A look at Lovehoney’s campaign to position itself within healthcare

There have been ASA bans, Ofcom complaints and rumors of shadow bans on social media, but this has allowed the brand to get creative with its advertising approach and ultimately be part of much bigger conversations.

When The Drum speaks to Nadia McCowan Hill, Lovehoney’s public relations and content director for our Health & Pharma Focus, she says: “We recognize that when people have a healthy sex life, they have wider wellbeing, so that’s a real positive for us and something that we are trying to bring into the mainstream.”

But is the brand widely accepted in the mainstream? The marketer says it’s difficult. Despite it being widely recognized that a healthy sex life improves sleep, blood pressure and stress levels, as well as having other benefits, Lovehoney still finds it difficult when trying to get its story across.

“There is a tremendous amount of censorship applied to us within the sexual wellness world. It is certainly quite a challenge to navigate all the restrictions we are constantly facing.”

Over the past few years, the needle has moved a tiny bit, says McCowan Hill, but not enough to have a significant effect. On social media, for example, Lovehoney struggles to even get the word “sex” into its ads. . She also reveals that the brand’s accounts have been flagged for showing a spectrum of different bodies, with normal things like stretch marks.

McCowan Hill believes it’s quite ‘arbitrary’ and ‘problematic’, so much so that Lovehoney joined a protest against Meta led by sex-positive influencers and sex workers regarding Instagram bans. It was important that the brand showed solidarity.

A huge win for the brand came on Valentine’s Day when it was able to showcase one of its products live on This Morning, even though it received many complaints. “I think in many ways it’s a very British thing, because there’s a kind of prudishness around sex. It’s something we all do; it is the life force that drives humanity. We are all there because of it, but it still has that shame and stigma.”

She clarifies that the brand always wants to be respectful and above all wants to normalize these conversations. In recent years, well-being on social media channels has skyrocketed and Lovehoney has partnered with several influencers to be part of those communities. The younger target group is an important consumer segment for the brand.

Importantly, this year the brand is working with Macmillan on a campaign that hopes to break the stigma around sex and cancer. “It’s a hugely shrouded and stigmatized topic and people suffering from cancer don’t actually have the resources they need.

“When we looked at the data. 700,000 people suffer in silence. The six-month campaign will really start that conversation and we have been working on several storytelling videos.”

A cancer diagnosis can impact a person’s life and touch every part of what makes a person who he or she is. For many people, sex and intimacy are a major problem after a cancer diagnosis. The people participating in these recorded films have courageously spoken candidly about their own personal journeys.

“There is a young lady who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 14 and had basically no information about how it would affect her sex life as she became an adult. We also had an older gentleman who had prostate cancer and he talked about erectile dysfunction.”

For Lovehoney, it’s about getting these health-related stories out there so people aren’t experiencing things alone. It is a first for the brand that the campaign has received a completely positive response.

“It shows that a brand like Lovehoney can 100% partner with something like Macmillan for a really meaningful collaboration and that we should essentially be in those open spaces.”