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Pssst...When it comes to advertising, whether it's gay advertising or not, sex sells. But you already knew that. Advertisers have been "sexing" up products and images forever. It also provides revenue. Tabloid newspapers run sunshine girls and boys to bring viewers in and increase audience share. Even stalwart Internet brand Yahoo featured personal ads in big bold bright colours on its home page for a couple of months in a bid to retain audience and marketshare. Check the back pages of Toronto Life magazine and you'll find classified ads for escorts services, listed at premium prices. It's just sex. And it's been popular since before people started charging the people willing to pay for it. How popular? Dating as far back as 1996, since people started measuring such things, "sex" has been the most popular searched term on the Internet according to Yahoo, Dogpile and other resources. It's an important fact when it comes to marketing to the gay community and gay advertising at large. It's important because every once in a while, a brand guardian will have second thoughts about placing a media buy with a gay publication because of the overtly sexual nature of the publication(s) in question. They are entirely within their right to do so, as the parent company may be a strong "family" brand and it's the brand guardian's responsibility to be vigilant and conscious of such issues. While the gay market is predicated on tenets of sexuality and all its inherent attributes, the predilection for sex by the community is no more or less than that of their straight counterparts. In fact, for every Internet search of the term "gay sex", the search term "sex" is searched twenty times more often. And for every Internet search of the term "gay porn", the search term "porn" is searched twenty times more often. Making the unscientific assumption that the gay population is 5% of the general population (Reference: Gay Market Statistics - Facts & Misfigures), one in every twenty people is gay. In short, the difference is not one of overt sexuality. The difference is one of context. If you're a cable subscriber, you have in excess of 200 TV channels available to you in Toronto alone. Only one of them is gay content oriented. There are hundreds of daily, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly publications available across the country, but only a handful are gay content oriented. As with other media offerings, they are businesses required to generate revenue. Unlike other media offerings, their universe and audience is only a percentage of that available to other media and evolved from a sexual revolution and all its inherent tenets; nascent in their business life cycle. As such, they must take any revenue available to them, including personal ads like those available on Yahoo, or escort services like those found in Toronto Life. It's the reality of gay media. It's simply the reality of gay advertising. It's the reality, as Yahoo has discovered, of a tough market. But as the gay market becomes more competitive, with more brands vying for gay dollars, instead of limiting their options to reach the gay market by declining to advertise in a gay publication because of its content, brand guardians may want to choose instead to decline to advertise in a specific part of a gay publication. About Wilde Marketing Wilde Marketing is Canada's gay advertising and marketing agency offering comprehensive advertising, marketing communications, strategic and public relation services to companies who understand the value of engaging gay consumers in this country. The company is located at 2722 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4N 2H9, 416.821.3074 phone, 416.483.3513 fax. For more information, email Wilde Marketing. |
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© 2002 Wilde Marketing - Gay Advertising |