Getting people to talk about a sex toy brand is easy.
Getting major publications to talk about a sex toy brand in a way that earns links, builds authority and feels editorially safe is much harder.
That was the challenge with this campaign.
The client wanted more than standard ecommerce links. They wanted coverage from trusted publications, stronger authority for their website, and a story that could put their brand in front of a much wider audience.
So instead of relying on product-led PR, we created a data-led campaign built around a 2,000-person survey.
The result was 19 links from major national, international and regional publications, including UNILAD, Metro, Daily Star, MSN, Daily Record, New York Post, Daily Mail, Kent Live, Daily Post and more.
But the real win was not just the links.
One Daily Mail article alone generated over 700 comments, putting the client directly into a public conversation that thousands of people were reading, reacting to and debating.
The objective
The client wanted to build authority in a competitive adult ecommerce space.
Like many sex toy brands, they were operating in a niche where advertising options are limited and many link building methods are either low-quality, expensive or difficult to scale.
They needed high-authority links, but they also needed those links to come from real editorial coverage.
Not guest posts.
Not paid placements.
Not affiliate pages.
Not advertorials.
The goal was to create a campaign that journalists would want to cover because the story itself was interesting.
We needed to make the brand part of a wider conversation around sex, relationships, dating and consumer behaviour without making the coverage feel too commercial.
The challenge
Adult brands have a difficult PR problem.
The topic can attract attention, but editors are cautious.
A story can easily become too explicit, too promotional or too product-focused. When that happens, journalists either ignore it completely or remove the link before publishing.
So the challenge was not just getting media coverage.
It was getting coverage that felt mainstream enough for national publications, relevant enough to justify the client being included, and strong enough to earn a link back to the brand.
That meant we had to avoid the obvious mistake.
We could not make the story about sex toys.
We had to make the story about people.
Their opinions.
Their dating habits.
Their turn-offs.
Their relationships.
Their behaviours.
Their honest reactions.
That is where the survey came in.
The strategy
We created a 2,000-person survey on behalf of the client, designed to uncover a strong, media-friendly angle around modern sex, dating and relationships.
The aim was to create data that journalists could use as the foundation for a story.
This gave us three advantages.
First, the story was original.
Instead of pitching an opinion piece or a generic expert comment, we had our own data. That made the campaign more credible and gave journalists a clear reason to cite the client.
Second, the topic was built for engagement.
Sex and relationships are already high-interest subjects, but the best stories are the ones people have an opinion on. We wanted a campaign that would make readers react, comment, agree, disagree and share their own experiences.
Third, the brand could sit naturally inside the story.
The client was not being forced into the coverage as a product retailer. They were the source behind the research. That gave publications a legitimate reason to mention and link to them.
How we overcame the challenge
The key was making the campaign interesting without making it vulgar.
For adult brands, that balance matters.
If the angle is too tame, nobody cares.
If it is too explicit, mainstream publications may avoid it.
So we focused the campaign around human behaviour, opinions and relationships rather than products.
That allowed us to create something that still felt relevant to the client’s niche, but safe enough for national and lifestyle media to cover.
We also made the data easy for journalists to use.
The findings were clear.
The headline angle was strong.
The story had a natural talking point.
The client had a credible reason to be included.
And the campaign gave publications something their readers would want to discuss.
That final point was important.
We were not just trying to get journalists to publish the story.
We wanted readers to react to it.
The results
The campaign earned 19 links across national, international and regional media.
Coverage included:
UNILAD
Metro
Daily Star
MSN
Daily Record
New York Post
Daily Mail
Kent Live
Daily Post
And more regional and lifestyle titles
The campaign also drove huge reader engagement.
On Daily Mail alone, the story generated over 700 comments.
That meant hundreds of readers were not just seeing the story. They were actively engaging with it, debating it and adding their own opinions underneath it.
For the client, that is incredibly valuable.
They were not just getting a backlink.
They were being inserted into a live public conversation.
Why these links matter
Links from publications like Daily Mail, New York Post, Metro, UNILAD, MSN and Daily Star are extremely difficult to earn, especially for an adult brand.
These are not the kind of links most competitors can copy with a guest post order or a paid placement.
They come from having a story that is strong enough to stand on its own.
That matters for SEO because these links help strengthen the site’s authority and improve the quality of the client’s backlink profile.
But it also matters for trust.
When a brand is cited by major media outlets, it sends a very different signal compared with being listed on low-quality blogs or niche directories.
It shows that the brand is part of a wider cultural conversation.
For an adult ecommerce company, that kind of credibility is difficult to build through traditional link building alone.
Why the comments mattered
The 700+ comments on Daily Mail were a major sign that the campaign had done what good digital PR should do.
It got people talking.
That is important because digital PR is not just about links on a spreadsheet.
The best campaigns create reactions.
They put the client’s name in front of people who may never have heard of them before. They make readers engage with the story. They create debate. And they show journalists that the angle has real audience interest.
For this client, the campaign did more than secure 19 links.
It positioned the brand at the centre of a conversation around modern relationships and consumer behaviour.
That is the kind of exposure paid link building cannot replicate.
The takeaway
This campaign worked because we did not try to sell sex toys to journalists.
We created a story people wanted to talk about.
By using a 2,000-person survey, we gave the media original data, a strong headline angle and a reason to credit the client as the source.
That helped us earn 19 links from major publications, while also driving hundreds of reader comments and putting the brand into a wider public discussion.
For adult brands, the lesson is simple.
You do not need to be vulgar to get attention.
You need the right angle.
If your brand operates in a difficult or sensitive niche, digital PR can still work. You just need a story strong enough for journalists to cover and interesting enough for readers to react to.
If you run a sex toy or adult ecommerce brand and want links from publications your competitors cannot easily copy, book a call with us today.