Having lived in Sydney's gay and lesbian community for many years, I know that Sydney can really get its knickers into a twist over its much revered annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Now a fundamental change to the running of the event is threatening to split the event in two. Learn what happened.
Ian Johnson, Out Now
June 17, 2009
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is a much treasured Australian institution.
From humble beginnings as a street parade demanding gay rights back in 1978, the event has grown to become the largest nighttime gay and lesbian parade in the world.
Mardi Gras cops it for lots of reasons.
Some have criticized its increasing reliance on commercial sponsorship back in the 1990s.
It has survived near bankruptcy several times, yet comes back, year-after-year, to face off its critics.
Now though, a new Sydney gay and lesbian community row has erupted that some feel threatens the very nature of the event itself.
Split In Two
Mardi Gras has, since almost its very beginnings, had two key core components to its own existence: a street parade, followed by a party that was designed to get people safely off the streets.
This combined parade and party nexus saw the event evolve to become a multi-million dollar generator of revenues to NSW State and Federal Australian tourism coffers.
A few weeks back, Mardi Gras organizers announced - quite unexpectedly - that after consultation with their own members and volunteers it had been decided that they would separate the date of the annual Mardi Gras parade so that it ran one week earlier than the annual party - already announced and booked as being the first weekend of March in 2010.
This raised more than a few eyebrows - especially given that in almost all of its 31 years of existence, Mardi Gras had included a night street parade followed by an all-night gay and lesbian party. Many of the earlier ones of which became quite legendary. (Trust me - I was there. They were amazing.)
The story went quiet for a few days.Meanwhile in the background a gay cruise company in the US - Atlantis Events - were discovered to have been publicizing on their website that their first gay cruise to Sydney was "timed perfectly" to coincide with the annual Mardi Gras Parade and Party.
Sounds like a smart gay marketing match made in 'strategic thinking' heaven, right?
Only problem was the ship is in town for just a couple of days - and one full week before the Mardi Gras Party was supposed to happen.
Ouch!
As they say - the truth will out, and a former President of the pre-bankruptcy incarnation of Mardi Gras - decided he would spill the beans, 'quietly' posting a note onto a gay media website that the decision to separate the parade and party dates for 2010 Mardi Gras had little or nothing to do with 'consultation' with gay community members and volunteers, and far, far more to do with keeping the interests of Atlantis Events happy.
Atlantis Events is listed on the Mardi Gras website as being a "major" financial partner of Mardi Gras.
Their own website has been hastily changed and now reads:
We’ll update our plans for Mardi Gras more completely in mid-2009, but Atlantis will offer priority access to all the major events during our weekend stay.
How it all resolves will be fascinating to watch - but expect fireworks to fly at this year's Mardi Gras Annual General Meeting in August. When the worlds of commerce and Sydney gay community politics collide, it is rarely very pretty.
I so hope this is not a case of 'the tail wagging the dog'.
Being split in two must surely hurt. I suspect we are all about to find out just how much.
---------------
If you would like Out Now to help you take your marketing to the leading-edge of sales results, please do get in touch.
---------------
AdWeek recently referred to one of Out Now's gay advertising campaigns as "the year's most talked about tourism ads." 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.
-------------------
To learn how to get lesbian and gay marketing strategy right -- rely on gay marketing expert strategic advice from Out Now -- the leading experienced global strategic gay marketing, research and communications agency.
0 comments:
Post a Comment