Playboy is a globally-recognized, iconic lifestyle brand that has worked with and showcased creators from all over the world for 70 years. It recently launched a new premium platform that allows the world’s top creators to interact directly with their fans, expand their communities, and build their own personal content businesses.
Problem: Playboy needs to verify creators to comply with regulations and create a safe environment
Playboy needs to verify each content creator who wants to join the creator paywall platform to ensure a safe and 18+ environment. But Playboy also knows that identity verification (IDV) isn’t just important for compliance reasons — it’s also a huge part of building a trusted platform. “It's supremely important that we create a really safe environment for creators and users alike,” its Chief Product Officer says. “IDV helps us ensure there are no underage or fraudulent creators on our platform.”
Solution: Persona provides customizable and easy-to-use automated identity verification so Playboy can onboard creators faster
While Playboy worked with another vendor before Persona, it wanted a solution that would help it verify and onboard more creators around the world. After evaluating our configurable identity infrastructure, it ultimately partnered with Persona for the following reasons:
Age verification
First and foremost, Playboy needed a fast and reliable way to enforce the company’s age requirements for prospective creators.
While Persona offers a number of verification methods businesses can choose from, Playboy settled on government ID and selfie verification. “Persona not only helps us verify that everyone has a legitimate ID proving they are at least 18, but also that they’re actually the person behind the content.”
Customization
Playboy also wanted the ability to customize creators’ verification experience — from what verifications they’d be subject to to how long they’d have to complete the verification process.
But Playboy didn’t just want to be able to customize what creators would experience — it also wanted full control over the behind-the-scenes process. “One of the main things I was looking for was the ability to customize the back end,” its CPO explains. “What was really appealing to me was Persona’s automation workflows.”
At Persona, we know identity isn’t one-size-fits-all. That’s why we give businesses configurable building blocks they can use to design the ideal identity processes for their specific business, customers, use cases, and touchpoints across the identity lifecycle — and quickly adapt to whatever comes their way.
User experience
While identity verification is a standard requirement, it usually adds friction that can conflict with product teams’ conversion OKRs. “Our goal is to bring on a fast-growing base of curated creators onto the platform while prioritizing safety,” Playboy’s CPO says.
Persona’s mission is to humanize online identity, so we try to make the verification process as painless as possible by offering easy device hand-off, live guidance, auto-capture, and more — a trait Playboy has noticed and appreciates. “Creators generally find identity verification through Persona to be quick and seamless. Everything’s been really positive.”
Results: Playboy unlocks new growth opportunities with Persona’s automated global verifications
With Persona handling the verification front, Playboy now has more time to focus on growing its platform. “We trust Persona to make sure creators are of age and real people before they can open an account. This allows us to focus our efforts on curating and attracting the best creators.”
Specifically, Playboy’s Chief Product Officer shares that Persona has unlocked two opportunities. “Now, we can effectively scale onboarding because Persona helps us automate the verification process. Additionally, Persona has global coverage, so there’s no reason to restrict where we bring creators on from.”
Today, Playboy has a sense of security, knowing it can rely on its identity partner. “Persona offers reliable identity verification that you know you can just trust and not have to worry about. Having a trusted partner like Persona has helped us become more efficient.”