Play Kinky is a new online retailer and it is promoting itself in a rather subtle way, by launching a consumer magazine called Kinky Times. The first issue of the 84-page A5-sized publication is newsstand quality, featuring exclusive photography and artwork throughout, and content includes articles on the health benefits of sex, some of the UK’s best hotels for kinky nights away and a history of erotic fiction, in addition to in-depth looks at various sex toys.
The Play Kinky website is mentioned but not in an overt way; apart from a small name-check on the cover it only really appears under the sex toy reviews in an “available from…” fashion.
The team behind Kinky Times have financial, legal, IT, design and marketing backgrounds but are now committed to retail: “At the heart of it we are a retailer,” said marketing director Jo Hudson. “But we have gone for a considered selection of carefully chosen products rather than a warehouse full of options.”
Issue one of Kinky Times, dated Autumn 2013, is now available. It had an initial print run of 10,000 copies and a distribution strategy which has been as carefully thought out the other aspects of the enterprise: “We distribute in London, Manchester and Brighton, with about half of the copies going hand to hand – ie to individuals on the street – but also 5,000 copies going to places where they will dwell,” explained Hudson. “So hotels, coffee shops, hairdressers and stores, mainly lifestyle – gifts and clothing. We also send around 100 copies in a VIP pack to journalists. Alongside a press release, we send to national press and monthly lifestyle magazines as well as bloggers and key Twitterati with the aim of widening coverage even further and getting the industry, beyond ourselves, written about.”
The next issue will be Spring 2014 and content is currently being sourced – visit www.playkinky.com for more information.
