Booble ad spots have gotten airplay recently on the Tom Leykis Show and the Howard Stern Show, narrowing in on a predominantly male and demographically porn-friendly listening audience.
Company co-founder Bob Smart told XBiz he has designated a fairly moderate budget to test the waters for mainstream advertising, starting with around $20,000 for two one-minute ad spots on Stern and Leykis, and the same amount for a print campaign that will appear in five nationwide alternative presses like the San Francisco Bay Guardian, L.A. Weekly and the Village Voice.
"Since Booble is seen more as a crossover brand, it lends itself to mainstream treatment because it still retains that sort of fun idea of searching for adult content, along with the cartoon boobs," Smart said, referring to the website's logo that features a pair of breasts in lieu of the two vowels in the Booble name.
Smart told XBiz that his ad team is constantly cycling through different national and regional ad programs trying to see what works and what doesn't. And while reaching out into mainstream outlets to find adult surfers can be expensive, Booble has noticed a good response so far.
"I would characterize what we're doing as testing," Smart said. "Then we will double down on what works. The name of the game is traffic volume and there is an unlimited budget for what works."
Smart added that his company has so far found the most success buying ad space on online adult sites. However, finding a corner in the adult market has required constant attention, leading edge technology, and a never-ending push to stay in the media spotlight.
Smart also runs porn review site SirRodney.com that has served as a steady money-maker over the years and compliments the more gimmick-inspired Booble site, which as of Sept. 1 was forced to rid itself of any immediate likeness to Google pursuant of an agreement between the two parties. Smart declined to comment on the terms of the settlement with Google.
The original Booble website was a striking parody of Google, in both color and design, and a week after launching was plagued with a cease-and-desist order from Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, claiming that Booble's carefree interpretation of "parody," while protected by the First Amendment, is infact trademark infringement and dilutes Google's trademarks. Additionally, Google claimed unfair competition under federal and state laws.
"This agreement [with Google] has allowed us to go forward and be more aggressive about marketing our brand without the threat of litigation hanging over our business," Smart said. "And we now think it could develop into a nice little business with the proper marketing and brand investment."
Since its agreement with Google, Booble has changed its homepage dramatically and the site now has more than 10,000 search results.
"It's no longer a parody," Smart said. "We have taken pains to make sure that anyone who comes to the site does not ever associate the two companies."
Interestingly, Smart added, since shedding its likeness to Google, the adult search engine has seen business skyrocket, with a significant increase in first-time visitors and repeats.
Smart attributes this boon to the company's changeover from being a novelty site to a serious and useful website that people can rely on.
"We got rid of the people who came to the site for the novelty of the parody and now they come because it is a useful tool to search for adult content. A parody is funny once, but then the site has to be useful to you."
