E195: Lucy Robinson

Richard Hill [00:00:04]:
Hi there. I'm Richard Hill, the host of eCom@One. Welcome to episode 195. It's 195 weeks in. In this episode, I speak with Lucy Robinson From several years working agency side, she's now the head of marketing at Skins Sexual Health, and Creative Conceptions, taking her agency knowledge to the sexual health and adult toys market. We chat leveraging TikTok and what not to do, the power of SEO, and how important it's been for their fast growth, which channels the brands have had the most success with and where they're focusing right now, events and partnerships. We cover a lot of ground in this one. If you enjoyed this episode, hit the subscribe or follow button wherever you are listening to this podcast so you're always the first to know when a new episode is released.

Richard Hill [00:00:48]:
Now let's head over to this fantastic episode.

Richard Hill [00:00:54]:
How you doing, Lucy? You okay?

Lucy Robinson [00:00:55]:
I'm all good. Thank you. How are you, Richard?

Richard Hill [00:00:57]:
I'm really well. I'm really well. Well, I think the best thing would be for you to introduce yourself and tell our listeners how you got into the world of ecommerce and, what you're doing now, and then we'll get into the q and a.

Lucy Robinson [00:01:09]:
Yeah. Sounds good. So I'm Lucy Robinson. I actually finished uni in Lincoln, where we are today Yeah. In 2020. Came out straight into the pandemic, so that was fun. Had a job lined up, a graduate scheme that went straight out the window because it was in the tourism industry, which obviously was impacted really badly. So I'd put something out on LinkedIn at the time saying, you know, I was looking for work and got approached by an ecommerce agency in Lincoln and was there for a few years.

Lucy Robinson [00:01:45]:
Yep. Moved on to another marketing agency. And then at the start of this year, decided to make the move into in house. Yeah. So I've always had a background in agency.

Richard Hill [00:01:56]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:01:58]:
But I fancy something a bit different. I'm not.

Richard Hill [00:02:01]:
This is a little bit different, which our our listeners will be like, what are they talking about? But we'll come to that in a minute. So we're surrounded almost by a a host of paraphernalia, if that's the right term or not. But those that are watching the video might get a sneaky edit right now, to for a feel of for a feel of what we're what sort of products you sell. But before we go there, so you left uni Yeah. Pandemic kicks in. You're like, oh, man. Torch you we're doing a tourism degree, marketing tourism?

Lucy Robinson [00:02:30]:
Advertising and marketing.

Richard Hill [00:02:31]:
Advertising and marketing. Yeah. Safe safe bet.

Lucy Robinson [00:02:33]:
It was a tourism marketing company that I was gonna head into.

Richard Hill [00:02:36]:
So a tricky time, but good old LinkedIn stepped into that. They sort of community Yeah. And so those would have Yeah. You know, and you got an opportunity to work for what is a local agency to us, and then went to another agency and now in house. So you've had sort of 3 or 4 years at agency in agency life. And now in house, obviously, it's a we talk a lot about, agency life, in house. Maybe we'll ask you which is better, but you're probably still still very much on that journey of of of Yeah. Of,

Lucy Robinson [00:03:06]:
I think I'd I think I've got my answer, but give it a bit give it a bit longer.

Richard Hill [00:03:12]:
So thank you for that. Now I think it'd be great for you to, sort of introduce the brand as you work. Obviously, you work for 2 brands. One is Skin Sexual Health and Creative Conceptions. Yeah. If you wanna step us through what you do there.

Lucy Robinson [00:03:24]:
Yeah. Of course. So, so Skin Sexual Health is it was started originally to sell condoms. It's since moved into more of a sexual wellness brand. So our aim with Skin Sexual Health, really, is to provide sexual wellness products across the globe, that are affordable, accessible, high quality. A lot of our audience for skins are pharmacies. More recently, we've been moving into the mainstream as well. So you'll find us in Boots and Superdrug in numerous other Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:03:59]:
Avenues. And for Crate Conceptions, that is, an adult brand. So our mission with Crate Conceptions is to provide a really, innovative assortment of adult products. So the industry is always changing, so keeping up with it, bringing out new products. And my boss has a the woman the lady who set up the company, Jane, she has a really good way of putting it. It is rework in the business and making people happy. Yeah. So Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:04:31]:
Saving relationships, Yeah. Helping people to build their confidence

Richard Hill [00:04:37]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:04:37]:
To feel good about themselves. Yeah. And, yeah, it's a nice way to put it.

Richard Hill [00:04:41]:
I bet it's quite a quite a, well, a great place to work. You might have a lot a lot of different products, a lot of, Yeah. I think, you know, just listening to you there and obviously looking at the looking at the business prior to this, you know, the different, obviously, markets that you have. Obviously, you said we're chatting off camera, but before you started, but you sort of obviously explore different countries, got a lot of clients. So, I mean, how are you got a sort of a a lot of countries that you deal with?

Lucy Robinson [00:05:06]:
Yeah. A lot of countries, which comes with its own challenges because each country is a different culture.

Richard Hill [00:05:12]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:05:14]:
The attitudes towards sexual wellness are different Yeah. With each one. So you have to be really careful of how you're marketing and what messages you're putting out there. So for example, we've recently moved into the Middle East. There's a lot of products that we wouldn't be able to market

Richard Hill [00:05:28]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:05:29]:
In those countries, and we have to stay respectful

Richard Hill [00:05:33]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:05:34]:
To those cultures. People have different reasons for wanting to purchase. I know typically in the Middle East, it's more of a contraception Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:05:44]:
Reason

Lucy Robinson [00:05:44]:
Yeah. Whereas definitely in the UK, Europe, and USA, especially, we're moving towards more the pleasure side of things.

Richard Hill [00:05:56]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:05:57]:
And that is people's kind of reason for wanting to purchase.

Richard Hill [00:05:59]:
Very different markets then, very different cultural perceptions, very different sort of when you're approaching these markets with your marketing and your sales team, the approach. You can really make some big mistakes. Obviously, if you're not experienced, you know, what would you say, you know, brands that are listening in there may be selling products that have similar, you know, these sort of, I would call them, challenges, or you gotta have an understanding of your different cultural, perceptions in different countries. What how could brands sort of start to sell products into some of these countries? What sort of things should they be thinking about?

Lucy Robinson [00:06:40]:
I think, and a big one for us is actually working with your customers in those countries. Mhmm. A lot of the customers that we have in different countries, we will give them the rights to represent SKINZ as a brand in their own country as well. But they will put out content Yeah. Adhering to our brand guidelines.

Richard Hill [00:06:58]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:06:59]:
And we'll own the domains and we'll own the usernames.

Richard Hill [00:07:01]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:07:01]:
But we will give them those rights to be able to represent us in their country.

Richard Hill [00:07:06]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:07:06]:
You know, they know that market really well. Yeah. And that is, you know, that's been really beneficial for us.

Richard Hill [00:07:13]:
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Lucy Robinson [00:07:59]:
that? So they will have the distribution rights potentially in those countries. Yep. They will be the only distributor that can distribute skins, and it will be written into our contract that, you know, as part of that, we will allow them the rights to the brand. Interesting. Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:08:16]:
So let's talk ecommerce for a while. You know, obviously, you got a few you you well, we've got a lot I think quite a few channels that I would talk about, you know, b to b Yeah. Pharmacies and different countries. But, yeah, I think your brand was responsible for the d to c side. Would that be is that right? Yep. So talk talk to me about your strategy and what's been successful, to increase sales this last maybe that's about about the time you've been there. What's been the strategy, and what's the upcoming strategy?

Lucy Robinson [00:08:43]:
Yeah. So, typically, you know, Crip Conception has been going for over 20 years.

Richard Hill [00:08:49]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:08:49]:
They've done incredibly well with that business. I mean, hats off to the owners, Jane and Richie. They have grown it from, yeah, the ground up, built from the ground up. And especially back when they'd started, the attitudes towards sex was so much so different to how they are now. Yeah. So they push through a lot of barriers to get to it get to where we are today.

Richard Hill [00:09:13]:
Mhmm.

Lucy Robinson [00:09:15]:
And, typically, the business has always been b to b. So we sell 2 of the businesses who then stock in the store, so and Summer's Love Honey, for example, in the UK. However, most, pleasure brands across the world have their own b to b to c channels as well.

Richard Hill [00:09:32]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:09:34]:
We hadn't really explored that up until me coming along in January. Yeah. So the b to b side, we've always been really great at.

Richard Hill [00:09:40]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:09:42]:
B to c, not so much. So we have our own Shopify channels, our own websites, but, really, the performance on them was just a drop in the ocean to where they could be getting. So one of the first things I did when it came in January was take a look at the Skin's website Yep. Which still is definitely in progress, but we did a lot of SEO work to that. Mhmm. A lot of changes. Yeah. Looking at the consumer journey as well.

Lucy Robinson [00:10:13]:
Yeah. So once they land on the site, what's the user experience like? And as a result, our sales revenue in the last 6 months is up 300% on the previous period.

Richard Hill [00:10:28]:
Got it on SEO.

Lucy Robinson [00:10:29]:
Yeah. And our clicks are up 500%. Yeah. And our impressions are up 450%. Wow. So It's

Richard Hill [00:10:40]:
almost like you've done SEO before maybe.

Lucy Robinson [00:10:42]:
I know. Who would've thought? Who would've thought? So but to me, that was so exciting because you can see the direct result.

Richard Hill [00:10:51]:
And that's in sort of 6 months or 6 months, 8 months,

Lucy Robinson [00:10:53]:
you know? Even in even in month 1, we saw a difference, which, I mean, you probably know yourself often, your SEO result don't come that quickly. You'd expect maybe 3 months, 6 months. It is a pro it's a process.

Richard Hill [00:11:05]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:11:07]:
But when that direct correlation was coming in

Richard Hill [00:11:10]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:11:11]:
I found that really exciting.

Richard Hill [00:11:12]:
So what sort of things were you doing on the SEO side? Was it all mainly on page and Yeah. Reworking that customer flow and the the temp the templates or the planning pages and the Yeah. Meta and the cut product descriptions and the categories and that sort of

Lucy Robinson [00:11:26]:
So the website itself, it had a lot of content on there that was fairly outdated. Yeah. We'd worked in the past with Embarrassing Bodies and some of the content

Richard Hill [00:11:38]:
Oh, yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:11:38]:
All mainly around our collaboration with Embarrassing Bodies.

Richard Hill [00:11:42]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:11:42]:
So that got hidden from the website because I think it kind of gave a perception if you landed on the site. And I think also out the our history page hadn't really been updated. The blogs hadn't been updated.

Richard Hill [00:11:55]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:11:56]:
For someone new to land on our site, they'd probably think, oh, is this is this do they do it? This is still going. You know? We shouldn't do it. So I looked at it with a fresh pair of eyes

Richard Hill [00:12:08]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:12:09]:
Completely redid all the navigation Yeah. To you know, what would I want to see as a buyer? We looked at our competitors, how would they structured their website, added new categories on there. So, initially, I think it was just like condoms, lube, I think, were the only categories really. So we've now got different categories within those. We've got condoms, lubes, toys, the types of lubes, the types of condoms. Subcategories. The subcategories.

Richard Hill [00:12:38]:
The subcategories.

Lucy Robinson [00:12:39]:
Getting all those keywords in the product descriptions, in the category page text, in the metadata. Yeah. And we've just kept adding. We look at our keywords. We review them all the time, and we keep adding to that. So we've now got, like, pleasure products for her, pleasure products for her Yeah. Couples' pleasure products. Anything that people are searching for, we want to get in on.

Lucy Robinson [00:13:03]:
But we'll also review our keywords kind of fortnightly basis at the moment. Yep. And if we've seen a decline in keywords or if we're getting towards page 1, we'll take those that list of keywords and formulate a blog article around that topic.

Richard Hill [00:13:17]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:13:17]:
So, for example, rose toy, might not mean anything to you. Definitely not. Some of the listeners might know what I'm talking about. Do we have one here,

Richard Hill [00:13:28]:
by any chance?

Lucy Robinson [00:13:29]:
We we we do.

Richard Hill [00:13:30]:
Do you wanna just,

Lucy Robinson [00:13:31]:
Shall I?

Richard Hill [00:13:31]:
Maybe you hold it. I'm not sure on the so that oh, that's the rose toys.

Lucy Robinson [00:13:36]:
This is just one example of a rose toy.

Richard Hill [00:13:38]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:13:38]:
Yeah. But rose toys were trending on TikTok Yeah. At the start of this year

Richard Hill [00:13:44]:
I see.

Lucy Robinson [00:13:45]:
And last year. Most brands now have some kind of form of a rose toy. Yeah. Our brand is different in the sense that each of our rose has got different functions. They're not just different colors. They've all different sensations as well. But the keywords for rose toys, we have really focused on on that. So we will have like, you know, we've got blog articles about which rose toys should I choose or what actually are rose

Richard Hill [00:14:13]:
toys. Idea came from the fact that it was trending on TikTok. I think that's key thing, isn't it? Well, I'll just think about the listeners now. You know, when you're looking at ideas to create new whether it's new categories or content, blogs, or, you know, where's an opportunity? This is something we do day in day out here. Obviously, looking, you know, on, you know, search engines that I TikTok, bit of a clue. You know you you know, what is trending? If you can capture that attention, it might be, you know, quite short lived, but then who knows what the where where that ripples to. Yeah. You know, capture and get in front of that demand for this Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:14:50]:
Particular product is what you did. Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:14:52]:
And that's exactly it because the keywords rose toy were trending on TikTok, but, actually, there was no real explanation of what is rose toy. You could see visually, but Yeah. So then people were going to Google to type in what is rose toy.

Richard Hill [00:15:08]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:15:08]:
And then as a result, you know, we have capitalized on those keywords. And our cues, description. Yeah. Our best selling product now on the Skinz website is the Rose toys.

Richard Hill [00:15:20]:
Result.

Lucy Robinson [00:15:22]:
So that has massively helped to drive our revenue.

Richard Hill [00:15:25]:
So, obviously, a very fun set of products. I would say you can have a bit of fun you've had a bit of a giggle before we hit record, and we, you know, sit in here with a selection of, various things. Obviously, must be quite a fun environment to work when you're, you know, you're coming up with ideas for especially in the marketing team. Maybe the warehouse pool guide's probably have a bit of fun as well, I'm sure. But, but, you know, what's probably the most fun campaign that you've been you that you've worked on? Maybe it's the Rose one about you know, you must have had some sort of, quirky campaigns that you worked on and fun campaigns.

Lucy Robinson [00:15:57]:
I know this sounds really kind of a cliche, but everything that we do is Yeah. There's never a door to that. Never a door to that. It it is it's impossible in this industry. So everything that we've worked on is really exciting, genuinely. And it's hard even in you know, I've been there for 8 months. It's hard to even narrow down which was my favorite. But I think, if I had to give an answer and nail it down to 1, there is an event in London that takes place generally every 3 months, and it's called the Big Bausom Brunch.

Lucy Robinson [00:16:36]:
Or Big Bausom Brunch. I always say it wrong. And it was put together by this lady called Jackie Adadeji, this incredible lady, and it's all about body positivity, female empowerment, feeling confident in your own skin.

Richard Hill [00:16:54]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:16:54]:
And, typically, it's for curvier women, name clues in the name, people with bigger boobs that maybe felt, you know, kind of can feel sexualized or they don't the bodies aren't typically represented in mainstream

Richard Hill [00:17:12]:
Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:17:13]:
Media. And it's it's a really, really fun, positive event. And we reached out to Jackie on Instagram. I was like, I've seen the event. I absolutely love it. This works so well with the whole female pleasure, female empowerment. Our brand and our products tie into that perfectly. I was like, we'd love to be a bit of like, we'd love to be a part of it if you'd let us, which I think she was honored about actually because it is I think they've just celebrated their year anniversary of the brunches beginning, but, actually, we were the first brand to ever reach out to them and say, can we get involved? And we went and we hosted a game of bingo, so called the Big Bison Brunch Bingo, and the prizes were I'll leave it to the imagination.

Lucy Robinson [00:18:04]:
And it was actually really nice because it fell on the weekend of International Women's Day. So as part of it, everyone that won the prize when they come up, they had to, they'd have a prize to themselves, but they also nominated a prize to another woman in the room and had to give that woman a compliment or so it's something that was nice. Oh, wow. And it was such an amazing day to be a part of. I it was just really empowering. I've never seen such a fantastic group of women in one room really building each other up, and it was great for the brand. We had a lot of people sharing. We everyone left with goodie bags.

Lucy Robinson [00:18:47]:
People were tagging us on social dancing. I did see it. Yeah. And we're doing another one actually in September, but Jackie now is she's doing a lot of influencer bit. She's been on the Love Island podcast. So Wow. She is becoming quite a big figure figure herself, which, you know, we we kind of bought into it early.

Richard Hill [00:19:07]:
That's great. That is a great story. I think, trying to sort of tie in with partnerships, working with brands, influencers, obviously, they're they're ultimately you're, you know, you're going to an event there with people that are, you know, inspiring potential, you know, customers and the sort of the the ripple effect of things like that. Going to events in your industry, you know, is I think so many ecom stores, they sort of sit in their warehouse and don't get out there and get the brand Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:19:34]:
You have to put yourself out there.

Richard Hill [00:19:36]:
It was quite I sort of sad to see, you know, it's more and more like that where we talk about going to events. You know? I know you've been to the I we talk about the IRX in the UK quite a lot. Obviously, I know you've I've met you there. So I think about 3 years ago. So I think, you know, the people that you meet and then the relationships that you form and the

Lucy Robinson [00:19:52]:
Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:19:53]:
Friendships and, obviously, business, whether that's partnerships or actual business. And

Lucy Robinson [00:19:59]:
Yeah. And it's very true, actually, because as part of going to that event and we went as ourselves, really. We weren't representing the brand, but we also went to just be us Yeah. And have a good time as well Yeah. Which people lied because we weren't there trying to sell to them. Yeah. You know, nobody lies to be sold to. And there was another brand that were at the event as well, and I made friends with a lovely girl from their team Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:20:24]:
Who was in their social media team. As a result of that, we did brand collaboration with this brand, and, we did a giveaway on social media and gained a significant amount of followers

Richard Hill [00:20:36]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:20:36]:
From that. Yeah. And that was just a conversation. Yeah. Now you I I think you should always talk to everyone. Yeah. And you will find opportunities everywhere

Richard Hill [00:20:45]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:20:46]:
Once you start looking for them. You were sometimes not looking for them. They just Yeah. They just happen to come about.

Richard Hill [00:20:52]:
You're covering a lot of ground, Lucy, aren't you, there? No. In terms of, like, the plat I'm thinking, like, you know, you got a very top covering the SEO. You you you've touched on the b to b at the beginning, but we're, you know, we're doing collaborations. We're doing events. We're then building these relationships, doing other collaborations online. It's sort of that's how I think it's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:21:12]:
So

Lucy Robinson [00:21:12]:
There's a lot going a lot going on. It's been a busy 8 months.

Richard Hill [00:21:17]:
So I think, you know, obviously, we're seeing more and more investment, if you'd like, from an agency perspective and brand perspective in in on TikTok. We've we've just hired, actually, when this airs, we'll have new people in our team purely on on TikTok in a lot of TikTok side of things. Yeah. But brands, they're a little more hesitant to commit to TikTok and show their, maybe, real selves. What would you say to those guys, you know, about about getting out there?

Lucy Robinson [00:21:42]:
I think and I've experienced this as well in agency life, the reluctancy to want to get on TikTok. But, actually and I I think one of the reasons for that is people think Gen z. It's just it's just the teenagers. It's really not. And TikTok is fast becoming, you know, a replacement search engine

Richard Hill [00:22:01]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:22:01]:
For Google. Yeah. People are going to TikTok to find new things, especially if you're in tourism, for example. Yeah. It's the go to. I mean, speaking from experience, if I'm going to out to London or anywhere You're

Richard Hill [00:22:13]:
on it.

Lucy Robinson [00:22:13]:
The first place I go to now is TikTok. Yeah. And I think one of the reasons for that as well is that, actually, in Google, especially, to be at number 1, you'll have to have put in a lot of time and effort, often spend resource into that. With TikTok, it's kind of a bit of an even playing field for everyone. You've you know, if I was to type best restaurants in Lincoln, you know, it's gonna be the long standing restaurants that are gonna come up on TripAdvisor because they've got thousands of reviews. Yeah. All the people who have been working optimizing their site for a long time, and their domain has that authority, so they're showing up high. Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:22:47]:
But, actually, with TikTok, you've got a fresh new

Richard Hill [00:22:51]:
You can breathe. Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:22:52]:
Yeah. You Yeah. You really could, and and there's such great potential on there. But I'd also say that TikTok is a really great way of showing the people behind the scenes.

Richard Hill [00:23:02]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:23:03]:
People don't necessarily like to be sold to. They want to see who Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:23:09]:
You

Lucy Robinson [00:23:10]:
know, who they're buying from. Yeah. And we definitely found, especially on Crate Conceptions, we've got such an amazing team, like, genuinely just such a fun, really, really dedicated team. And the the Instagram especially, and I'm gonna move into a bit of Instagram reels because that's fairly similar, to the TikTok side of things, well, applicable to both. But we found the growth on the Instagram page was really not nonexistent. We'd always be pushing out typically, historically, would be, here's our new product. Here's our new product. Here's a new product.

Lucy Robinson [00:23:47]:
Buy this product. Who's here's yeah. Who is who who is that resonating with?

Richard Hill [00:23:52]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:23:53]:
You know, nobody wants to see that. Every once in a while, it's fantastic. Yeah. But, actually, you know, if I see if we're putting out videos of the team and, oh, we've done this trip to Barcelona Yeah. You know, and here's us getting on the plane, here's a montage of the highlights and the funny parts, and, you know, here's a video from our Comms Day. Our customers have been liking that. They're sharing that. They're commenting on that.

Lucy Robinson [00:24:18]:
You know, it's it's almost building that relationship in a weird way. Our customers think they know us, which they do because we have very close contact with them. But putting your face out there and your team out there on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels Yeah. Is a great way to kind of engage with a new audience.

Richard Hill [00:24:36]:
I think if you look at our our TikTok, I'm on there.

Lucy Robinson [00:24:42]:
Yeah. Hard celebrity.

Richard Hill [00:24:44]:
Yeah. Oh, well, I don't know about that, but they dragged me into a TikTok. They guys, right, we're doing this TikTok on, it was an award thing, but we I'd I'd I'd doubt playing it out a little bit. We won a we got nominated for one of the best places to work in the UK, which, you know, it's just a little thing, but I thought it was it was pretty cool.

Lucy Robinson [00:25:02]:
Just just a little said,

Richard Hill [00:25:04]:
oh, let's do a TikTok. I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Let's do that. And then next thing, I'm on TikTok 2 days later with all the yeah. Well, but it was on one of the trends Yeah. On TikTok. And, yeah, it's interesting, is it? You know? I think, you know, when I think I've just come back from a couple of weeks trip away and, you know, some of the places we went well, the majority of places we went, you know, were based on what the younger crew and those as well, you know, that they'd, oh, let's look on this on TikTok.

Richard Hill [00:25:32]:
That's on TikTok. And even now we're back. Yeah. This is I went I went with my friends and their family and and their daughter with my goddaughter, and she dropped to in the WhatsApp family WhatsApp group or, like, 2 families WhatsApp group last night. It's like all these TikToks of Yeah. The various places we went to, and and we, you know, we went to different restaurants, bars, you know, and and sort of landmarks and whatnot, TikTok. You know? And I think Yeah. You know, there's a bit of a clue here, guys, you know, if you if you're still with us Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:25:58]:
You know, to get you know, what that's gonna do. It's gonna open up all sorts of things. You know? Like, well, we we use TikTok in our agency to get ideas, you know, for, like, we talked about a minute ago for the SEO sort of angles for digital PR. If something is happening, you know, on TikTok and trending, you can then create a story out of that on other platforms, whether that's, you know, SEO or that's a you're gonna create a, you know, a piece to then reach out to, journalists. And they're, well, yeah. I saw that on TikTok. Well, it's no surprise we're reaching out to you with that because we know we've trended on TikTok and therefore you know? So, yeah, we have a we have a big screen in our office, and one of the when it rolls over, it's pulling trends from TikTok. Oh, nice.

Richard Hill [00:26:42]:
Guys see latest trends coming through, and then we were looking for inspiration and ideas to build into our campaigns to go, oh, this is trending. This is trending. This is trending. But I think, yeah, still, the amount of our listeners that will not be using it, you know, is very surprising. Yeah. Very surprising.

Lucy Robinson [00:26:59]:
Yeah. It's also been a really good platform for us because we've very much found in the adult industry you can't put a lot of stuff on TikTok. We've had a lot of content shadow banned or taken down in the early days because you can't have anything socially suggestive on there. Makes sense. But, actually, being able to put videos out there, and I love Honey to do this really well as well, is doing fun videos with the team, things that aren't anything to do even do with the product. Yeah. That you

Richard Hill [00:27:32]:
see in the brand

Lucy Robinson [00:27:34]:
putting in the shots, really. We try

Richard Hill [00:27:36]:
and get it in. You're stunning. Yeah. Yeah. It's not front and

Lucy Robinson [00:27:39]:
center because I get my brand. Yeah. We try and Yeah. Have, you know, some kinda angle Yeah. Make sense to the brand, but it's helping to get the brand out there, people are following you because they find your video's funny, and we're still very much in the early days of growing our TikTok account, but we've just started to, like, figure it out. We've just got to the point where we're like, ah, yeah, actually. Yeah. All these videos are getting no views and no likes because we're trying to sell something.

Lucy Robinson [00:28:06]:
Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:28:07]:
I know.

Lucy Robinson [00:28:07]:
Because now we're trying to be a bit funny. The unicorn, TikTok does really well.

Richard Hill [00:28:11]:
You knew I had out of all of

Lucy Robinson [00:28:14]:
my ex

Richard Hill [00:28:15]:
mother unicorn is. Oh,

Lucy Robinson [00:28:16]:
do we have a you unicorn? Oh. Should we have a look at the unicorn? Magic. Oh, the unicorn. These are vibrators that look like unicorns. So TikTok hasn't figured out yet what they are.

Richard Hill [00:28:30]:
They've been gifts of little baby unicorns.

Lucy Robinson [00:28:31]:
They do. So these are brilliant on TikTok because when they when you turn them on, they vibrate and they move, they look cute, you can, like, kind of do dancing trends with them.

Richard Hill [00:28:44]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:28:44]:
But they do really well on TikTok. People find it funny. They've and, I mean, even some of the comments, we've got comments before, like, this is the best TikTok I've seen. You guys are killing your marketing, and I'm like,

Richard Hill [00:28:54]:
The Unihorn. What a name. Did you guys call it a name?

Lucy Robinson [00:28:58]:
Yeah. So I wasn't there when they when they came into conception, but, yeah, that was that was the work of our of our owner.

Richard Hill [00:29:07]:
So we've covered a lot of channels, a lot of different, sort of, campaigns you've worked on. If you were to if I was to sort of say, right, Lucy, what is the best channel for you at the moment? What is your best channel?

Lucy Robinson [00:29:21]:
I mean, SEO Yeah. For sure. For sure. If anyone needs help with SEO. I I I think especially with SEO is say, for example, PPC. They're not knocking it. If you want more instant results, PPC is probably your way to go. Mhmm.

Lucy Robinson [00:29:42]:
But when people are reluctant to be spending ad spend, SEO is a really great way to get more traffic to your site without having to pay the ad spend. Obviously, you're investing in the time and the resource to get there. But it's it's it's attainable for everyone, and it's something that every brand if you've got an ecommerce presence and a website, you, you know, it's a no brainer. You should be doing SEO on that. Yeah. And for us, we've just seen just how much potential it can unlock. It was 6 months then, and we've seen massive increases in traffic and revenue just from making some of those changes.

Richard Hill [00:30:24]:
Yeah. There's obviously well, like most industries, it is a competitive industry to be able to, obviously, go in there with your knowledge and, sort of shift the needle that quick, that

Lucy Robinson [00:30:33]:
Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:30:34]:
That that much impressive. Well

Lucy Robinson [00:30:36]:
And to be fair, sometimes I'd love to say it's because I've got all this experience and I'm great at it, but sometimes it is by pure fluke, almost as that. You know, I've I've worked with clients in the past where it's taken us a year to get to that stage. And it it all depends on the competitiveness of that industry, how many people are kind of bidding on those keywords or Yeah. You know, including those keywords in their content.

Richard Hill [00:31:00]:
So let's talk about sort of the future plans. So, obviously, 2 brands we're talking here. We got we got SKINZ and Creative Conceptions. You know, what's, on the road map for both of the brands?

Lucy Robinson [00:31:12]:
Mainstream at the moment is one of our biggest focus. Mhmm. So especially in the UK, people are becoming more and more accepting sexual wellness and sexual health. You know, your we talk about physical health, mental health, but we don't really talk about sexual health. There's still quite a stigma around it. And, actually, there are so many benefits that having, you know, great sexual health has on your wider mental health. It's it's scientifically proved. Mhmm.

Lucy Robinson [00:31:42]:
And the mainstream are definitely opening up to that. They know there's a big demand for these kind of products, and we've got the likes of boohoo that have come on board with Nasty Gal, typically brands that would just sell fashion.

Richard Hill [00:31:57]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:31:57]:
They're starting to venture into sexual wellness. And I've just seen on LinkedIn yesterday, I think, Love Honey have got a, a store now in one of the airports, one of the major airports. These are things you'd never see on the shelves back in the day. Yeah. So there is a really big opportunity for us at the moment to be creating new product

Richard Hill [00:32:21]:
Yeah.

Lucy Robinson [00:32:21]:
That really caters to the to the demand of that mainstream audience. A lot of our packaging and our branding team that are all in house, we create brands as well that's our approachable to pick up off the shelf. Mhmm. Typically, there's, you know, when you think of sex toys, you think of kind of very intimidating looking items.

Richard Hill [00:32:45]:
I was a bit worried what you might bring in.

Lucy Robinson [00:32:47]:
Yeah. Yeah. Whereas we're really focused on making sure there's something that's accessible. Yeah. There's products now that we can have in pharmacy, sexual wellness products that we can have on a pharmacy, which says a lot because, you know, typically, it'd just be your medicines, your prescription. We've now got toys in there that look approachable and have that kind of

Richard Hill [00:33:09]:
Yeah. A lot more mainstream.

Lucy Robinson [00:33:11]:
Yeah. More

Richard Hill [00:33:11]:
Yeah. Yeah. Not bit more.

Lucy Robinson [00:33:14]:
Yeah. Acceptable. It's acceptable sizing. Think part of it is, you know, you want to create something that people are gonna feel comfortable to pick up off the shelves.

Richard Hill [00:33:22]:
Mhmm.

Lucy Robinson [00:33:23]:
And, you know, if if you haven't got that, people aren't gonna buy. So, yeah.

Richard Hill [00:33:31]:
Well, Lucy, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. I'd like to end every episode with a book recommendation. Do you have a book to recommend to our listeners?

Lucy Robinson [00:33:39]:
So for me, and you'll hear this probably a lot, but Steven Bartlett, Darren McEachern

Richard Hill [00:33:45]:
Oh, okay.

Lucy Robinson [00:33:45]:
I Yeah. Absolutely adore Yeah. Podcast and

Richard Hill [00:33:50]:
Oh, he does a podcasterty.

Lucy Robinson [00:33:51]:
Does he? Oh my god. Not as good as this one. But I think there's a lot that you can take from that. And, yeah, personally and professionally. Yeah.

Richard Hill [00:34:06]:
I'm so sorry.

Lucy Robinson [00:34:07]:
Taking a lot away from that.

Richard Hill [00:34:08]:
Yeah. Well well, I will, not begrudgingly, but I will link up Steven Bartlett's podcast to to the show notes. But thank you, Lucy, for coming on the show. For those who wanna find out more about skins and creative conceptions, what's the best way to do that and also to if they wanna reach out to you?

Lucy Robinson [00:34:24]:
So you can find me on LinkedIn. Yeah. I'm Lucy Robinson. I have tried to make sure that I'm the top one that comes up. I think we're getting there. There are a lot of Lucy Robinsons. And, again, Crooked Conceptions and Skin Sexual Health both on LinkedIn as well. Awesome.

Lucy Robinson [00:34:40]:
So, yeah, give us a follow-up.

Richard Hill [00:34:41]:
We'll link those up in the show notes. Well, thank you for coming on the show.

Lucy Robinson [00:34:44]:
Thank you for having me.

Richard Hill [00:34:45]:
Thank you.

Lucy Robinson [00:34:50]:
If If

Richard Hill [00:34:50]:
you enjoyed this episode, hit the subscribe or follow button wherever you are listening to this podcast. You're always the first to know when a new episode is released. Have a fantastic day, and I'll see you on the next one.