Gay Supplement - Why the agencies need to wise up

are doing what they can to address the industry's rather thin ethnic
mix.

But sexual orientation is another thing again. Do agencies employ a
representative proportion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
staff? Who knows? What is a representative proportion of gays and
lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals? Either way, does sexual
orientation have any real bearing on a person's media choices? And if
so, does it take one to know one, so to speak?

Ask those who specialise in GLBT media whether the mainstream industry
does its clients proud in this sector and the response is usually pretty
crushing. With isolated exceptions, they suggest, account teams are
unlikely to pitch gay and lesbian media to advertisers unless the client
demands it, in which case agencies tend to claim expertise they don't
actually have.

Ian Johnson, founder of OutNow Consulting, a media and research company
specialising in GLBT markets, believes this is one area where large
agencies usually demonstrate that they cannot be all things to all men -
though that doesn't stop them trying.

"A large client will have an existing relationship with a creative or
media agency, so they will talk to their account director and say: 'We
were thinking we might want to do something in the gay market. Can you
do that for us?' And there are very few mainstream agencies where the
suits will turn around and say: 'No, we are not especially good at
that'," says Johnson.

So why is the capability lacking? According to Paul Tanner, director of
90ten, a PR and communications company specialising in diversity, and
ethnic and GLBT groups in particular, the problem is often that agency
professionals are simply not sufficiently aware of the market.

"Media buying and advertising tends to be a male-dominated area, and
there is quite a macho culture that goes with that," he says. "What then
happens is that you have a situation where a lot of clients expect their
agency to come up with a variety of solutions, but because of the
heterosexual nature of advertising and media buying, these target groups
just don't come up."

Not that it would be accurate to suggest that GLBT groups are not
represented in the agency world at all - far from it. But estimates of
the UK gay population top around 10% and it would take an optimistic
person to suggest that the agency community was even close to
representative.

"We know how out of line we are in other demographics," says Jo Rigby,
head of OMD Insight, which has carried out the UK's biggest focused
research project, Outright, with Gaydar and Channel 4.

"We know we (the industry) are getting younger, we know we are staying
whiter as Britain is becoming more multicultural. We don't know how we
shape up in terms of sexual orientation, but I don't think we would be
over-represented (in terms of gay and lesbian staff)."

That is why, as Rigby notes, the abiding attitude among GLBT consumers
towards specialist advertising produced by the mainstream advertising
community is a feeling of being patronised and generally
underestimated.

More often than not, the guilty party is a creative agency resorting to
stereotypes, cracking the wrong joke or generally betraying a badly
hidden heterosexuality, but media agencies are occasionally implicated
in the cluelessness.

Commercial Closet, a US organisation dedicated to presenting and
evaluating attitudes to the GLBT community in advertising, demonstrates
that US advertisers are far more likely than their British counterparts
to attempt to engage the gay market on its own terms, though the market
is also the scene of many of the major howlers.

"There is a taboo that still exists in the US, when you consider the
strength of conservatives here, and particularly religious
conservatives," says Michael Wilke, its founder. "I understand that
applies less in the UK, though the hold-over of the taboo is still
meaningful, and one of the effects of that is a lack of information
about the market."

The issue is not just one of poor communication with the GLBT market,
but of negative stereotypes in the mainstream. A Snickers ad, aired
during this year's Super Bowl, managed to outrage both the family
audience and large sections of the gay and lesbian community, depicting
an accidental kiss between two straight men and then lingering on their
mutual horror for comic effect.

Such cultural miscalculations reflect badly on all concerned, according
to OutNow's Johnson. "Ultimately, the client has to bear some of the
responsibility," he says. "The agency may put forward creative, but the
client is still signing off on it."

In terms of targeted GLBT advertising from mainstream creative and media
agencies, Johnson believes the picture is rarely much more encouraging.
"Where it is done well, it is often not the function of the wider agency
so much as a switched-on account director," he says.

"I really don't believe there is a single stand-out mainstream agency
you could point to, either in the UK or at a global level."

The experience of Gino Meriano, founder of Pink Weddings, bears out this
gripe, certainly as regards creative agencies. "In 2005, when the civil
partnership came in, we decided 2006 would be the big year for us to do
some advertising," he says. "We wanted to create a TV spot that promotes
same-sex weddings and still, to this day, we can't find someone to do
it, because all they come up with is cliched, dull stuff. Now it is
2007, we've still got no TV ad and we have seen 11 agencies."

The fact is, this is unfamiliar territory for the media world. And while
mainstream brands in Britain may occasionally be guilty of inadvertent
homophobia in their advertising, they tend to be cautious when tailoring
ads specifically to GLBT audiences.

In fact, none of the agencies Media Week approached felt able to comment
on this issue.

"In Britain, we tend to be more conservative," says Tanner. "We don't
want to offend anyone and so, when it comes to the gay and lesbian
press, there is a feeling that the best way to do it is not to do it at
all. Either that, or companies, such as Ford, will target the gay
audience with the same ads they are using elsewhere."

That might appear to be the safer option, but while using non-sexualised
creative in gay media is unlikely to cause offence, it may also have
very little effect of any kind.

"The gay consumer sees mainstream creative as the equivalent of
receiving junk mail or spam - it is something they didn't need to see in
that space," says Johnson. "At best, it is almost neutral - the standard
car advertising with the standard creative."

But worse by some margin is the creative that depicts straight images in
specialist media, as if, perhaps, trying to promote a more wholesome way
of life. "You still find instances where a mainstream agency has put a
heterosexually charged image into a lesbian or gay media space," says
Johnson. "You could not do a worse job, in terms of wasting the client's
money."

One problem that arises when you accuse agencies of not being
sufficiently expert in their use of gay media is the fact that there
isn't an indefinite amount of gay media in which to specialise.

Though there is no shortage of press, QSoft's Gaydar brand has developed
the gay radio niche more or less single-handedly. Meanwhile, Living TV
has established itself as a key channel, the fact that MTV has not
rolled out its US Logo network in the UK has deprived Britain of a
portal that has made a vast difference to gay media reach in the
States.

"Without a gay (TV) network in the UK, it makes it much harder for
clients to think about television and gays in the same thought," says
Wilke.

Some in the mainstream agency world have historically headed off the
issue of how best to target GLBT audiences by professing outrage at the
suggestion that gay and lesbian consumers are best targeted according to
their sexual preference, rather than their age, their income or their
general interests.

Certainly, according to the Outright research last year, 40% of the gay
market consumes virtually no gay media, while most of the remaining 60%
of respondents mix gay and mainstream TV, press and radio.

The research refutes any notion that millions of people inhabit gay or
lesbian ghettos that can only be accessed through specialist media.
Nonetheless, it does show that GLBT culture encompasses numerous
communities of similar tastes and interests, and progressive brands do
evidently see numerous advantages in building their credibility within
such markets.

Among brands, there are certain shining lights, notably in the US. Of
the large corporates specifically attempting to target the gay and
lesbian market - and doing so tastefully and relevantly - Wilke singles
out IBM, American Express, Avis, T-Mobile and particularly Subaru, with
its consistent policy of sponsorship and product placement in both
specialist media and mainstream media with gay appeal.

"If a company can be 'out' about its interest in the gay market in
general media, then they have really reached the pinnacle, because they
are taking what is still seen as a risk," he says.

BREAKOUT: TIPS FOR CLIENTS AND AGENCIES

IN BUSINESS/STRATEGY

- In general, try to integrate gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
(GLBT) people in ad campaigns

- Understand the value of including openly GLBT participants in focus
groups for all advertising reviews, regardless of target audience.
Families and individuals who are not exclusively hetero-centric should
also be included

- Don't waffle, modify or withdraw GLBT-friendly campaigns. Be
consistent and principled

- Bear in mind that few consumers will shun your brand for being
GLBT-friendly

- Provide expert GLBT awareness training for advertising and marketing
staff

- Don't create GLBT-sensitive messaging and imagery without testing
independently with appropriate perspectives and/or focus groups

IN CREATIVE

- Recognise that GLBT people come from all races, ages, ethnicities,
nationalities, incomes, political and religious affiliations,
professions, physical abilities and gender expressions, and incorporate
such diversity into GLBT representations. One size does not fit all

- Consider putting a twist on cliches of GLBT stereotypes

- Don't use horrified or violent revulsion to references of
homosexuality or transgender people

- Don't characterise transgender people as deceptive, scary or
freakish

Source: Commercial Closet.