From left: Tharon Cottrell, president of INHOUSE Worldwide; Suki Dunham, founder of OhMiBod; Brian Charles, lead platform developer at INHOUSE. Photo by Matthew J. Mowry.
A NH company wants to disrupt the multibillion-dollar sex toy industry with tech-enabled vibrators. OhMiBod in Stratham, which launched in 2005, is off to a good start, now selling more than $5 million worth of high-tech vibrators and associated products.
What differentiates its personal massage products is its use of technology—including a vibrator that pulses to music and one that can be controlled remotely by a partner through an app, says Suki Dunham, company founder and former Apple marketing executive.
So how did she go from working as a tech executive to running an adult toy company? It started with two stocking stuffers she received one Christmas—an iPod and her first vibrator. She recalls how as a young mother she found it difficult to switch from mom-mode to feeling sexy and music helped her. What began as a personal question with her husband about finding a way to connect her vibrator to the iPod began sounding like a unique product opportunity. “We saw at that time not many companies out there were taking a fresh approach to vibrators,” Dunham says. “[Vibrators] are often made by men and packaged for men with a porn star on the package.”
And NH turns out to be a perfect place to launch this type of company as the state ranked among the top 10 states for sales of sex toys per capita, according to a 2012 Huffington Post article.
Dunham spent a year developing an iPod vibrator with a Chinese engineering and manufacturing firm. Then she debuted her first product at a trade show for adult novelties in Los Angeles with three prototypes. A columnist from Wired magazine wrote about it, propelling the company into full production.
Dunham says the original product is white, sleekly designed and tastefully packaged, complete with batteries to create the type of experience that Apple made famous.
The tasteful packaging is deliberate. OhMiBod hired MicroArts in Greenland to handle marketing, packaging (which won an award) and web design. In addition, MicroArts designed media kits that included the product and an iPod to generate buzz. “Once people see how it works, they think that it’s really cool,” Dunham says.
Within a year, Dunham’s husband Brian left his corporate job to join the company. The couple initially handled their own financing, though they later received an Angel investment. “Last year we grew [more than] 20 percent, and we are on track for higher growth this year,” Suki Dunham says. “The whole 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon was amazing for our industry.”
Among OhMiBod’s other bestsellers are Club Vibe 2.OH, a wireless rechargeable remote control vibrator that works on RF technology and responds to ambient sounds, and its latest product, BlueMotion, a Bluetooth-enabled vibrator that comes with an app that allows it to be controlled remotely anywhere in the world. That product retails for $129.
To create the app that powers BlueMotion, OhMiBod turned to INHOUSE Worldwide, a digital agency in Portsmouth. The app allows users to control the vibrator’s speed, intensity, patterns and an on/off switch using Bluetooth connectivity. It includes privacy and security features, such as requiring an outside party to send an invitation to allow them to control the device and allowing the BlueMotion owner to decline or accept each time. Individuals create their own accounts, which are stored on a secured server.
Dunham says it is popular with couples where one has to travel for business or military couples who have been deployed. “People are traveling more. … It allows them to keep an intimate connection without being right there,” she says.
“We started to launch new products every year. In the consumer products industry, you are expected to reinvent yourself,” Dunham says. Their product line now includes natural lubricants, a storage case, and traditional vibrators for first-time buyers who may be intimidated by more expensive tech-enabled offerings.
“It’s a redefinition of intimacy. Our devices have created intimacy chasms. You crawl into bed and look at your iPad instead of cuddling with your partner. Why not embrace the technology that is there to help us connect?” she says.
In addition to selling its products on its own website, OhMiBod also sells on Brookstone and Amazon as well as female-friendly specialty stores, such as Good Vibrations in Brookline, Three Wicked Women in Rye and CS Boutique in Portland, Maine. It has also featured its product at the Consumer Electronics Show and was featured on CNBC’s “The Pitch” series in June. Durham aims to bring her creations to the mainstream retail market. “People are opening their mind to it,” she says.
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