On August 3, 2026, at the inaugural STIMULATE+ Awards in Nashville, Wicked Sensual Care leaders Cassie Pendleton and Jessica Drake — known collectively in the trade as "Cassica" — were named Brand Leader of the Year. XBIZ reported the win on August 20. It is a small award from a first-year program, but it is a useful marker of where the intimate-wellness trade is placing its bets, and of Nashville's emergence as a second hub for a business long centered on Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Why It Matters

Trade awards are marketing, but the criteria a new awards program chooses reveal what the industry thinks it should be rewarding. STIMULATE+ launching with a Brand Leader category that weights education and advocacy alongside product tells you the intimate-wellness trade now treats credibility as a competitive asset — which tracks with where the retail money is going. Menopause products, aging-and-intimacy lines, and clinically framed sexual wellness are the categories opening doors at mainstream retail that novelty SKUs never could. Nashville is the other signal. STIMULATE has been building there as a trade venue — the same show hosted the Body Garden intimate skincare debut earlier this month — creating a Southeastern counterweight to the Las Vegas trade calendar. For smaller brands priced out of ANME and Altitude, a second regional show with its own awards program is a meaningful distribution and press opportunity. Whether it sticks depends on whether buyers show up next year.

The citation is telling in what it rewards. STIMULATE+ recognised the pair not for revenue growth or a hit SKU but for product innovation paired with sexual wellness education, industry advocacy, and retailer support. Under their leadership, Wicked Sensual Care has pushed well beyond its origins as a premium lubricant house into broader intimate wellness, with products and messaging built around specific life stages rather than a generic adult-novelty consumer. The award language explicitly credits the brand's willingness to engage with pleasure, aging, menopause, LGBTQ+ communities, sexual health, and access to accurate, inclusive education — the categories that were commercially unmentionable in this industry a decade ago and are now its growth engine.

"Receiving this award together feels especially meaningful because we are a small but mighty team, and everything we do at Wicked Sensual Care is built on collaboration," Pendleton said. "JD and I challenge each other, support each other, and bring different strengths to the table, but we're always working toward the same goal of elevating the intimacy category and helping people feel more informed, comfortable, and empowered in their intimate lives."

Drake framed the win as a referendum on what industry leadership should mean. "Leadership in this industry is much more than just building a successful brand. It's about listening, evolving, and using the platform you have to make the industry better for consumers, retailers, and the people working within it." She credited Wicked founder Steve Orenstein for "constant encouragement to grow and evolve" and singled out sales lead Nicole Talley, along with warehouse, accounting, and office staff — "Everyone is important. Everyone is necessary to the brand."

Sources

Update — 2026-08-23

{Initial entry — story first created.}