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Jules Jordan Video – Adult Studio

By on May 29, 2020
Angela White

I’d previously been with evil Angel for I think about four years with a kind of a master catalogue that I owned and finance myself and they distributed it so in 2006 I  just made a lateral move and decided to distribute my own stuff since I owned it.

I knew a lot of the customers already and I had knowledge about wholesale distribution and retail so I had a good background to transition to do my own thing. At that time, we were still selling some VHS and DVD’s, it was crucial time you could really, really, do well then.

Adult stores

I owned 5 retail shops in Los Angeles, but it is it is something that you must commit to full time. A lot of employees don’t really take it seriously unfortunately and there’s a lot of effort that needs to be put into human resources at a retail level, so it was good for the years that I ran it but unfortunately the market in Los Angeles, the properties are very expensive to maintain, that becomes a big factor especially when you are operating a 50/50 shop with 50% general merchandise and 50% adult because we couldn’t be classified as an all-adult store the way were zoned,  so it was a good chance to sell our own products and get business to other people in the industry, that was a plus but it just became a financial decision.

What about clandestine devices

I wanted to do sex toy products for a long time but I knew the market was very tough and saturated and I wanted to be able to create something to stand out so I knew i had to come up with something innovative. It took me 5 years of thinking about it to find the right person to head the company at the time and come up with a concept for product that was unique. 

About three years ago it all came together and we launched the Mimic product which is a really nice and different looking clitoral stimulator. The low to mid-range in novelties, the founders own that market, so it was impossible to compete, so we had to go luxury and you know it worked out great. We were in with everybody right away and it’s something we’re still building with newer products. We’re going into it slow because we are feeling that less is more for us at this point so it’s fun to put out a product that people are stimulated by, we can even use it in our films  so I think I’m really finding a little something to make everybody orgasm.

Trends in content creation

There’s a genre for everybody, you can shoot pregnant women, large women, midgets, that’s not our market. There’s waves of stuff that comes in like parodies, family play,  now a lot of darker themed material but for us we have to focus on what made us famous and that is providing the eye candy the best we can, dressing up the girls, filming in a quick manner, making the girls look sexy without over complicating it with daddy stories and so on.  For us its about generating a visually stunning product and not necessarily the theme.

Sales Channels

Fortunately, were able to get into all the markets like VOD, broadcast, of course we have distribution all over the world for DVD’s but it gets a little difficult for overseas retailers to ship the products from the States.  Were still real successful worldwide with DVD’s. For licensing we have a few partners, we’re on television but here the revenue seems to be decreasing as there’s not many of the cable aggregators that can utilise our marketing because it comes down to a real generic description on a system and they can’t us our photos. So what’s frustrating is that were at the mercy of the description of the film for it be successful,  and that kind of market can be an impulse buy so it’s not like you can get repeat customers coming back and finding your product on broadcast over and over, if it’s a VOD system yes, but broadcast channels its hard to stand out.

Direct subscription sales on Jules Jordan Video is the main source of income and that’s also growing and we can play our films in great quality and efficiently as opposed to SD which is DVD quality.

DVD lifespan

As long as sex toys are being sold, I think DVD will also sell. Even as an impulse buy with sex toys, I think it will always be around in some form or fashion. But the frustrating thing is it’s always been a race to the bottom price wise, were competing in a premium price point segment, the retailers are faced with the decision do they stock up on cheap product or premium product? I think having a good balance is the right choice there.

Social media has really blown up especially for adult stars in the last 10 years. We’re fortunate that the stars will use their social media to promote and there’s nothing more valuable than that, reaching out to a million followers with one click or a retweet of your film that she was in , the stars have never been able to promote a product as good as they can today, so you know instead of us spending a tonne on advertising were able to utilise the stars that are happy to promote and have millions of followers  and we’ve always been able to get a lot of followers ourselves, for our brand so social media is the biggest promotional tool that we’ve had in the last 10 years. Instagram and Twitter are the big ones.

The AVN Show in Vegas is about branding, it’s the one place In the world that you can go to see all these famous stars, it’s really unlike any other event in the world.

Technology

4K has been the biggest thing in the last 4 years we’ve been doing it since day one. There’s new cameras coming out and we get them right away and experiment, I think we’re way ahead of a lot of studios with the technology that we’re using,  it’s great to be able to film something in 4K,  put it on your site as a 4K download, people are putting it on hard drives and plugging it right into their TV’s and seeing it in true 4K glory as opposed to SD that’s on discs.  I think adult has always pushed technology in terms of cameras and resolutions.

Best selling titles

Well this year we had Angela White ‘Dark Side’. Dark Side is the franchise, we do one maybe every five years or so, it’s a project that comes together organically. I like to come up with some ideas with female talent, some new and interesting things that will challenge them, and to provide them with a showcase to perform throughout the whole film in different scenarios.

Favourite all time titles

Some of the classics like ‘Deep Throat’, ‘Taboo’, ‘Debbie does Dallas’,  just because they were so influential on my sexuality as a teen, when I was fascinated with that stuff.  It doesn’t resemble anything that I do today, but its something that influenced the transition into what I do today.

Country specific porn trends

I think what has made my content popular, is just the way I film and the content is just appealing globally and not just in certain areas. If you look at the statistics on Twitter or Instagram, that’s where you see a lot of people where porn is forbidden, I mean, that is their porn,  India, Middle East, it’s interesting to see, I don’t know if that can be monetized. I think you should also look at the demographics of your social media as opposed to your sales.

Adult performers

Regarding females, every year it seems like a higher quality female is interested in getting into the industry and younger also. Everyone is influenced by social media, and there are a lot of bright influential starlets in the industry today. It can be that its become not so taboo and even perhaps on trend to perform in an adult film. I thought we were going to get replaced by celebrities for a while  there, with so many celebrity sex tapes out there.

Legal and compliance issues

Its legal to film in Los Angeles as opposed to some states where it is illegal. A lot of it started in San Francisco and then migrated down to LA, LA has been the base for the agents and it is a filming friendly city so you can blend in a little more. There are a lot of resources in Los Angeles, it kind of went along with the mainstream and became the capital of film production for adult.  People seem to migrate to California, its year-round nice weather, that assists the filming on location also.

Discrimination

There are plenty of stories about financial institutions closing adult industry accounts, but I had never experienced it myself until about two years ago when I had a business credit card cancelled on me because I was in the adult film business. The person was able to research my Corporation on Google right when I was on the phone found and found I was an adult company and cancelled the credit line on the spot. I had a perfect banking record, so it’s frustrating. There’s been government plans to push non desirable businesses out of banking like marijuana, payday loans, adult films, firearms, and there are quite a few legal cases fighting this.  We do have to be discrete with banking just because its so easy to research people and companies now.

Advice

Just be aware its very hard to break in and market, just because of the glut of free content on the web. You really have to come up with something special, whether online or broadcast or DVD or whatever it is.  You really have to have a good vision and a good business plan, its easy to make and display the content but to sell it is the hardest part.

www.julesjordanvideo.com

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