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August 2008: PAUL'S PIECE - ETO Show IV - A New Hope - Issue 60.
It seems like a long time ago that the first ETO Show crawled into the spotlight, in a smaller NEC hall not so far, far away. Back in 2005 VOD was just a lazy name for Vodafone and no one had ever heard of The Cone. Spin on three years to the fourth trade-only adult event at Birmingham's premiere exhibition complex and a lot has changed. DVD sales are down, you've heard of the word Philates and your credit has been crunched like a well clamped nipple. Given the luxury nature of most adult products, the question I was asking myself as I pitched up on the morning of Sunday the 27th of July for the show's 10.30am opening was how was the industry reacting, and how had the ETO Show evolved to reflect these 'difficult times'.
Not much except the weather and the year on the big sign above the door of the Pavilion had changed outside and the NEC's security were still polite and efficient in the lobby, but as I passed a small crowd waiting to get in, I did sense a certain belt-tightening. In past years ETO has run features like Pimp My Shop and the ETO Show 'Great Giveaway' deal vouchers, which weren't back in 2008. The resulting tone of the show was perhaps a little more businesslike, in keeping with the industry's refocused attitude; when times are tough, it's time to get tough. Gratifyingly for show organiser Jonathan Kirk of Threeonethree Events, there were more exhibitors than past years and the floorplan had expanded almost to the hall's back wall to accommodate them. As the event filled up I did my usual tour with my camera, pausing to admire the new (to me, anyway) black Cone on 1on1 Wholesale's striking (and soon to be ETO Award winning) stand and 2CD Design's beautiful spangly dresses.
Starting by the front door, GotLingerie's big stand was looking, like the staff, damn fine. They had new ranges from Hustler; men's boxers and catalogues of Hustler's Costume collection. They also had Hogwarts-inspired school uniforms for anyone who likes to use their wand with a special flick of the wrist. Clockwise around the room from there, Rocks Off were being kept busy, showing off their new Naughty-Boy butt-toy and Veritus UK/Shirley of Hollywood had frillies, dainties, and a couple of other lines drawing attention. MD Fiona Flower told me, "It's been really, really good for us. A very, very good show. We've found about 95% of the people visiting the stand are brand new to us, which is fantastic- that's what we want. It's our second year here so we were wondering if it could be better than last year and it has been. It's been great. As always it's been our corsets catching people's attention. We've also had a really good response to our costumes because this has been the first time we've shown them. They're better quality than the run-of-the-mill outfit and we cater for larger ladies too, which is a lot of the market."
Basix dildos and Fetish Fantasy Series products faced the ETO stand, which in turn looked across at Missing Kink/Cupids Couch, where Paul Gosling would soon be being bounced on by a porn star. He enthused, "It's such a fun product to play with. We show it to people and as soon as they lay on it we see their expression change, and we love that, seeing them realise what Cupids Couch is all about. We've had lots of interest, loads of people want to take it and we've tied up our deal with Apollo properly so we're a trade affiliate of Apollo Wholesale now, with them drop-shipping on our behalf. GotLingerie are restructuring their drop-ship and they're going to be pushing them for us. We've had some real interest from Canada, which is great." At that point he took me to see The Love Pod in the entrance hall. A giant inflatable spherical Zorb-Ballesque play…thing, Paul expects it to be a big hit with swingers clubs and- "we've had interest from photographers and video… Everyone seems really impressed because we think it's going to be about £175+VAT to the trade, which is right for the market we want to place it in. You can use the internal handles for bondage, so that's a further use. I think it's a fun product. On a summer's day like this you could just put it in the garden and relax in it- It's multipurpose. As for the show, I'd say it's a higher quality event. I'd say less volume, but the people we've talked to have been real people that want to do business. Very good thank you!"
Ultramax had their Bathmate Hydro Pump and across from them LTC Healthcare's boss Ken Leigh said, "We've been here from the beginning; this is our fourth year. It's a little bit quieter but the contacts have been as good as they usually are with people coming up from new and existing web sites. For us this is a great platform to meet those existing customers we don't get to see on a daily basis. They're running sites as well as having full-time jobs and it's an opportunity for us to meet them here- we sent invitations out and have seen quite a few of our customers. So it's great from that point of view. Keeping in contact with other exhibitors as well, who we don't see on a regular basis."
Helen Delemos of Realistic Digital Images, who was at the show with pull-up displays around the £100 mark, was rather more subdued. I asked how it'd been for her and she said, "Not bad." She said it with a laugh and a smile though, so I guess she meant it. Facing them on a corner unit, Megasol had Eros products. The other side of the stand looked out on the happy face of Colin Bailey of Monkey Spanker fame. "The show's been cool so far," he told me. "I think it's been a little quieter than usual but it's been such a nice day, who'd come along! I'd be having a barbecue so I expect when it's a work day [Monday] people will much rather come here than go to work, so that will probably be much better. Productwise, the 'spanker is going well. We've obviously got the three colour combinations now. The black one is proving particularly popular with our new clients in America." I also learned the Monkey Spanker recently featured in a Pumpkin Media film with Cathy Barry, where she used it on a guy, and then he used it on himself. That's the product in a nutshell.
I bumped into Mighty Aphrodite, boudoir photographers who, since they get 9000 hits a month on their photography website, were attending the show to source some lingerie and other classy erotic products to compliment their image services there. Leigh and Zena seemed delighted with what they were finding around the place.
Bonershaker and Ladyshaker made a welcome return to the show and across from them were Xcite Books, who were riding the wave of publicity surrounding Max Mosley's recent escapades with their True Confessions of a London Spank Daddy book. A £7.99 (retail) version comes out (loud and proud) in January. Hazel Cushion said, "It's been a really good show. We've had a great reaction; not only to the books, but also to the adverts we're running in the backs of them now. Companies can get some product placement in there as well."
Sexy Guide with books and DVDs faced Henifa on the Asha International stand, who showed me her wet and dry tampons. So to speak. Popular with sex pros of all sorts, these soft tampon sponges are set to go mainstream. "That's why we're here, to introduce the product and show sex shop owners what it is. People have been really interested. So polite and nice here in the UK too. The show's not been too crowded, perhaps because it's holiday season and the weather but it's been ok!"
X4 Labs had Leg Avenue and Music Legs dresses, body stockings, hosiery, suspenders and costume products, as well as a very pretty model. The words of Lee White: "The show's been good; we've made some good contacts. It's looking like we're getting some very good leads from it." You will be, I thought to myself, maintaining the tenuous Star Wars theme. You will be.
Throughout the day I was monitoring both the weather -universally sunny and pub-garden-temptingly perfect- and visitor numbers, which did strike me as being a tad down on previous years. Apparently because of engineering work on the rail network a replacement coach service was in operation for some routes and I heard it'd taken one visitor five hours to get from London to the site. Five hours on public transport is rarely fun, but in today's temperatures, my heart went out to him. Both the weather and travel trouble are beyond the control of any show organiser (unless these rumours of God's backing of the NEC's Festival of Quilts -14-17th August this year- have any basis in fact) but despite pre-bookings being up over 20% on the previous year's, as the show closed at 5pm hopes were being pinned on a better Monday. Actually, I saw a figure of almost 600 Sunday visitors, which was only a fraction down on last year's show- I can only think the larger floor area and extra stands had thinned my perception of the crowds. As many people dashed off to get showered and changed for the ETO Awards evening (report elsewhere in this issue) I did another circuit to photograph Creative Mouldings' giant range of giant dildos and Harmony's huge posters of DVD cover art.
Monday dawned (and some people were still up at 5am to see this) as bright and sunny as Sunday and the promised thunderstorms, which the organisers were hoping would drive the trade inside to shelter, didn't materialise until an hour after the show finally closed at 4.30pm. The heat certainly had the same effect on me, bullying me inside before the show's second 10.30am start.
With my freelance journalist head on, I took a voice recorder around the show to capture its atmosphere and the reaction of more exhibitors and visitors to it. Spencer Dallaway of JD Distribution -showing their unlicensed-shop-friendly 18-rated films- was my first target. He told me, "It's been very good. We've quite impressed with the orders and we've had a hell of a lot of interest. Some people are undecided as were to spend their money at the moment but we're hopeful they'll swing to us and we'll make the show a profitable one for us. We've certainly met a lot of new people, made some new clients and have a lot of leads to follow up to see what we can do with them."
Playhouse Group's lengthy stand was one of the most beautifully presented, and their Bert Ruzette thoughtfully sat me down on a comfortable chair before telling me, "The show's gone very well so we're very happy. For us the UK market is new so every customer is a plus for us; a new customer. Ours is a very mainstream concept, without any naked women or men on the packaging. We've come to the ETO Show before but this is our first year as an exhibitor."
LubeXXX were still smarting from being misnamed as Loveshack in last month's issue (sorry guys!) but their Piers Corfield told me the show had been, "Slow and steady. It's been a trickle. We didn't really know what to expect as this is the first time we've attended- a completely new experience for us. But we've met some interesting people and hopefully today will be better. The difference between a retail show and this is here one good order can make all the difference. Completely." He showed me their LubeXXX range, pointing out that what makes it special is although it contains silicon it's still water soluble. Giving you the glide properties of a silicon-based product while still being toy, condom and latex-safe; a best-of-both-worlds product.
Darren Knight of Crackstuffers was another first-time attendee to the ETO Show. "It's been a very good show. We're kind of amazed at the response, especially from the gay market but we're finding a lot of straight people are now buying the product as well. We've had so much interest from the straight community- a lot of women are interested in the designs. Overwhelmed by the size, but we tell them we do smaller ones too. They can start small and work their way up if they're feeling adventurous! It's all about pleasure and that's something close to us; we think very carefully when we design a toy. We design and manufacture the dildos ourselves. The new female-image logo is to appeal to the other market. Because we have a guy's ass as the logo we needed to move away from that. For ladies, it can be used in both passages!" With a twinkle, he added, "We're filling a big gap in the market."
Dusedo.com from Germany were another primarily gay product provider, but were sadly having a less enjoyable ETO Show experience. "We're a one-stop gay distributor for Europe, here with the new Falcon stuff, Treasure Island and Boy Juice. Covering gay mainstream, the raunchy, kinky stuff of Treasure Island and Twinks products." Selling underwear, cock-rings, dildos, lubes, DVDs, vibrating jelly cock-rings… "As I say, you have everything you need for your gay corner or store; all you can think of, you can get it from Dusedo. But the show. No. We've not been busy at all. We're disappointed. It is empty, there are no customers. Yesterday was the same. We had a few contacts but expected much more. Maybe it's the weather, I don't know- It's so hot outside." As the day went on they did look busier, but like Orion's big stand, they never seemed overrun with enquiries and interest. I don't think British visitors are particularly xenophobic so I really can't put my finger on the issue.
In the back corner, John Addy brought me up to speed on Liquid Gold's new formula and childproof lids and next door Golden Root Complex were attending their third ETO Show. Tom Day answered my questions. "It's been another very good show. A great opportunity to catch up with your customers- great night last night! Brilliant! This is the only show we do, otherwise we'd be working at cross purposes with our wholesalers and retailers. We get to see everybody and pick up some new custom but really we're here to promote the brand and to keep everyone aware of us. I enjoy it."
Neighbouring them, Don Wands had glass dildos and toys, including vibrating glass items offering the cool looks and hardness of glass married to the buzz of a vibe. Brian Bradly explained, "It's out first time displaying here, but we've visited before. Yesterday was really, really good indeed. Way beyond our expectations. Tremendous amount of interest from all parts of the parts of the industry. Very impressed indeed. It's the range which has drawn attention, as it's bigger than anyone else's. It's quality glass, with soft bags included."
Mo gave me a wave from the Linger Lingerie stand and complained she never gets a mention in ETO (done!) before I looked at their classy Nuova Donna range and stepped across to Desire Fashions stand. Sandra Binns, surrounded by sparkly chokers saying SEX and necklaces spelling out Fuck Me, said, "It's been really good, we've had a really good response and I think it's something a bit different which people haven't seen before so it's gone really well. It's rhinestone jewellery which ranges from classy, simple bracelets to rhinestone bras and panties with everything in between- a little bit of something for everyone really."
Natural Contours were another first time exhibitor (always good to see new people, as well as having the reassurance of past success bring regular exhibitors back) and Bernard Hawkes had this to say: "We thought we should try it once and see what happened and to be honest we've had a very good response. Extremely good, in fact. Natural Contours is an American company. They've been in business for 12 years and have a very broad coverage in mail-order catalogues, outside of the adult trade. The vibrators are non-phallic, non-threatening and subtle, so ladies have no embarrassment in buying them compared to other toys. Most of our UK sales are through the direct adult trade but we're expanding beyond that into lingerie shops and boutiques."
ABS Holdings had cool stuff, including a posable inflatable doll and lots of new lines. With Tim kept busy, it was late in the day when I got to speak to Kate of the ETO Award-winning sales team. She told me, "It's been absolutely fantastic. Obviously Sunday was a really busy day and we had a lot of feedback from customers and suppliers that have commented on us being one of the busiest stands. At one point there were eight of us working it and we were all taken up with people overflowing into the aisle. All of the products have gone down really well, but the BMS bullets- the 6" in the smooth feel, three-speed waterproof, and the new 5" bullets- they've been probably our most popular products at the show. Nicely packaged, soft-touch feel… The vibrating strapless strap-on too, with the three-speed BMS bullet insert and clitoral stimulator…" I could tell why she was in sales, and an award winning team at that.
Earlier, in the ETO Webzone, AdultBusiness.co.uk's Dean Adams: "The show's been pretty good. We generated some good leads yesterday and hope to do the same today. We don't do many shows but we decided to do this one alongside Strictly Broadband, who we work closely with. They do VOD, we do online dating and swinging websites, and have been since 1997. We've been around a long time and know what we're doing. We're pushing our bespoke web design service heavily; we've just won the contract to do the Daily and Sunday Sport websites as a part of their rebranding and big relaunch. That's going to be something really special when it goes live in mid-August."
Sharing the Webzone stand was StrictlyBroadband, where the lack of an ETO Award for best VOD service was still a topic of sour conversation. MD Jerry Barnett waxed lyrical: "The show's been reasonably good. I've not done a roundup of response yet but even though it's seemed quieter we've actually had a lot of good leads and made a lot of good contacts as well as having the chance to catch up with old faces. To be sure, I'd rather be out in the sun but of course I'm enjoying the show and I'll be back next year so long as web business is taken a bit more seriously by ETO."
Kevco Wholesale had lots of shoes and boots (we have photographs of ETO's Jacinta in their PVC thigh-boots. Can I start the bidding at £20?) and were enjoying their first taste of the ETO Show. "It's good. It's nice to meet all our wholesale accounts and we've had a good reception. I've enjoyed it. Looking forward to lots of new business," Kevin Wooldridge said. Around the corner from him, Creative Mouldings' Glen Jeary told me, "We're doing ok. We've seen some people, put faces to names, and hopefully drummed up a little bit of business as well", as I looked at a rubber gun- Ideal for good cop/really bad cop roleplay.
Back by the entrance, Darker Enterprises were busy enough in their prime spot to ensure I didn't get to speak to Mike Wallace, something they almost had in common with the open-on-all-sides (a successful stand arrangement for them) ID Lubricants. It took me several hours to get to see Richie Bowles, so busy were he, Jane and the tireless ID crew. When I did catch him sandwich-free and customerless, he said, "It's been good, we've really enjoyed it. Businesswise it's been good. A slow start yesterday, probably because it was sunny and people were out enjoying it but it built up to a lot of people very quickly at certain points. Today, Monday, the number of customers has been lower. Having said that, I think the quality of buyers has been really, really good today. No question about it, it's been productive today as well as good fun. Not too busy so we can recover from our hangovers, and we've not been rushed off our feet so we can't get a coffee. We won two awards last night, for best marketing and top consumable, which was great. We feel really privileged about that, really pleased. We don't take these things for granted so we're really chuffed."
In terms of new products, they had edible nipple pasties in various designs including beer mugs, cherries and strawberries, plus ID Moments -a sensuous glycerine-free lubricant in pink packaging to appeal to the female market- and Intimate Organics, a new top-end range in two parts, "The first part is sensuous, foreplay products, like foot-massage oil, aroma therapy… to relax you or get you in the mood. The other products are more sexual, from clitoral jells, vaginal tightening cream and g-spot creams, to anal sprays. It's a great range and they're all certified organic too, from seed to bottle. The feedback's been very good on this at the show." Helen Durance then piped up with her own suggestion for a product strap-line: "It's the vegan way to enjoy sausage!"
On the BlueMoon Lingerie stand I must have photographed their model a dozen times, partly because she was hot and partly because she swapped delicious outfit for delicious outfit every hour. While I didn't get to speak to the management, I did discover she's called Lucinda, has a posh accent to match and she's been studying Marketing at Bournemouth University. You see, the ETO Show even attracts a better class of model.
Apollo Wholesale was never less than busy and it took several visits to find Sarah Orchin free. I posed the burning question of the moment: Was she having fun? "Yeah, it's been good. Really good. A better day today. I think we've had less bodies but more quality leads and orders. We've expanded our range of Playtime Blue products, a new lingerie range called Beau and we've launched our summer sale here. We've been talking a lot about the changes happening at Apollo so everyone's clear on what's going on and how we're taking the business forward. Plus seeing all our customers is always good! What I really like about the show is everyone's coming to us. Our sales team work really hard so it's nice for them to have the opportunity for people to approach them for once. It's lovely- a bit of a high!"
Millivers Prowler had a big display of TitanMan products from Lucom, which has links with Pjur. On the Pjur stand, they didn't only have their own branded range, they were also showing Lucom's Heart2Heart and Man2Man products in eye-catching clamshell packaging on cool rotating retail stands.
I asked Harmony Films' Jason Maskell for a word and he said, "Hungover" which I think needs to be hyphenated, but there you go. Pressed for some more words, he said, "It was a late night, but it was a good night, celebrating two wins- One for the films and one on the retail side. Both sides of the company picked something up, which is great. We've been really impressed by the show. We've done some nice deals here and made money, which is always a positive thing. Good business- worth being here. We've picked up some new clients, said hello to some people we've not seen for a long time. New products- we've got Pervertz out in August, with the kinky nun on the cover. In September there's Young Harlots: Dirty Secrets, which will be a winner- we've been whetting people's appetite for that here."
Queensway Distribution had a large, busy stand near the back wall, and here Stuart Inglis said, "We're actually very, very pleased with the number of visitors we've had to the stand and until we attended the function last night I hadn't realised just how many we'd had. Lots of our competitors came over to me and said, 'your stand's been really busy'. I'm chuffed to pieces- we've had a fantastic response to Evolved; presales of half our first shipment, which I'm over the moon with. That was figures from this morning. I don't know what we've done this afternoon yet but suffice to say I'm very pleased."
Also on the stand, Fleshlight had new tin retail packaging, BijouxIndiscretes had a long name for an erotic gift product line, and several copies of the best porn film in the world ever ever ever looked great on the shelf and even better in people's hands. Sin toys also looked good.
Alexander Institutes' Meir Sharony, an ETO Show regular, told me, "We've some new titles this year, including Great Sex Over 50, for men and for women, Tantric Massage and Sex, 101 Advanced Sexual Positions, Volume 1 and 2, and there will be more before the end of the year. One about oral sex, one about toys and erotic spanking and bondage for the curious. The show's been good. A little quieter this morning but yesterday was very busy. Mostly new leads. I can't say we have lots of orders but we have some, and we'll get more after the show."
Newly-wed Wayne Allen looked happy on the E-Stim Systems stand, and not just because he'd made an honest woman of his blushing bride Caz. Running on screens, remote-controlled buttock-zapping footage from this year's Big Brother was being shown, and yes, Endemol did pay for E-Stims' boxes. I've often wanted to attack housemates with an electric cattle prod, so I enjoyed watching it. Wayne told me, "We've lots of new shiny electrodes, and a new remote control which has a vibration sensor on it, so it knows when it's moved and gives a zap. Our first time here and it's been excellent. Well exceeded our expectations. Lots of interest and lots of very good quality contacts- Today's been more of a corporate crowd. A few orders as well. Very happy so far. I think we'll be back."
AITA was being manned, or rather ladied, by Gail, who said they'd had quite a lot of interest, picked up two new members and were hoping for more on the Monday. Their stand looked particularly good with the association's new display units and I saw it being used for meetings throughout the day.
ETO Award winning Anna Span had put up some signs on her stand saying 'Best Brand', and was beaming when I spoke to her. "It's my first ETO Show and it's been really good. We just took a little stand this year but we'll be back next year with something bigger. We're chuffed. Play the Slut has just been passed by the BBFC, literally three days ago, so we hope to have that out at the end of August or the beginning of September. We're shooting another title at the moment, and expanding and promoting the website, AnnaSpansDiary.com. We launched it a couple of months ago, doing our own VOD on there, and are just expanding the payment options with BT. I've never marketed a website before so it'll be interesting to see how that differs from selling DVDs. All the Anna Span full-length films are on there, bought scene-by-scene and I'm blogging there too. The site's set-out like a desk-top and you get to see what I produce, as a filmmaker. All the films, photos and my thoughts, as a work-in-progress. I'm also looking for a full-time sales person with adult industry experience in Kent, who'll be good on the phone."
CloneZone were promoting Xtreme room odourisers, which use a different legal base chemical than other brands and ManZone 'tool toys' with names like Power Tool, Hammer Drill, Pile Driver and Screwdriver. Mike McCann gave a balanced view on the event. "It's been quite good. I think the attendance is perhaps down on last year. As an industry we've obviously had a tough year and people don't have the money to spend. But having said that we're glad we're here. We took a big order this morning- really big for us, and we've had a lot of interest. I'm also here more from a shop perspective rather than as a wholesaler and we've done some really good things for the shops as well. People are more amenable to doing deals at the moment, which is good news for us."
LoadXXX were another happy 2008 ETO Award winner, for best gay film brand. "The show's been fine for us. The objective for us being here was to meet and greet people we only usually deal with on the phone because we're based in Spain and it's been very successful from that point of view. We've also met some new customers and sold some DVDs which means at least we can afford to fly home! It's a damn long walk to Malaga from here otherwise. It's been excellent and the dinner last night was very good, well organised and we enjoyed it. Thanks to everyone who voted for us for the award- Thank you ETO readers. We're doing a minimum of two straight and two gay title releases every month, and while everyone says this, our titles really do sell well. We know what the market wants. Specifically we've taken on Corolo distribution and their Asbo Twinks has been selling particularly well. We commission the Freddie's stuff, and British Granny Fuck 18 is about to be released, in September. Consumers like the realism. I've never met anyone who's said 'I love watching them', yet we sell them by the thousands. I think it must be a guilty pleasure for many! The Older Amateur Housewives series, with slightly younger ladies, has also been selling extremely well- people come back for more and more."
Jeff Hawkins, CEO of Hustler Europe and cousin to Mr Flynt, was happy to talk. "It's our first year exhibiting here and I've been very pleasantly surprised. We've got a great location, so thanks to the ETO people for that and we've had a lot of interest in Hustler Video. Not only with our DVD products, but also Hustler apparel; it's something retailers have shown interest in across Europe as well as the UK. At the moment UK retailers can get their films direct from us, through Hustler Europe, and their street apparel too. GotLingerie has our lingerie, our newly produced costume line and we've just come out with the men's underwear line. All very nice stuff. The show's going good and it has beat my expectations." He also told me a soft Hustler channel will be launching in Germany in September.
Trying to speak to visitors as well as exhibitors, I spotted a smiling Oscar Heijnen of Netherlands-based Shots Media and grabbed him for a word. "I think this is my fourth year at the ETO Show, so I'm a hardcore fan," he laughed. "As a visitor, it's always great. I do sales to England, also, I click with English people. I don't know why. Probably because of the good football. But the show, yeah. It's local, for the UK- I found it not so busy this year but it could be my imagination. Maybe the weather is too hot but it's always nice to be here. Most of our stuff is exclusively distributed here by ABS so it's good to see them, and the ETO Awards show was nice. It's the only show I don't win anything at because I don't work here!"
Also hailing from the land of the tulip, dyke and clog, Love from Holland was showing their lingerie, creatively displayed on hanging metal rings. Ms Sue told me, "Most people are reacting to our underwear's nice feel and our completely different look. We've had positive reactions, made some good connections and the show's been fun. It's our first time with the product in England so we really wanted to see the response to it here. It's looking good and we're feeling positive. We'll be back I think."
One of the smallest stands seemed to be one of the busiest, square metre for square metre. MyCelebrator.com had small vibrating tips for electric toothbrushes as well as their own toothbrush-like power-units which packed quite a punch. I can't think of another product that delivers quite so much buzz with pinpoint accuracy. Their Anne Driessens told me, "It's been really great. People here are so receptive- happy, enthusiastic... It's really great."
Dr Joel Kaplan had bravely returned to the show, despite being hospitalised by a taxi at last year's. "It's been a very good show. We've made a lot of contacts with people interested in penis enlargement products, including our new enlargement pills. They're vascular dilators which bring increased blood-flow into the penis and work even better when used with a penis pump. Typically users gain one to three inches in length and 25% in girth. It's an amazing range which also helps the hardness of the erection. I've been in business 14 years and if any of your readers have any questions they should visit GetBiggerToday.com!"
DVM Enterprises' Mike McGee said, "It seems better today. Perhaps fewer people but better people; people who want to place orders. They're the ones we want! So it all seems ok at the minute. We've had quite a few enquiries about the Internet side as well. The new VOD website's just come online and that's gathering interest. We've had our films online for four years so we were there in the beginning- a lot of people are jumping onboard VOD now. Some big names are interested in doing something with us and branded theatres and all that, so that's got to be ok."
LegAvenue.co.uk/Princess Distribution seemed to have been infested with bugs, but closer inspection showed they weren't 5ft tall insects; they were two girls in cute Bee and Ladybird outfits. Dressed a little more conservatively but looking no less glamorous, Victoria Zoutewelle told me, "The show's been very good. Our models have been getting a lot of attention in their fantastic outfits. We had the girls as sailors yesterday and they looked fabulous. It's something a little bit different. I think the footfall's been less than last year but we've had very good quality visitors here, if not the quantity. We've been taking orders too, so I'm very pleased."
Tenga's Gregg Elliott, who'd I'd met selling his male masturbators at Passion in May, was looking laid-back. I asked how his day was going. "It's been alright, yeah. Pretty good. We've made some new contacts and met our customers. Today's been a bit quieter I think but yesterday was quite busy. But it's been good though."
Not far away Sign Magazine backed onto Cybertill, who were demonstrating their EPOS system. "The show's been very good," the boss told me. "A lot of enquiries yesterday. Today, not as many but I think better quality and I think it's proven to be a good show for us, without a doubt."
Scala was another big stand with a busy boss. It took me several visits to catch Clive Gore available. In the meantime I wondered at the Japanese animation running on a plasma screen and admired their new ToyJoy racking. The moment he came free I leapt in with my questions. "It's been one of the best shows we've had, funnily enough," he replied. "We've had less people but the quality has been up so I've not had all the web site designers and the party planners. I mean, not to decry them, but sometimes they can get in the way of real business. That's how it's been these two days. That, and too hot. If you take more orders than before, as we have, it's got to be right, hasn't it? We've the right product mix here, with new mystim, feelztoys vibrators… We've extended the ToyJoy range and also done these new stands for it, to fit into a standard shop environment. At the other end we've exciting new DVDs- obviously everyone's price-conscious so we've done some bundles. The Japanese Manga has been really good for us, this last year. Three ETO Awards this time; best toy range for ToyJoy, best toy distributor and best European distributor as a good half of our stuff comes out of our warehouse in Amsterdam. So we're quite happy about that. A good show overall."
Catching sight of a visiting David Girow of DSG Media, I pounced. "I'm here having meetings for clients, for sales into the UK and beyond. Dreamlight studios, one of our main UK clients, are now up to thirteen titles. We launched last December very successfully and we'll be bringing out a new range of titles from the third quarter, September; Dreamlight Extreme. We want to appeal to a broad range of audiences, while keeping the high quality production values we've got, so now we'll have products across four different niches, including the extreme range."
2CD Designs' Bill Matharu always seemed tied up and it was only when I caught him relaxing on the ETO stand with a cup of cold water that I could get a comment on the show. "It's crap, it's crap," he chuckled, before finding his serious side. "Yesterday was ok. Today, we'll see. We've had a lot of positive response, better than last year, the stand looks a lot better, and we've some special show offers we're going to let run to the end of August. It's a lot to ask someone to place a £1000 order here. We've given out lots of our four new catalogues, which don't have any names or web addresses on them so people can use them as their own catalogue. The offers we've got are spend a grand and get £250 extra free stock- trade prices, no catches. Spend £2,000 and get £650 worth of extra stock free and £5,000 gets you an extra £1k of stock, plus a free website. For anyone without a website it's definitely worth thinking about because you could spend that on a website alone. Our way you get £6,000 worth of high-margin products and the site to sell it from, all for £5,000."
Monique Carty's Net1on1 stand proudly displayed their ETO Award and she confided her feelings about the show to me. "It's been quieter than last year I think, but to be honest I'm not sure if it just feels that way because we've got a bigger stand, making it seem less busy. The leads that we've got do seem to be quality leads, however you never really know until you follow them up and see what comes of it. But we've done well, made some good contacts. We're showing all the new lines from our suppliers but we also have some new distribution deals; Lover's Choice, Sports Sheets, Touché toys- We've also got Spartacus' lines of quality fetish products."
Alongside the surprising delights of the Mr B stand, JoyDivision's Jacqueline Redschlag was one of the busier foreign visitors to the show. She said, "I think we've made some interesting contacts already, at the show, and for us it's most important that we get to speak to all the wholesalers and distributors. It's important for us to step into that market. The UK is still special; different from the rest of Europe and I think the ETO Show is the way to come over and meet everyone here. This is our second show. We did 2006 but last year we were missing. I've seen a development in the show- it's more professional, year to year, from my experience and it's gone well for us."
I took time out to photograph Rachel, Nadine and Lacey McGuire on the Cupids Couches, in the Love Pod and strutting their collective stuff outside the hall before returning to the fray on the Erigo Adult Media stand, where once again I failed to get to speak to anyone. I certainly liked their water-filled male masturbation sleeve with fucking machine demo unit though.
Monday was described as being a more serious business day by several stallholders including Apollo, with sole-traders and web businesses being back at work. In contrast Sunday had been popular with smaller concerns who couldn't afford to take a weekday out. Which is basically why the ETO Show has been positioned thus. More feedback from Mister B's Wim Bos amongst others suggested a change of date might also be advantageous, to move it out of the school holidays. If it makes sense to do so, and is financially viable, you know Jonathan Kirk is the sort of show organiser who'll make it happen.
By the end of play a figure of 1139 visitors was passed to me, which is marginally down on 2007's attendance. However, to quote from my 2007 ETO Show report, "I joined a stream of trade guests who were looking to buy, looking to sell, or just looking to look." This year, perhaps thanks to the weather, £5.50-per-gallon fuel prices or the realisation that Adult isn't synonymous with Get Rich Quick, the last group of those three seem to have decided to go to the beach instead of the ETO Show; leaving it to folk more serious about their business to buy, sell and network there. If that's a bad thing then the show was a disappointment, but from my relatively impartial perspective, the exhibition took a step forward. If this was the ETO Show IV - A New Hope, I can't wait for the Industry to Strike Back in 2009!
[Note for Dale. 6998 words. Last year's show report, 8070. See my new restraint?!]