By M.Christian

YNOT – Let’s face it: No business, adult or otherwise, can make a dime if no one knows it exists. This is why it’s important to listen to people who know what it takes to take an enterprise from obscurity to popularity, especially in these days when social media distracts and anyone can call himself a marketing guru.

That’s where Sherry Ziegelmeyer and Jay Moyes come in. The owners and operators of Black and Blue Media, Moyes and Ziegelmeyer operate quietly behind the scenes of several well-known companies and individuals — companies and individuals they’ve helped transform from unknowns into household names.

Never heard of Black and Blue? There’s a reason for that. The company has been around since 2004, but Ziegelmeyer and Moyes cling to an odd notion that what they do is about their clients, not about them. Consequently, you’ve probably seen more evidence of their work than you realize.

Black and Blue Media writes and sends press releases, and then follows up to coordinate stories and interviews with magazines, broadcast outlets and websites. They arrange on-set coverage for clients’ productions, coordinate events, create press and review kits, and manage clients’ products through the nomination process for the various adult awards. The company also handles social media campaigns and creates consumer-targeted promotions as publicity generating tools for its clients.

“In short,” Ziegelmeyer said, “we do whatever we can to keep our clients in the eyes of the press and, in turn, the public.”

With morethan 18 years of promotions and publicity experience in the Los Angeles music and radio industry, including an eight year stint with the KLOS/KABC Creative Services and Community Relations departments, Ziegelmeyer already had a solid background in techniques to attract media attention and generate public interest when she entered adult publicity, working with All Media Play as an intern in the fall of 2003.

An erotic artist at heart, Moyes spent six years in AVN’s art department, eventually becoming production manager. In that position, he worked closely with publicists and marketing departments within the industry. That’s how he met Ziegelmeyer, whom he encouraged to hang out her own independent publicist’s shingle in 2004.

Moyes joined Ziegelmeyer as a full partner in Black and Blue in 2006, serving not only as a writer, but also as the staff artist while Ziegelmeyer transitioned into more of a media-liaison role.

YNOT recently had the opportunity to speak with the pair about marketing, publicity, social marketing and how they find and use what works to make people and businesses stand out from the crowd.

YNOT: Pretend we’re a brand new client. What would you like to know about us before planning a PR strategy?

Jay Moyes: The first questions we ask a potential client are “What makes you different?” and “Who are your customers?” This is a critical component when you’re dealing with video production companies and porn sites. Neither the consumer nor the press wants to hear you are the same as everyone else. They want to hear what makes you different. Conformity rarely makes the news.

“Who are your customers?” is a standard question that should be asked before you start a business, but you’d be shocked how many potential clients don’t know the answer. This is essential to your business’ success. Michael Ninn’s customers are anyone who wants porn with high-quality production value, or in layman’s terms, artistic porn. New York Rubber Ball’s customers are very hardcore latex fanatics. Once you know the consumer you are targeting, then you plan the campaign.

What things do adult businesses typically overlook when planning their publicity?

Sherry Ziegelmeyer: Many companies don’t think in the long term when they start planning publicity campaigns for their business. They believe that if they put out a couple of press releases in the first two months they are in business, that’s all they need. It doesn’t work that way, if you plan on success.

Moyes: Seventy percent of adult companies outright ignore publicity altogether. Much of the time, it gets shuffled off to their sales guy, who has to juggle that with another big list of things to do, including making sales calls and arranging advertising.

Many marketing and sales people nail bloggers and editors with the same mailer they send to retail stores and distributors. When I was at AVN, my mailbox would get stuffed with flyers and lots of sales email. For the press, that’s spam and a waste of time. The press wants news. What makes this news? What makes this movie or site different than the millions of other offerings out there?

Where do you think adult companies may be spending too much time, effort, and energy?

Ziegelmeyer: Production companies spend way too much time and money on social media campaigns. They don’t understand that social media is best used in building a company’s image, their “brand,” and establishing credibility with the public. While effective branding is a good thing, social media is not the only way, or even the best way, to achieve that goal. What are you going to do when Facebook or Twitter deletes your page with 40,000 followers, and you have no backup publicity plan in place? At least by having a multifaceted publicity plan, you can let those followers know you have a new fan page or Twitter feed, as well as not disappearing from the public eye at all while you rebuild.

Webmasters worry too much about buying traffic and manipulating SEO that isn’t targeted and focused. Some webmasters spend thousands of dollars on junk traffic, or on the latest snake-oil trick to increase search engine rank, when a solid publicity campaign utilizing professional press releases and story placement can generate both direct, audience-targeted traffic to their site and increase their search engine results pages rank by generating link backs to your site from other SEO favorite sites — like YNOT.com. You get much more bang for your buck using publicity to do those two things.

And across all the types of businesses in adult entertainment, many people who are trying to do their own publicity simply do not understand where their target audience is, let alone how to reach them. Selling to an audience that isn’t interested in your product is a complete waste of resources.

Moyes: Another waste is when people don’t make their business moves in the right order. Too many people don’t have a working business model when they decide to start their marketing or publicity campaign. It is a great waste when a company is spending more time planning a publicity campaign than they are spending on getting their business plan to work in the long run.

Social media marketing is on everybody’s radar right now. In your opinion, what is the best way of approaching it to get the best results?

Ziegelmeyer: [laughs] Seriously, social networking is only a small part of a successful publicity strategy. If you’re depending entirely on social networking, it’s no wonder your publicity campaign isn’t working the way you expected publicity to work.

Anyone who takes on a social networking campaign needs to understand that social media is specifically about branding your company or product. I have talked to a dozen self-proclaimed “social media marketing experts,” both mainstream and adult, and when all the cards are on the table between peers, they all admit social media campaigns have no direct [return on investment]. As I’ve said before, branding is a great goal; however, don’t expect that to translate directly into increased sales.

Moyes: Personally, I feel social networking can be overrated and consume way too much time and too many resources. To do social networking right, you have to cultivate the right type of followers instead of relying on sheer volume.

Regardless of the social media outlets, Black and Blue Media plans the updates daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. When I handled Platinum Blue’s social networking, I spent one hour each day handling friend requests and interaction with fans. I incorporated the Platinum Blue release schedule into the updates. Once a month, I would go through all the connections, cleaning up deleted accounts.

Speaking of “social media marketing experts”: Many have said there is a huge difference between having social media followers and paying customers. How do you turn one into the other?

Ziegelmeyer: Social media is wonderful for performers. They have a direct communication tool to entice their fans to buy their products, especially if they’re working a cam site.

For businesses, the best thing they can do is humanize their brands to make converts out of social media contacts. The only way you’re going to entice those on your social media network into purchasing is if they come to see you as a trusted friend. People do prefer to buy from people they “know.”

Moyes: A client’s social network profile should include a call to action somewhere. Platinum Blue’s profiles featured product links, press releases, updates and even Platinum Blue’s phone-sex numbers.

What’s on the horizon for adult entertainment publicity? For example, should adult businesses be working on smaller, more customer-based venues or stay with the large, traditional outlets for publicity?

Ziegelmeyer: What’s on the horizon is increased interactivity with your consumers, and that doesn’t mean tweeting out annoying ads every hour. While social media is a part of it, that isn’t the only way to interact with your audience.

Most people exercise no creativity when it comes to doing publicity for adult — even the publicity pros. Stop doing the same old same old. Press releases are great for raising your [search engine results positioning] and driving traffic; they are also the perfect tool for generating interest from the press in your company. However, there are many more creative ways to engage and expand the audience you’re reaching with your publicity. I am very proud that Jay and I created and managed the first — and thus far only — alternative-reality game to publicize an adult feature, Michael Ninn’s epic The Four.

For creative, talented publicists like Jay and I, there’s a lot of opportunity available to take the porn publicity game as far as it has gone in mainstream publicity and marketing — maybe farther.

Moyes: I see it as more of an ocean with lots of waves to surf. There are more ups and downs. The great news with focusing on generating publicity is, unlike advertising, you can afford to reach both large and small outlets. You should reach for both. Many small, dedicated outlets — like publications, internet shows and events — end up being huge. Once they make it, many love to look back and talk about those who supported them from the beginning when they were small.

What simple things do adult businesses forget to think about when planning their PR?

Ziegelmeyer: Publicity is not a sprint — it’s a marathon. A publicity campaign is a strategic set of small steps that leads to a much larger, long-term goal. You can’t expect one press release or story placement to carry you for the life of your business. It won’t. Black and Blue Media does many different things to keep our clients’ names out there, going far beyond just distributing a press release. We put together review kits, place stories and interviews with publications and in other media, coordinate promotional events…. Everything is designed to make the consumer know a client’s name and want to buy that client’s product.

Moyes: The top of my list is they forget to utilize visuals in their publicity strategy. Porn is one of the most visual businesses out there, yet most publicists have backgrounds in writing and are not versed in the graphics end. When I worked at AVN, if we didn’t have artwork to go with a press release, the story got killed. I had to teach some publicists what the magazine needed, and how many times just having the right photos on hand would get a client placed without even asking. At Black and Blue Media, we know how to work with the art, know what magazines are looking for, and have even gone so far as to work with clients’ video editors to cut clips and trailers that fit the needs of specific media outlets.

Why do companies hire outside help with publicity and PR?

Ziegelmeyer: There is a huge difference between publicity and public relations, or “PR.” We’ve done damage control for some clients, and in most cases that is not something a company owner has any experience with, while we do. They often respond with anger and alienate the press, which is not going to improve the situation. Sometimes you need a buffer between you and the press, and that’s where a publicist is worth their weight in gold.

Smart businesspeople learn to delegate duties to those who are best suited to doing them. It saves both time and money in the long run. It’s easier — and often a more efficient use of resources — for your publicist to handle pulling artwork and video clips for the press than to take your editor or sales guy away from making your product or updating your website or selling your product to handle something outside of their expertise.

Because publicists are dedicated to doing one job, we have the time to maintain personal and business connections with the press. Call it social networking on a much deeper and more valuable scale, if you must, but in any case, Jay and I work closely with the press, giving them the personal time and necessary tools they need so they want to cover what our clients are doing.