LONDON — Hot Octopuss last week disrupted the marketing world, scooping a trophy at the PR Week U.S. Awards.
The premium sex toy company fought off McDonald’s and Pizza Hut in the “Best Consumer Launch” category for its campaign to launch the Queen Bee, the company’s first sex toy aimed at women.
The campaign, titled “Bring Your O Game,” focused on the importance of orgasms: encouraging open, unashamed discussions about sexual pleasure and empowering women to achieve orgasms. A pop-up store in Manhattan invited women to have a consultation with an “orgasm stylist” (a licensed sex therapist) before trying out everything they’d learnt — and the new Queen Bee toy — in the changing room.
“The press and social media went wild for the campaign and the coverage for the product rolled out for months after,” the company said.
The glitzy awards at Cipriani on Wall Street celebrated the best PR and social campaigns from the last year with brands such as Heineken, Frito-Lay and Chevrolet all taking home trophies. Tarana Burke, who kickstarted the #MeToo movement, won Best Communicator of the Year.
Hot Octopuss’s campaign wowed the judges because it “kept it classy and upscale in a category that can easily become seedy.”
According to the company, the campaign wasn’t about promoting the functional benefits of the product, but about telling a larger story that positioned orgasms as an important part of health and wellness and celebrated every woman and her own unique orgasm.
“We like to do things differently — to stick two fingers up to cultural norms and push the boundaries,” Hot Octopuss Founder Adam Lewis said. “We do this not just in the innovative tech we use in our products, but also in our marketing campaigns. ‘Bring Your O Game’ wasn’t just about showing how fast and powerful the vibrator was, but about trying to have a positive impact on the lives of the women who tried it and get people talking more about sexual pleasure.”
