How We Grew an Adult Brand Utilizing Mainstream Marketing
Launching a Dream and Facing Early Challenges
Great brands often start as a dream. Tails of Fantasy blossomed from a hobby, a small home-based venture fueled by imagination, passion, and the vibrant energy of the adult fetish community. But we always sensed this wasn't just another adult product. Tails of Fantasy launched with something truly groundbreaking: a beautifully designed butt plug animal tail, crafted not only to captivate visually but also to stay perfectly in place. Innovative in both concept and design, this creation filled a noticeable void in the market we couldn't wait to shake up.
We thrive on bold ideas, and we knew from the start that this would be revolutionary.
Launching an adult-oriented brand, however, came with unique challenges. Traditional advertising channels proved tricky: mainstream social platforms like Facebook and Instagram enforce strict rules against adult products.
Initial hurdles at a glance: Strict marketing policies, niche audience targeting, limited design resources, and a two-person fulfillment operation.
Influencers & Shopify Apps
One of the first growth strategies Quorra adopted was influencer marketing, but we decided to tailor it specifically for the adult industry. We introduced Tails of Fantasy to sex-positive, adult-friendly creators who genuinely adored the brand’s playful and enticing products. Instead of mainstream celebrities, we partnered with niche stars—fetish content creators, educators, and influential community voices—who were perfectly in tune with Tails of Fantasy’s ideal customers.
Example of Influencers
To streamline everything, we turned to Shopify Collabs to create an effortless affiliate-style influencer program. This made it easy for Tails of Fantasy to recruit and collaborate with creators all in one place, providing them with personalized referral links and enticing discount codes. Shopify Collabs handled tracking sales and paying out commissions seamlessly, making messy spreadsheets and endless emails a thing of the past.
Example of Influencer Product Design Launch
Through this program, Quorra and Tails of Fantasy built a small army of advocates. Influencers featured the brand’s whimsical fetish accessories in their content—ranging from tasteful unboxings to creative photoshoots—sparking curiosity and trust among followers. The impact was immediate: these authentic endorsements gave the brand a surge of early orders and social followers, without running into the ad policies that plague traditional ads. In essence, influencer marketing provided social proof and buzz that money alone couldn’t buy, amplifying Tails of Fantasy’s reach in a credible way. By leveraging the right creators and tools, Quorra helped the brand turn word-of-mouth into a powerful marketing engine.
We also adopted a mainstream marketing move with a glam twist: deep influencer partnerships. Select creators have the exciting opportunity to design their products alongside the brand owner, star in exclusive photo shoots, and be featured on dedicated pages. See example on the left.
Example of Influencer Product Design Launch
To further boost Tails of Fantasy’s website performance, we encouraged integrating several Shopify apps alongside Shopify Collabs. We recommended a product review app to enable customers to share their experiences easily for other potential customers to see, an email marketing app to engage and retain their growing community, a related products app to enhance shopping experiences, and a fun "complete the look" app.
Additionally, we helped design their main menu and crafted eye-catching banners and assets for the site. By combining professional product photography with influencer-generated photos, we saw a significant boost in engagement and conversions, proving that visuals have a profound impact on customer trust.
2. Building a Community – Engaging the Niche Audience
While influencers helped expand visibility across popular platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, Quorra understood the importance of diving deeper into niche communities where Tails of Fantasy’s most passionate customers naturally gathered. Recognizing that mainstream social media had its limitations, especially for adult brands, we guided the company towards alternative, less conventional platforms known for fostering vibrant fetish and adult lifestyle communities.
Examples of social media profiles for Tails of Fantasy
Rather than simply promoting products, Tails of Fantasy actively joined these communities as authentic participants. They created dedicated groups for fans, shared genuinely helpful content, encouraged product discussions, and engaged openly with community feedback. This genuine, grassroots engagement built powerful trust and loyalty. Community members felt safe and inspired to share product experiences, post reviews, and even suggest exciting new ideas.
In other words, Tails of Fantasy could put its message in front of precisely the people most likely to convert, for example, users interested in pet-play and cosplay (a perfect match for the brand’s fantasy-themed products). Unlike the blanket approach of Instagram, these Fetlife ads spoke directly to fetish enthusiasts in their own space.
By embracing a niche platform that mainstream marketers often overlook, Quorra helped Tails of Fantasy tap into a rich vein of high-intent customers.
The lesson: when mainstream channels close doors, meet your audience where they live, in this case, on Fetish community websites, where openness to adult products translates into genuine interest and higher ROI.
3. Pivoting Ad Strategy: From Meta to Fetish Websites
Early in the journey, Tails of Fantasy cautiously explored Meta advertising (Facebook and Instagram), carefully navigating strict content guidelines with imagery that was suggestive yet compliant. While these initial campaigns helped spread awareness, results were limited due to the platform's tight restrictions. Recognizing these constraints, Quorra Agency guided a strategic pivot to concentrate advertising efforts on a specialized fetish community website. This shift dramatically enhanced advertising effectiveness.
June 2025 Ad Performance and Ad Design Examples
Engagement from ads placed on this niche platform significantly outperformed previous efforts on Meta. Visitors coming from the fetish community site spent more time exploring the website, viewed more products, and converted at much higher rates compared to general social media traffic. This makes perfect sense—the audience on these specialized platforms was already primed for adult products and discussions, unlike the broader audience on Instagram, where ads often competed for attention and faced frequent policy-related challenges.
135% YoY increase in website sessions
Reallocating the advertising budget to the niche fetish site delivered exceptional value, providing a lower cost-per-click and substantially higher click-through rates than earlier Meta campaigns. The precision targeting meant nearly every viewer of the ads was a genuine potential customer. Furthermore, because this fetish-focused site allows for clearer and more explicit communication regarding adult product benefits (within reasonable limits), ads could be more direct and effective in messaging.
This strategic move to a specialized advertising channel drove meaningful traffic, deeper engagement, and higher sales, illustrating clearly that in the adult industry, exploring less conventional marketing routes can often lead to powerful breakthroughs.
Client Testimonial:
“Creating Tails of Fantasy was a dream we couldn’t achieve alone. Success meant finding the right partners, and discovering Quorra Agency was a game-changer. Their expertise, creativity, and dedication have been instrumental in our journey. When we say, ‘We couldn’t have done this without them,’ we mean just that.”
– Tails of Fantasy team
Inspiration for Adult Brands: Tails of Fantasy’s journey showcases what’s possible when passion meets strategic expertise. For adult industry brands, the growth path may present unique obstacles, whether it's marketing restrictions or niche audiences; however, these obstacles can be overcome with the right partner and innovative thinking. Quorra Agency brought deep knowledge of adult marketing and a toolkit of creative solutions, but equally important was the trust and bold vision of the founders of Tails of Fantasy. Together, we turned a small startup into a flourishing brand with a devoted following.
If you’re an adult brand founder reading this, take heart in this success story. With a clear vision, community-focused strategies, and growth-minded support, your brand’s fantasy of success can very much become an attainable reality.
Sources:
Ellie Cooper, Biird Blog – “Understanding Instagram Restrictions on Sexual Wellness Content” biird.co
Trendri Marketing Forums – Discussion on adult entertainment promotion platforms trendri.com
HeadWest Guide – Omnisend vs. Klaviyo Pricing Comparison headwestguide.com
Shopify Collabs – Official Features Page shopify.com
Canva Blog – “Easily make banners for your business” canva.com
