Playboy’s lawsuit against Netscape and Excite apparently is more than a mere trademark dispute over use of a name. At stake may be leadership of the adult online market.
The reason is that Playboy is now creating a “dominant destination site,” amounting to a portal. As Playboy’s Joel Grossman said yesterday during Chicago Direct Marketing Days, Playboy hopes to become “the adult Disney” online.
In its lawsuit, Playboy accuses Netscape and Excite of abusing the Playboy trademark by delivering banner ads for non-Playboy Web sites when consumers punch in the search words “Playboy” and “Playmate.”
In selling the Playboy name to hard-core sites, Excite “hijacked and usurped” Playboy’s good will and name, the suit contends, according to a story yesterday in USA Today. Excite was also recently sued by Estee Lauder on trademark grounds.
It’s a big market: In 1997, adult sites generated $1 billion in revenue “not captured by mainstream estimates of the total consumer market,” said Grossman.
Though he didn’t mention the suit, Grossman described Playboy as a global media brand with a multi-faceted online strategy. For example, it is creating cross-promotional opportunities with firms like Rhino Records, Dark Horse Comics and several others.
Its online activities include Playboy.com, which is supported by advertising and commerce sales. It draws 60 million page views per month by 850,000 active users. They view an average of eight pages per visit.
But the site, which features original editorial matter and a Reuters news feed, draws a surprising audience.
“The people who read the magazine and who go to Playboy.com are different,” said Grossman. “We didn’t know that at the beginning.”
Another service is Playboy’s Cyber Club, a subscription service charging a base rate of $6.95 per month. It now has over 28,000 subscribers from 75 countries, and is known for its low churn rates.
The firm offers everything from merchandise to chat rooms online. “We have only begun to tap the existing assets,” said Grossman.
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