Sydney Gay Mardi Gras Marketing

TOPICS: Lesbian and gay sponsorship. New Australian gay marketing developments, Australia lesbian and gay market. Lesbian and gay market sponsorships in the Australian market. Gay consumer marketing. Australia. Pride. Mardi Gras. Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras hits trouble from corporate sponsorships that lock out gay community members and business.

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The Sydney Morning Herald has an interesting article that highlights a quandry many lesbian and gay community groups have faced in recent years. How best to marry the interests of their community member constituents while still attempting the task of engaging with the corporate sector to harness increased corporate sponsorship funding.

We have covered this issue before, in the context of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and here as well.

The conflict between interest in corporate sponsorship and the imperative need for gay community groups to always meet the needs of the lesbian and gay community -- to whom they owe their very existence in the first place, is certainly not a new problem for gay community groups pursuing their fundraising wishes.

In fact, I have been quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald commenting on just this issue.

Yet again, we see this issue has raised its head in a quite public and damaging way for Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Here is an extract of that Sydney Morning Herald article -- Mardis Gras deal locks out online rivals:

January 30, 2007 - 6:55PM (AAP)

The inclusive spirit of the gay and lesbian Mardi Gras has been betrayed by organisers who are excluding groups because of a commercial deal, according to one disgruntled businesswoman.

A sponsorship deal involving international dating website Gaydar has locked rival online groups out of the Mardi Gras parade on March 3 and the festival's Fair Day on February 18.

Liz James from lesbian dating website The Pink Sofa says her members have been refused permission to take part in the parade and have been rejected from the Fair Day, despite having a stall there for the last six years.

Ms James said organisers were jeopardising the spirit of Mardi Gras as well as its financial future by opting for the immediate cash injection from Gaydar, over the community ethos the festival was meant to represent.

Organisers confirmed the commercial agreement with Gaydar prevented The Pink Sofa being involved in Fair Day and the parade.

"I believe Mardi Gras is a celebration of everybody, but this business practice is anti-community. Mardi Gras is a community event, it's all about inclusion, but this excludes people from the community. It doesn't belong to anyone in particular, it belongs to all gays and lesbians. If they continue with this practice they have lost touch with the community and what the event is all about. A number of businesses might consider boycotting the event in future if they continue this practice."

Mardi Gras chairman Marcus Bourget rejected Ms James' complaints and said the festival did not exclude any individuals. Mr Bourget said, with an annual turnover of $3 million, Mardi Gras was a business which needed sponsors to survive like any other commercial event.

"She runs a for-profit company in direct competition to our leading sponsor," Mr Bourget said. "If not for our sponsors there would be no Mardi Gras. We have to provide a fair deal for our sponsors.

Organisers backed down from another exclusive deal yesterday after the state tourism boards from Queensland and Tasmania were also refused admission at Fair Day because of an agreement between Mardi Gras and Tourism NSW. Vincent Cooper of the International Gay and Lesbian Tourism Association, said commercial exclusion was not appropriate for Mardi Gras: "They need to be a little more sensitive when signing up these sponsorship agreements. I can understand if Ford sponsored it and Toyota wanted to be involved, but when they exclude gay and lesbian businesses like Pink Sofa, it's just not on."
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