The Top Gay Porn Brands of 2013

A look back at some of the most successful gay adult brands from the past year

For this year’s Best Of issue, we decided to take a closer look at some of the gay adult industry’s strongest brands. These are the studios, websites, and products that were now known to almost all gay adult consumers. Whether these companies created the best content, won the most awards, stirred up the most controversy, or executed the best marketing campaigns, they each made sure to stay in the minds of consumers throughout 2013 – and this month we’ll look at how they did it.

BELAMIONLINE.COM
For two decades, Bel Ami has been one of gay porn’s best known studios thanks to its high quality production values and carefully selected and developed models. This was affirmed in January when Bel Ami Online was named Gay Site of the Year at the Xbiz Awards.

2013 actually marked Bel Ami’s 20th anniversary, so the studio set out to make 2013 into one of its best year’s ever. To get things started, one of Bel Ami’s big projects was a remake of the Bel Ami classic An American In Prague. To keep things fresh, Bel Ami re-imagined the classic video as an online series, included its top models, made the scenes bareback (a studio trend that could be seen throughout the year), and filmed it all in 3D. Also in January, Bel Ami signed new exclusive model Sasha Akunin.

Also in 2013, KinkyAngels.com  (Bel Ami’s experimental, value-added product for hardcore fans) became popular enough to become a full-fledged subscription website with guaranteed new issues every month. In April, Bel Ami signed new exclusive model Johnny Bloom. Then in June, model Max Ryder made a special appearance as part of Bel Ami’s ongoing collaboration with Cocky Boys.

When Fall arrived, Bel Ami kicked things up one more notch by announcing that industry legend Lukas Ridgeston would be making a comeback in front of the cameras. After moving behind-the-scenes to work in production, Lukas created one of the industry’s most successful new DVD lines (The Lukas Ridgeston collection.) When his comeback debuted, fans found that he had grown even sexier during his time away from the limelight.

COCKYBOYS.COM
2013 has been an incredible year for Cocky Boys. Month after month, the studio has stayed at the top of both porn industry and mainstream news. In January, Cocky Boys announced the relaunch of PierreFitch.com (after earlier partnering with the star to completely redesign his site.) In February, Cocky Boys signed both Levi Karter and Jett Black as exclusives and then continued its model exchange program with Bel Ami by sending Max Ryder to appear on KinkyAngels.com. Also in February, The Haunting series concluded and was later released by TLA as an exclusive, 2-Disc DVD set that included a normal cut of the film, a non-adult “erotic” version, and director commentary.

In May, Cocky Boys and its Project GoGo Boy series received 19 nominations at the Grabby Awards. The studio took home four of them, including Best Director, Movie of the Year, Fan Favorite Movie, and Newcomer of the Year. Right about the same time, Cocky Boys also received 7 nominations for the TLA Gay Video Awards. Later in the same month, Cocky Boys debuted the reality-porn series Max and Jake’s Roadstrip, which focused on the real-life love-hate friendship between stars Max Ryder and Jake Bass. Before long, Roadstrip got the attention of Erik Schut, the managing director of TLAGay.com and a special programmer for the QFest Film Festival in Philadelphia, PA. Schut described Roadstrip as, “One of the season’s most visually arresting and exciting experiences.” As a result, the film ended up making its theatrical debut at Qfest and then hitting the summer film festival circuit.

In July, Cocky Boys made both the mainstream and the porn industry headlines when Cocky Boys exclusive Jett Black was dismissed from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet after his porn work for Cocky Boys was discovered. After Black gave an interview to Canada’s CBC News, the story went viral and was subsequently covered by the Toronto Star, the Daily Mail (UK), Huffington Post, the Hollywood Reporter, and many more.

In September, Jake Jaxson kept the momentum of the Cocky-Boys-led “art porn” movement going with the online Porn Haus Film Festival that lasted from September to October. It featured five films, including his own Andy-Warhol-inspired Boys to Adore Galore. Also in Sept, an in-depth feature on Jake Jaxson and his new release A Thing of Beauty was published on Salon.com. In it, writer Justin Abraham Linds described Jake Jaxson as, “The Walt Whitman of gay porn.”

CORBINFISHER.COM
Year after year, Corbin Fisher’s open-minded, straight jocks have succeeded in captivating gay porn fans. 2013 was no different, except for the fact that the studio and its videos continued to get even better. 2013 also brought an increased focus on bareback content, with most of the studio’s new scenes being condom-free. Since 2009, Corbin Fisher has collaborated with Bel Ami via model exchanges, a program that continued in 2013. Based in Las Vegas since 2011, Corbin Fisher continued its policy of offering high pay rates, full medical/dental/vision coverage, 401(k)’s, and college scholarships to its exclusive models – and you can see that human investment paying off in every new scene that Corbin Fisher releases. Throughout 2013, Corbin Fisher continued to do things its own way – and as a result, it remains one of the few porn sites that is known to almost all gay porn consumers.

EUROCREME.COM
Eurocreme has worked hard to stay in the minds of consumers during 2013, delivering a steady stream of high quality DVD releases and website updates. At the same time, they managed to complete an ambitious humanitarian project by founding the Eurocreme Group Clinic in the Vauxhall area of Central London.

In January, Danny Daniels became the studio’s newest exclusive model and The Dreamboy Hotel series was one of 2013’s biggest hits (headlined by Eurocreme Exclusive Billy Rubens.) Also this year, Eurocreme rebooted the BulldogPit.com website, giving it a new producer and a fresh new direction.

2013 marked Eurocreme’s 10th anniversary, and it celebrated by hosting an enormous charity event in London’s West End where fans had a chance to party with a decade’s worth of Eurocreme’s biggest stars. It was a huge success and a video showcasing the party was initially offered as a free download. Due to high demand, however, there’s now a small fee to download it – but the proceeds are going to charity.

FALCONSTUDIOS.COM / RAGINGSTALLIONSTUDIOS.COM
It’s been a non-stop year for Falcon and Raging Stallion, with the studios releasing at least 82 new DVD’s from their various product lines. This included lots of new blockbusters and new fetish releases, as well as new anthologies and collections. At press time, the studios were still going strong with new 2013 releases such as Bucks County, Timberwolves, and Hole 2. Recently the studios also launched a brand new DVD line called Guys Like Us, along with the new line’s debut release He’s Got the Moves.

DVD releases were only one part of what Falcon and Raging Stallion accomplished this year. Behind the scenes, Toby Morris was promoted to VP of Marketing. A number of new exclusive models were signed throughout the year, including big-Dicked Latin hunk Boomer Banks, Donnie Dean, Ryan Rose, and Tommy Defendi (a return.) Ryan Rose was also named Falcon’s Man of the Year, and Shawn Wolfe was named Raging Stallion’s Man of the Year.

In an effort to stay relevant to consumers, Falcon and Raging Stallion introduced DVD+ this year, a new program that is now adding three bonus scenes to every new DVD release. These are always top scenes that are handpicked from the studio’s library by the director in order to complement each DVD. In addition, the studio’s DVD’s are again offering 7-8 scenes per movie.

In terms of marketing, 2013 marked the two Year Anniversary of Hunt, the Official eZine of Falcon and Raging Stallion. The bi-weekly newsletter version of Hunt surpassed 80,000 subscribers this year, with a market reach of more than 100,000 readers. Also, an expanded web version of Hunt was launched this year at HunteZine.com. Each issue of Hunt includes special offers, free XXX galleries, model spotlights, breaking news, free video scenes, editorials by studio staff, and previews of new updates and releases. When the Hunt website was being announced, the studios also debuted a new combined blog at blog.falconstudios.com.

At this year’s Grabby awards, Falcon and Raging Stallion received a whopping 40 nominations and took home four of the awards. Then in September, the studios held their annual VIP party in San Francisco. This year’s party was hosted by Shawn Wolfe and Ryan Rose, with music by DJ Ricky Sinz. This free event was open to the public and gave thousands of fans a rare chance to mingle with dozens of their favorite porn stars, directors, and behind-the-scenes studio personnel.

FLESHJACK.COM
This year Fleshjack continued to dominate the adult novelty industry (both gay and straight) as the #1 selling male sex toy on the planet. Also this year, Fleshjack was named Best Novelty Site at the Cybersocket Web Awards.

Last year Fleshjack held it’s second spokesmodel contest and a new batch of winners were selected by fans. The new spokesmodels have been debuting on the Fleshjack site throughout the year, with more still to come. The new spokesmodels include Donny Wright, Spencer Reed, Chris Rockway, Jake Bass, Pierre Fitch, Brent Everett, Austin Wilde, Brent Corrigan, and Nicco Sky. Each of them will appear in PR materials and will lend their bodies to the creation of several realistically molded Fleshjack toys.

Throughout the year, Fleshjack has kept potential customers engaged with frequent sales and the introduction of new products. In March, Fleshjack debuted an updated version of their popular Flight model, along with the new Flight MD. In April, Fleshjack revamped it’s Build-Your-Own Fleshjack system, streamlining the process and adding six new textures. A promotion at the start of the year offered 25% off everything. In july, they gave a free Shower Mount accessory (a $24.95 value) to the first 500 people who purchased a Fleshjack Classic. Another popular promotion offered a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal on Fleshjack Sleeves. To date, over 800,000 Fleshjacks have been sold to customers around the globe. But by offering significant deals and continually updating their products, Fleshjack has been able to continue expanding its customer base.

HOTHOUSE.COM
Throughout 2013, Hot House kept the new DVD releases, website updates, live web shows, and personal appearances coming – bringing us a mix of mainstream Hot House titles and hardcore, fetish-related content from the Club Inferno Dungeon. It was a great year for DVD collectors, too, with Hot House frequently offering big sales and discounts. Hot House also launched a new sports fetish video line this year called Gym Dudes with its debut title Good Sports.

At the 2013 Grabby Awards, Hot House received 18 nominations and then took home the awards for Best Video Company Site, Best Videography, and Best Group Scene. Several Hot House performers were also honored and Jimmy Durano was named Performer of the Year. Hot House also received 5 nominations for the 14th Annual Cybersocket Web Awards that will be held in January 2014.

As usual, Hot House and its models did a great job of maintaining high visibility throughout the year. In June, Hot House performer Landon Conrad graced the cover of Cybersocket’s Gay Pride issue. The studio’s popular Twitter feed @HotHouseXXX continued to pick up new followers, and in July a new account for Club Inferno Dungeon was launched at @ClubInfernoXX in order to keep fisting fans up to date with director Christian Owen and the studio’s upcoming releases. Also in July, Hot House achieved a new milestone when Jimmy Durano and Trenton Ducati performed in Hot House’s 100th live web show.

Throughout the year, there were opportunities for fans to meet their favorite Hot House performers. In May, the men of Hot House headed to Chicago for live appearances at International Mr. Leather, the Grabby Awards, Bear Pride, and Steamworks. In August, performers Jimmy Durano and Angel Rock made a public appearance at the San Jose Pride Festival. Then in September, Jimmy Durano made a big splash with Jordano Santoro in the Hot House booth at the San Francisco Folsom Street Fair.

Some of the new Hot House DVD releases this year were Holistic, Easy Summer, Dream Team, The Dom, The Sub, Heatstroke, JockHole, My Doctor Sucks, Champs, Red Handed, Hole Busters Vol. 8, and Pack Attack 8: J.R. Bronson.

LUCASENTERTAINMENT.COM
2013 was a busy year for Lucas Entertainment, with the studio constantly releasing new content for the Lucas Entertainment, Lucas Raunch, and Sex In Suits websites. This year also saw a number of big budget DVD releases such as The Kings of New York 1, The Kings of New York 2,  and Original Sinners.

Just as the year was getting started in January, Lucas Entertainment won the award for Best Content Producer at the 2013 Cybersocket Web Awards. In the same month, the studio signed new exclusives Demian Holt and Hans Berlin. Additional new exclusives who were signed later in the year included Fernando Torres, Adriano Carrasco, and Seth Treston.

In May, Lucas Entertainment launched a weekly Summer party event on Fire Island. Throughout the year, Michael Lucas continued to be a popular and outspoken media figure, occasionally posting articles, giving interviews, or blogging about different issues. Popular model Justin Cruise returned to do more work for Lucas Entertainment in June, and then in September the studio finally gave in to the trend towards unsafe sex in gay porn by releasing its very first bareback scene starring real-life lovers Seth Treston and Billy Santoro.

MENATPLAY.COM
In September, Menatplay debuted an all new version of its website that included a new look and an all new, improved interface – plus mobile support and multi-format downloads.

Back in 2011, Menatplay announced that it was expanding to include additional themes beyond just suit-and-tie porn. In 2013, suit-and-tie porn was still one of Menatplay’s most important themes – but the studio has been able to keep things fresh by introducing other motifs as well.  But luckily for fans, they have never abandoned the suit-and-tie porn genre that they basically invented.

Throughout 2013, Menatplay debuted sizzling new scenes featuring their own new discoveries as well as some of the industry’s biggest stars. Some of the new videos this year were Just Fucked, Fone-A-Friend, Internal Investigation, Boy Been Bad, Silver Lining, Banana Split, Diary of a Fox, Locker Jock, 5-Star Service, The Subservient, The Inspector, Dario Beck, Nasty Boys 2, and Body 2 Body.

NAKEDSWORD.COM
In 2013, Naked Sword debuted a number of new NakedSword Originals series including Frat House Cream, Down and Dirty (a collaboration with Dirty Boy Video), Into the Wilde, Golden Gate Season 5: The Cover Up, and Hooker Stories 2.

After taking home the 2012 YNOT Award for Best Gay Site, Naked Sword was again nominated for the same award in 2013. At the 2013 Grabby Awards, Naked Sword received 17 nominations and took home the awards for Best Mega Site and Best VOD Site. The studio also won the awards for Best Actor (Christian Wilde in Wilde Road) and Best Screenplay (Wilde Road by mr. Pam.)

In June, Naked Sword announced a content deal with Kink.com that would allow Naked Sword to stream scenes from the Kink line.

In July, Naked Sword rolled out the Swordsman VIP membership card during Pride in San Fransisco. The card provides lifetime discounted membership to Naked Sword, special discounts at various San Fransisco merchants, free entry to clubs, line privileges, drink discounts, and more. Later this year, the program should be expanded to include benefits in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Paris, and London.

Recently, Naked Sword and its CEO Tim Valenti were featured in the SF Chronicle Sunday Edition in a special profile story.

NEXTDOORWORLD.COM
Throughout 2013, Next Door World continued to offer one of the best deals in gay adult entertainment with its incredible 13-website package deal. In addition, Next Door Entertainment worked with Montreal-based porn star Marko Lebeau to create and launch a brand new site called MenOfMontreal.com that focuses on Montreal-based strippers, amateurs, and porn stars.

Also in 2013, Next Door World signed nine new exclusive models. Each of the new models is sexy and unique, so this move is sure to keep things fresh and exciting for Next Door World subscribers throughout the coming year. To learn more about the nine new exclusives, check out our September article on The Men of Next Door Male.

Next Door World’s basic package deal continued to win over consumers in 2013, but to sweeten the deal even more, the studio offered some amazing deals this year, including a Fourth of July sale that offered a month of access for just $9.95.

Behind the scenes, Next Door World’s parent company GammaE.com has continued to partner with some of the gay porn industry’s most popular and successful companies this year, drawing on their expertise and experience to redesign and manage the official websites for studios such as Raging Stallion, Falcon, Hot House, and many more.

In January, FCF Agency (the adult talent and modeling agency owned by Next Door World’s parent company) relaunched its self-branded model recruitment site at FCFAgency.com. The updated site features a brand new interface with user-friendly tools and lots of key information about the adult modeling industry. In addition, FCF Agency also continued to operate additional talent recruitment sites at AdultModelsUSA.com, AdultCastingCall.com, and EdgeModelsUSA.com. FCF Agency’s recruitment sites receive hundreds of new model applications every month, which is why Next Door World has always been able to feature such superior models. But the agency’s talent pool has grown dramatically over the years, allowing it to also provide talent management and booking services to other studios across a broad cross-section of the adult industry. In addition to FCF Agency’s Canadian offices in Montreal, Quebec, the company also maintains U.S. field offices in Rohnert Park, California and San Diego, California.

On the social media and PR front, Next Door World maintained popular Twitter accounts for virtually all of its websites and stars (@BrandonBronco1, @markolebeau, @NextDoorMale, @NextDoorWorld, etc.)  In addition, the studio conducted an aggressive and creative consumer email campaign which cross-promoted various products to the studio’s massive database of opted-in newsletter subscribers.

RANDYBLUE.COM
2013 marked Randy Blue’s ten year anniversary, and the popular site used this as the basis for some excellent promotions (including a limited-time offer that gave new subscribers one month of full site access plus 300 live chat credits for just $9.95.) Also during this anniversary year, Randy Blue received the 2013 Cybersocket Web Award for Lifetime Achievement.

All throughout the year, Randy Blue continued to be extremely active and innovative with its social media promotions. The studio maintained a number of popular Twitter accounts (including @RandyBlue, @RandyBlueLIVE, @RandyBlueFans) and also a lively Tumblr account at RandyBlueOfficial.tumblr.com.

Randy Blue’s live cam shows at RandyBlue.com/1on1 continued to be an important new facet of the website this year, with even more of the site’s exclusive models participating. Randy Blue’s long-term exclusives continued to be popular with fans, and Randy Blue once again partnered with fashion designer Andrew Christian to provide models for many of the designer’s PR campaigns.

In September, Randy Blue launched its first new web series in three years, Welcome to L.A.. Each episode in the new series is themed around a different neighborhood in Los Angeles, CA. The premier episode was called Welcome to L.A. – Hollywood and it starred Justin Owen and Diego Sans.

TREASUREISLANDMEDIA.COM
At a time when many gay porn studios are struggling, Treasure Island Media has remained successful and has continued to grow. Bareback porn, ironically, has now started to creep into the videos of many top studios and websites who were formerly opposed to it. However, the new abundance of bareback content hasn’t detracted at all from Treasure Island Media’s success.

Throughout 2013, T.I.M. continued to play up its outlaw image, and the studio amped up the shock factor in many of its videos. In January, T.I.M. reported explosive performance in both DVD sales and online subscriptions for 2012 and announced that it was expanding its staff.

In addition to its creative content, a big part of T.I.M.’s success in 2013 was its focus on customer service. T.I.M. made it easy for customers and fans to interact with company staff and performers via its presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

T.I.M. released new titles throughout the year and made the content available through a number of different channels such as traditional DVD’s, Download-To-Own, video-on-demand, and subscription websites. The company also put a focus on developing key creative figures at the company into strong new brands, allowing the company to expand beyond its association with just the studio’s founder Paul Morris and paving the way for long-term success and expansion. Some of T.I.M.’s big hits in 2013 were Liam Cole’s Overload, Max Sohl’s Suck It, Cheap Thrills Vol. 4, Damaged Goods, Knocked Out and Jerked Off Vol. 8, Plantin’ Seed Anthology, Pony Hunter’s Butt Snack, Outlaws, and Max Sohl’s Cum Whore starring Steven Daigle.

Early this year T.I.M. announced a strategic partnership with Timoteo Underwear to develop a new, private label underwear and jockstrap line, and later in the year the new items began being sold on T.I.M.’s website. In addition, T.I.M. ended up spending some time in court this year over its non-use of condoms – which ironically served to drive even more traffic to its websites.

BROKESTRAIGHTBOYS.COM
In addition to creating some of the gay-for-pay genre’s most popular content this year, the Broke Straight Boys member site also received an extensive update that uses the latest web standards and supports robust mobile access. The site is now faster, prettier, easier to use, and more feature-packed than ever. In addition, Broke Straight Boys also continued work on its brand new mainstream cable TV series which will debut around the world in 2014. You can read more about the series at BrokeStraightBoys.tv, and you can watch a behind-the-scenes preview on YouTube. The buzz about the upcoming reality series has helped to stir up increased interest in the Broke Straight Boys brand and its content, and there is sure to be even more attention once the series debuts.