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.ILLUSTRATION BY MAX- O-MATIC AUGUST 10 , 2 019 | WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 53
LGBTQ initiatives; and amplifying their
clients’ roles as allies through social media
— not just during Pride Month or around an
album release, but year-round.
According to Darryl W. Bullock, the author
of David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of
LGBT Music, marketing to gay and lesbian
audiences took root in the ’70s. He points to
Bette Midler, whose frequent performances
at a gay bathhouse earned her the nickname
“Bathhouse Betty,” and the Village People,
whose public image played with several
gay archetypes. Even then, queer listeners
were seen as a niche but influential market.
“People dancing in the disco, those were your
tastemakers,” says Bullock.
They were also fiercely loyal. “We take
artists to our hearts, and we’ll look after them
forever,” says Bullock, citing the likes of Cher,
Diana Ross and Madonna. “Their careers
would not have lasted for as long as they have
without that queer audience, without those
people who’ve supported them for their entire
careers, through the highs and the lows.”
By the time Atlantic launched its gay
and lesbian marketing division, brands
like Absolut Vodka, IKEA and Subaru were
already advertising to queer consumers,
known in marketing circles as DINKs: double
income, no kids. The LGBTQ community’s
buying power has risen steadily during
the past few decades and is estimated at
$917 billion, according to the most recent
data from Witeck Communications. (Some
analysts say this figure has surpassed
$1 trillion in 2019.) That change is partly
the result of the growth of the community
itself, which has embraced increasingly
fluid definitions of gender and sexuality:
What was once a “gay and lesbian” market
is now LGBTQ+. According to a 2018 study
conducted by gay social network Hornet and
Kantar Consulting, 31% of people born after
1997 identify as LGBTQ+, compared with
20% of millennials and 8% of baby boomers.
As companies become more aware of the
value of “the pink dollar,” LGBTQ consumers
in turn are more wary of artists who pander
to them. “We’re not interested in people just
doing a generic ‘I love my gay fans’ tweet,” says
Carmen Cacciatore, the president of Mighty
Real Agency, an LGBTQ-focused marketing
agency whose recent clients have included
Lizzo, Dido and Chaka Khan. “That’s nice and
all, but what can you do?”
Cacciatore says advocacy-related work
became a bigger focus for artists and labels
around 2008, when social media networks
like Twitter experienced wild growth and
breakout acts like Lady Gaga made supporting
the community an explicit priority. When
Gaga expressed interest in speaking out
against “don’t ask, don’t tell” in 2010, Mighty
Real connected her with OutServe-SLDN, a
network of LGBTQ military personnel. Soon
after, Gaga’s tour bus drove 11 hours out of
its way so she could speak at a rally in Maine,
where she encouraged her millions of Twitter
followers to join her. “Yes, we advised her
in that [rally],” says Cacciatore, “but it was
authentic. It was her. We just helped her
magnify her role in this space.”
In the past, he has declined to take on
projects with artists whose intentions seem less
than genuine. “I’m not going to put together
an advocacy plan just because a manager or an
outside person is telling them to do it,” he says.
More recently, Mighty Real worked with
Cyndi Lauper to connect her team with LGBTQ
centers in Tulsa, Okla., that sold concert tickets
for one of her shows in exchange for a cut of
profits — a savvy promotion technique that also
benefited underserved queer populations. “In
these areas, the LGBTQ community centers
are crucial,” says Cacciatore, “as they may be
one of only a handful of safe spaces for folks to
socialize and get any support.”
Labels also often look to these agencies as
sounding boards when artists are releasing
material that might contain sensitive or
offensive content about queer people, says
Vinny Moschetta, vp marketing at The Karpel
Group, another LGBTQ-focused marketing
company whose clients have included Nicki
Minaj, Sia and Björk. Usually, they take the
feedback to heart. “It’s not coming from a place
of malice,” he says. “It’s just not having that
deep connection to the community that we do.”
Historically, marketing to queer audiences
has often meant marketing to white gay
men in particular. But Moschetta stresses
the importance today of treating queer
consumers as a diverse community, not a
monolith. “If it was just left to ads you take
out during RuPaul’s Drag Race or on Grindr”
— the gay hookup app on which Madonna
and Ariana Grande have advertised music
and concerts — “you’re going to miss whole
parts of the community that we as a company
spend our time making inroads with,” he says.
Moschetta says that in the past five years
he has worked with an increasing number
of artists from genres like country, rock and
hip-hop. As a result, the company’s campaigns
have become more specific: It threw an
album-release party at a nightclub catering
to gay black men, for instance, and it has also
connected musician clients with organizations
that support transgender women of color,
who currently face disproportionate rates of
violence. “The avenues are there,” he says. “It
may just take a little extra work to reach [these
audiences] in a meaningful way.”
Helping artists and labels make money is,
of course, a big part of what these agencies do.
But those who work for them emphasize their
desire to uplift a segment of the population that
continues to be persecuted, particularly under
the current U.S. administration. “Even though
LGBTQ market visibility is increasing and our
economic spending power is rising, there is still
major discrimination, violence and injustice
happening,” says Cacciatore. “Those stories
need to be told. We need messengers who can
not only celebrate with us during Pride, but also
be there in the trenches with us the rest of the
year, day in and day out.”
“ WE’RE NOT
INTERESTED IN
PEOPLE DOING
A GENERIC ‘I
LOVE MY GAY
FANS’ TWEET.”