How did you hear about the grand opening of the new restaurant just three blocks away from your apartment or the announcement that your favourite band is coming to town for the first time next month? In most cases, there was a public relations team that worked behind-the-scenes to ensure you heard it all.
Public relations—or PR for short—refers to the broadcasting of information between companies or an individual and the public for the sole aim to gain exposure. It’s a form of promotion that has continuously been practiced, and many organizations are now working to fuse PR with the LGBT community.
“When it comes down to it, I don’t really feel that it’s much of a different strategy targeting LGBT than anyone else,” says Cory Stewart, founder of Embrace Disruption PR. “For us, I think what is more important is educating the non-LGBT market.”
Helping charity, technology, and lifestyle organizations with their PR strategies, Embrace Disruption PR works with organizations like The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA).
“We found that they weren’t really recognized throughout the LGBT community or the entire world because it’s just something that not a lot of people know about,” he says. “We’ve taken them to different media outlets and placed them to talk about their story, make people understand exactly what they do, who they are, and what their value is.”
Promoting the organization to the general community through archived stories of the history of same-sex marriage and its legal battles in Canada are crucial, especially when educating youth, says Stewart. “For stuff like that, people have no idea so we just want to remind them of the make up of our histories.”
As a gay man, creating LGBT marketing strategies and conducting research are important for Laurence Bernstein, managing partner of Protean Strategies Inc. “It was about creating an awareness of the gay community,” he explains. “It was about bringing whatever companies were doing to the gay community and creating marketing campaigns that would appeal to the community.”
LGBT niche marketing is one of Protean Strategies’ main focuses. Bernstein and his team work closely with companies that strive to engage with LGBT populations.
“All of the work we did was with major brands and it was a question of helping these companies integrate into the community in a strategic, professional kind of way,” says Bernstein, insisting that as LGBT communities become increasingly fragmented geographically, smart marketers will find unique ways to market to LGBTs.
Working with the Gay Employee Association, Protean Strategies was able to help the association present to their marketing department and senior management that attracting gay customers would be a profitable and good thing to do.
“I think with the LGBT community, the big thing is we like taking on clients that aren’t as well known and need or deserve the exposure,” says Stewart, explaining the impact of LGBT PR. “With a client like the CLGA, [they’re] not well known and it’s something that I think is very important to our make up.”
Photo: alphaspirit/THINKSTOCK