Thursday, November 17, 2005

Study: LGBT Crowd Pays More Attention to Ads

(Link) Apparently, gaydar also causes us to notice subtle cues in ads that help us determine whether a company is queer-friendly. Admit it: you never noticed Subaru until you saw that "XENALVR" licence plate in an ad.
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LNewsEditor said...

JIC Post:
By Jen Christensen, GAY.COM/PlanetOut.com Network


As companies plan their advertising budgets for the next year they may want to devote more of their spending to targeting potential gay and lesbian customers.

A new nationwide survey suggests ads really do have an impact on the gay community's spending habits.

According to the study by Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs Communications, gay men and lesbians may be more apt to buy something after seeing a product in an ad than their straight counterparts.

"What this shows is our market is pretty vibrant," said Bob Witeck of Witeck-Combs Communications, a strategic public relations and marketing communications firm with special expertise in the LGBT market.

"Gay people are a little more information-hungry than non-gay people, and the commercials and ads we do see speak to us on a deeper level."

About $145 billion a year is spent on advertising in the United States.

While the majority of those gay and lesbian people surveyed said they rarely see themselves or people like themselves in ads, that reality is slowly changing.

According to the Commercial Closet Association, a group that watches the advertising industry for gay content, more than a third of Fortune 100 companies have developed marketing and advertising campaigns that are gay-inclusive.

Witeck said there are other cues a gay person picks up on that will lead him or her to want to buy something.

"Gay people dig a little deeper. We want to know is this company talking about my needs, about my family? We pay more attention to the visual cues in these ads that may signal to us this is a company and product for me," he said.

Looking closer at the study's numbers, 21 percent of gay people say they would be motivated by a magazine to buy something -- only 16 percent of heterosexuals say the same.

Gay men and lesbians are less likely to fast-forward or mute TV commercials because they are interruptions -- 57 percent compared to 62 percent of their straight counterparts.

And more gay people report that print and television ads give them "information they can use" and do use to buy products.

11/17/2005 10:22 AM

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