While Alexzandra Kekesi was earning her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University, feminist thinkers influenced her deeply, inspiring her passion for sex work advocacy.
When she joined MindGeek, now Aylo, in 2013 as an entry-level marketing associate focusing on social media engagement, she saw a chance to bridge the gap between those academic endeavors and what would ultimately become the career she now refers to as her dream job.
Something I love about my job is that I get to work closely with lots of different departments within the company.
Working across Aylo’s roster of brands, Kekesi became Pornhub’s director of brand marketing in 2021. This past year, she was appointed as head of community and brand.
In the course of her work at Aylo, Kekesi says, she has honed her approach to team management, fostering a sense of shared mission to collaboratively achieve goals.
“I think I have a real advantage in terms of perspective, having joined the company at entry level and moved up through various levels of management,” she shares. “Everyone on my team plays an equally important role in terms of achieving the goals we have set. I feel really strongly about supporting our teams in creating platforms, tools and opportunities for models to connect with audiences and monetize their content. I genuinely believe that the people I have the privilege of working with all care deeply about this industry, helping models succeed on our platforms and communicating to the larger public about what Pornhub stands for.”
Kekesi also underscores the “Core Values” published on Pornhub.com: consent, freedom of sexual expression, authenticity, originality and diversity. When it comes to measuring the successful realization of those values within the scope of day-to-day business goals, Kekesi considers performer feedback to be one of the most valuable indicators.
“What they have to say about competitors is sometimes even more valuable,” she adds.
Given the scale of Aylo and its interlinking parts, Kekesi makes it a point to interface strategically with a variety of co-workers to achieve companywide goals for Pornhub.
“Something I love about my job is that I get to work closely with lots of different departments within the company,” Kekesi explains. “Over the last year in particular, working with the trust and safety team on helping the public better understand how hard we work to keep our platforms safe, and with the product team to better serve and communicate with the model community, have been real highlights.”
Several campaigns and initiatives that Kekesi recently spearheaded have proved fruitful for Pornhub, including one of her favorite projects, the brand’s collaboration with Hajime Sorayama.
“To have a living legend reimagine the Pornhub logo is a dream,” she enthuses. “We were also able to license a few of his iconic works for our capsule collection on Pornhub Apparel and the icing on the cake was having Kazumi star in the campaign.
“She’s so smart and cool and we were so lucky to work with her on launching this,” Kekesi continues. “We also recently collaborated with Shayne Oliver on a new clothes and accessories capsule. It was really great to work with Shayne again and we loved being part of launching his newest collection.”
Reflecting on her experiences over the past decade, Kekesi highlights one particular way the industry has changed that directly impacts business strategies.
“We are more creator-focused than ever,” she says. “We know that we are nothing without the thousands of talented people who populate our site with content and we are innovating new products and features accordingly.”
In addition to issuing annual reports like Pornhub’s “2023 Year in Review” tracking the hottest content trends, which are shared by mainstream publications and generate buzz on social media, Kekesi’s multifaceted approach to marketing includes highly strategic partnerships.
“I think my team and I have developed a strong intuition over the years on this front,” she explains. “We are selective about who we work with. Value alignment is key. For instance, we were exploring a partnership with a fashion brand a few months ago and when they reacted negatively to the idea of having performers featured in the campaign, we called it off. It wouldn’t make sense for us to work with a brand that was against the idea of having sex workers be part of the visuals, since performers are so central to our brand identity.”
That central commitment to uplifting sex workers extends to the various B2B benefits Pornhub offers creators and brands keen on partnering up.
“We offer huge traffic and a great support network for models that want to work with us,” she emphasizes. “Unlike other platforms that are increasingly reliant on AI for moderation and support functions, we are dedicated to communicating with content creators human to human, quickly and efficiently.
“We also have an entire team dedicated to helping models optimize their presence on Pornhub,” Kekesi elaborates. “They audit content, offer recommendations and help creators find audiences. Pornhub is a great marketing tool that allows both direct content monetization and linking out to a performer’s other sites to drive subscribers to those too.”
Kekesi’s underlying business philosophy as an executive, she reaffirms, is all about listening to performers.
“I want to focus on bridging the gap between the corporate side of pornography and sex workers, communicating and amplifying their realities along with our initiatives,” she offers.
With so many spinning plates to keep track of, from working with multiple departments to engaging with talent, Kekesi tries her best to find time for winding down and recharging.
“While I wish I had more time for it these days, I really love making ceramics,” she shares. “There’s something great about having clay all over your hands and not being able to use your phone as a result. I also really love spending time with my dog Deani.
“Podcasting was also not initially on my 2023 bingo card, but I totally fell in love with it,” she adds. “Everyone please listen to the ‘Terms of Service Podcast’ on your favorite streaming platform!”
