it works — and then shared the story with the world’s media. The media responded, with the story published all over the world, on sites such as The Independent, Metro, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, New York Daily News, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and MTV.

“The response was incredible,” a Lovehoney spokesperson said. “It shows just what an appetite there is for sex product news if it is packaged in the right way.”

Lovehoney benefitted from the increased exposure and website traffic generated by the media buzz, as hundreds of sites linked to the Gaga story and embedded its video — reportedly garnering more than 2.5 million people to the Lovehoney site — providing a great example to other adult product and service marketers seeking mainstream attention.

“We love introducing new toys to the mainstream media whether they are made by Lovehoney or by another firm — in this case Svakom,” the spokesperson adds. “The aim is to show the world what fun everyone can have using sex toys. It sends out a great message for the industry as a whole.”

On the consumer end, the Gaga is generating positive reviews on the Lovehoney site, with one reviewer noting that “Wow is all I can say. The camera is such good quality and the light around the tip picks up everything — be warned! The toy is so much fun,” while another user opined that the device produces “Homemade movies on a new level ... Uploading the video was easy.”

Altogether, Gaga is another great example of today’s merging of sex and technology, as well as the impact that new devices have on both amateur “homemade” as well as professional porn productions, as automation and technology increasingly enters the bedroom — and in this case, also enters the user.

Beyond the specific device’s selling points, Lovehoney has shown how adult companies can leverage the media to gain a new level of exposure in the mainstream consumer markets — combining competition with creativity to take a lead in a crowded arena — and it is an example that others are sure to follow.

For more information, visit Lovehoney.co.uk.