
Ian Johnson, Out Now
July 14, 2008
TOPICS: Gay advertising. London Underground. South Carolina is So Gay. Lesbian and gay marketing. Community politics. South Carolina So Gay campaign.
The London Underground campaign for Amro Worldwide has been very successful at increasing awareness of the featured destinations, and consumer awareness of the Amro brand.The CEO of Amro, Andrew Roberts, told Gay Market News that Amro Worldwide is delighted with the campaign.
He said he shares Out Now's disappointment that politics was allowed to impact on a strong gay travel marketing campaign designed to increase revenues for those businesses working in the tourism sector in South Carolina.
In a press release on the topic, printed below, Roberts expands further.
I will end today's post by noting that there can't be much less than homophobia contained within some of the reported comments of State Sen. David Thomas, a Greenville County Republican, where he spoke of us "describing the company that placed the ads as "blatantly" homosexual."
The Senator is right, our company, Out Now is a very gay business, but use of the term "blatantly", as well as some of the other phrasing employed by Senator Thomas -- such as 'simply improper' and 'social position' -- all sounds just a little bit too loaded to me to be judged unbiased.
UK Gay Advertising Campaign Upsets South Carolina Tourism
Decision described as 'disappointing' and 'anti-gay'
London (OUT NOW) -- July 14, 2008 -- The body responsible for South Carolina tourism has come down against a lesbian and gay advertising campaign currently running in the UK directed towards lesbian and gay travelers.
The Amro Worldwide "So Gay" campaign has been widely praised by the gay and lesbian community for helping to remove the sting of "So Gay" as an intended insult, by turning it into the strong positive that gays and lesbians feel the phrase should be, and applying it to increase tourism to various US destinations.
The "So Gay" campaign was designed by the leading gay marketing specialist, Out Now, and features five leading US travel destinations.
Today the South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department (SCPRT) said that despite previously approving it, they were now pulling out of the campaign, and were not going to pay for it. They also said they had asked the advertising be removed. The advertising is still in place at Leicester Square Tube station.
The story has got South Carolinians talking about whether they really are gay welcoming or not, and was described by local news station WCBD as "the water cooler story of the day". It was also the front page item on South Carolina's major newspaper, The State.
Andrew Roberts, CEO of Amro Worldwide said that the decision by SCPRT was one that was disappointing, and went on to say the "So Gay" campaign was an important one for several reasons.
"Amro Worldwide helps to arrange the travel arrangements for some of the 3 million gays and lesbians living in the UK," Roberts said. "Our work helps local business in each of the regions we send travelers to. We were heartened to see many strongly supportive remarks included amongst reader comments made in the reporting of this story in the US media. Targeting gay travel is not at all a moral issue in any sense. It is all about treating this particular group of citizens with equality and respect -- something we consider very important in our dealings with all of Amro Worldwide's customers."
Ian Johnson, CEO of Out Now, the gay marketing agency that designed the campaign said that the amount of money paid was miniscule compared to the value the campaign brings to the local South Carolina tourism industry.
"Before today I would have said that many of the 3 million gays and lesbians in the UK making travel plans would now have been adding South Carolina to their list of travel possibilities as a result of this campaign," according to Johnson. "That number will drop dramatically from here because the SCPRT seems to want to side with anti-gay people against a campaign designed to sell tolerance and respect, as well as sell gay travel. From the perspective of the many hundreds of South Carolinian businesses that rely in part on gay tourism for their survival, this is not a moral issue in any way. It is a business issue. Pure and simple."
Johnson added: "Latest research suggests that around 5% of the South Carolina taxpayers can be expected to be lesbian and gay. I can't help wondering what they would make of this campaign. It seems almost bizarre to suggest that spending a handful of dollars -- less than $5,000 in total out of a taxpayer budget of $10.5 million -- to attract UK gay travelers to consider visiting South Carolina is somehow too much . By rights, the amount allocated to gay tourism spend in the annual budget should be over $500,000 were all these South Carolinian gay taxpayer dollars to be allocated proportionately in the budget to attracting gay 'fellow travelers' to visit."
Ian Johnson is presenting the Out Now Gay Marketing Masterclass at the leading travel marketing event, WTM World Travel Market in London in November 2008.
"I did find one remark reported to be made by Sen. David Thomas (R-Greenville) in the press to be of great concern," said Johnson. "He says that the Amro 'So Gay' campaign goes against South Carolina 'core values'. Given that the campaign is all about attracting business to the State, through furthering principles of equality and respect, his comments leave me wondering just what types of 'core values' Senator Thomas thinks South Carolina stands for."
Amro Worldwide is one of the world's market leaders in selling travel for lesbian and gay people, and was established in 2001 at a time when the general market for travel was at an historical low.
"We really do hope people will still feel able to travel to South Carolina," said Roberts. "I think the destination has so much to offer any traveler, and that was all we wanted to do -- to let gays and lesbians in the UK know that there is much to see and enjoy in the State. It will be a shame if the actions of SCPRT today causes people to stay away causing their local tourism industry to suffer as a result."
The Amro Worldwide ’So Gay’ poster campaign runs on escalators in Leicester Square, and in elevators at Covent Garden London Underground stations, from June 27 until July 12, 2008.
Out Now Consulting is a leading global gay marketing specialist agency, founded in 1992. Clients include Barclays, IBM, Toyota, Citibank, German National Tourist Office, Visit Britain, Lufthansa and Time Inc. Magazines. Out Now recently won the "Outstanding Interactive" category in New York at the ’Images in Advertising’ awards for an online campaign for their client Lufthansa.
Amro Worldwide has carved a leading edge niche in the specialist expertise of ’gay travel’ during the past seven years. Amro is ATOL bonded, and offers clients the flexibility to ’order’ up their next holiday online with Amro Collection -- or take advantage of the extensive knowledge of Amro’s personal travel consultants via the Amro A La Carte service. Amro management has personally stayed with every property they sell, giving rise to their corporate motto: Gay Travel - Tried, and Trusted.
-------------------
To ride the lesbian and gay marketing wave right on the leading edge -- rely on gay marketing expert strategic advice from Out Now -- the experienced global strategic gay marketing, research and communications agency.
To contact Out Now, send us an email. Helping brands marketing & advertising to gays and lesbians. Out Now Consulting and Gay Market News will keep you updated on all the latest gay marketing, GLBT community market research, LGBT travel and gay tourism, gay and lesbian communications, gay PR and gay advertising developments. Gay market insight is Out Now: Gay Marketing. Solved. OutNowConsulting.com GayMarketing101.com. All content on all Out Now websites (C) 2008 - Out Now. If you find any material you believe is subject to other copyrights here, other than allowed fair use for copyright purposes, please contact Out Now with details. Out Now Gay Market News -- Gay Marketing 101 gay market updates site. LGBT communications. Gay PR. Global gay PR marketing, gay public relations strategy, GLBT PR, LGBT issues training, gay advertising, LGBT market, lesbian and gay market research leaders, GLBT marketing. Gay Market News is Gay Marketing 101 - Out Now Gay Marketing, Advertising, Gay PR, Market Research. Travel Market. Training.
gay market gay advertising gay marketing gay tourism gay travel pink dollar pink pound gay agency advertising marketing travel tourism gay lesbian gay and lesbian market research glbt lgbt communications community pink euro







