Running LGBTQ+ Pride Campaigns For Marketers
Every June (or March for Australians celebrating Mardi Gras) companies large and small celebrate pride. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the LGBTQ+ members of staff in your business, and to indicate that your business’ ethics are in line with the LGBTQ+ community. Despite the best of intentions, many businesses fail to hit the right note during pride. This can result in appearing out-of-touch to loyal customers at best, or public humiliation and a call for boycotting your business at worst. Below are some suggestions to help guide your next Pride campaign, but please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like some more thorough information.
Three Reasons Why Pride Campaigns Fail
This is the company’s only effort to support LGBTQ+ people. This can be very transparent to LGBTQ+ people, and demonstrates that they may only be doing it for public recognition and to cash in on the rainbow dollar. Do the work every month to be a real ally - this includes making the workplace safe and accepting for LGBTQ+ staff members, including LGBTQ+ people in marketing campaigns outside of June, and donating to LGBTQ+ charities.
The company actively hurts LGTBQ+ people. This can be through donations to anti-LGBTQ+ political campaigns or groups, or through failing to moderate the comments on Pride posts, making them a triggering and unsafe place for LGBTQ+ people to be. If you want to be a part of Pride Month please make sure that other company activities aren’t harming LGBTQ+ people.
The campaign is completely tone deaf. This could be something like the typical low-effort move of just adding rainbows to existing products, or more pronounced marketing flops like the t-shirt company that featured only straight couples when marketing their Pride shirts. Be sure to “read the room” and understand what a successful Pride campaign looks like.
Five Steps To A Successful Pride Campaign
Employ LGBTQ+ people. And no, not just that one fun flamboyant cisgender white gay man in the PR team. By having a diverse group of LGBTQ+ people you will have access to more brilliant ideas, have multiple people to tone-check the campaign, and be backing your efforts to support LGBTQ+ people by actually employing them.
Understand that LGBTQ+ campaigns aren’t (or shouldn’t be) just about rainbows in June. Make a promise to help the LGBTQ+ community through donations to relevant charities, educating your team on how to create a truly inclusive workplace, and working to include LGBTQ+ people in your narrative every day.
Hire LGBTQ+ consultants! Ask qualified people in the community to help with tone and addressing relevant issues for LGBTQ+ people at the time. And pay them. If you’re interested in bringing a cisgender bisexual woman on board for a campaign please reach out to me here.
Represent the whole community. Pride isn’t just for gay men, although a lot of campaigns wouldn’t have you believe that. Include people of colour, disabled people, and every letter of the LGBTQ+. Yes, this includes trans people.
Involve LGBTQ+ influencers, artists and public speakers in the campaign. Not only will you contribute directly to the financial success of LGBTQ+ people, but you also have access to their audiences and varied skillsets. By running a diverse Pride Campaign full of LGBTQ+ people you are able to effectively communicate that you’re willing to put in the work to understand who prominent and respected public figures are for the exact demographic you’re trying to target. And then include them in future, non-Pride related, campaigns.
If you would like to learn more about running a Pride campaign that hits all the right notes (and all the right people), would like some guidance on how to make your workplace LGBTQ+ friendly, or any other type of marketing and workplace LGBTQ+ questions, please reach out here. If I’m not equipped to effectively fulfil your needs I can put you in touch with someone who can.