Authentic Marketing: Pride Month

With the start of June, Pride Month is officially in full swing, a time to celebrate the extraordinary power of love, acceptance, and resilience. While you’re throwing on some sparkles, it’s important to note that Pride extends beyond the rainbow-hued celebrations and glittery parties. It serves as a poignant reminder of the past struggles endured by the LGBTQIA+ community and the ongoing battles they face today. It’s a time to be especially supportive, but also reflect on how you show allyship year round. Because of its history and meaning, any Pride Month marketing should be done with care, sensitivity, and intentionality that shows not just support, but more importantly, action.

While other companies tend to use Pride Month as an opportunity to slap rainbows on everything or jump on the train of what’s “trending” on social media, this isn’t the point of the celebration at all and if you do this, you might be dismissed as a fraud. For successful Pride Month marketing, you must let the world know that you are committed to supporting the cause at all times—regardless of what month it is. We’ll discuss how you can amplify queer voices, show allyship, and be a more inclusive company all year round.

Don’t Bank On The Rainbow

If you’re on any kind of social media, you know that too many brands take the easy route and simply add a rainbow to their products, or update their logo for a month, to show that they care about Pride. But this just isn’t enough anymore, and the fact that everyone is doing it doesn’t make your contribution to the cause significant. While your intention might be to show you’re an ally, this gesture is mostly performative rather than actionable — just another whisper lost in the crowd of noise. Get together with your team and try and think of unique ways to meaningfully highlight queer voices and delve deep into the history of Pride Month so that you can do it justice. 

Amplify Queer Voices

Pride Month is about acceptance and amplifying voices that had been quieted for too long. As a brand, you might have an audience to which most individuals—especially marginalized ones—are denied access. To try and right this wrong, use your platform to amplify queer voices in any way you can. Invite queer staff members to share their stories and ensure they’re heavily involved in the marketing plan. If this isn’t something they are interested in, you can always look for ways to crowdsource stories and experiences that would otherwise never reach people. Use your social media handles to highlight individuals that are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community and have been personally affected by attempts to limit civil and constitutional rights. Practice this year round — not just in June.

Use Your Marketing Strategy To Queer Benefit 

While there’s no denying that marketing strategies exist to bring monetary returns to the company, Pride Month isn’t the time to build your personal finances by getting extra attention. To really help the cause, and show the world that you care, donate a portion of your returns from June to LGBTQIA+ organizations and actively get involved in non-profits that are making a difference. At the onset of the campaign, let your audience know that you aren’t doing this for yourself. By the end, be as transparent as possible about where you’re donating funds to, what work you hope to achieve with these funds, and how much you’re pledging for the future. While you might be a small business that can’t afford to set aside any funds for the cause, you can always sincerely express that message to your audience and find other ways to help. For example, if you’re a branding agency, you can pick five queer people who get free services during June. Or if that’s not possible either, make sure you and your colleagues head out on a work day to do some community service with an LGBTQIA+ non-profit. There are always ways to get involved that cost $0.00.

Use This Time To Be A More Inclusive Company (Externally And Internally) 

Finally, before posting about Pride Month, ensure your company is already as inclusive and diverse as possible. Check your company policies to see if special accommodations are made for LGBTQIA+ people. If there are, make sure you share that with the world to let your audience know that you care and to inspire other companies to do the same. If your company policies don’t reflect active inclusion, try and make it a reality by collectivizing employees and getting them to demand a better structure. This can also be a good chance to look at the experiences of queer people in your company. Ask them genuine questions about whether or not they feel safe, if they would like company vernacular or tone to change, and if they want their employer to do more for them. There’s no problem with sharing these internal beliefs and questions externally, just make sure you’re doing an equal amount in private as in public. Otherwise, you aren’t making a difference and helping the lives of those you immediately can. 

As a brand, remember that Pride Month is not a performance; any attempt to treat it like that will be visible to your audience and those closest to you. Learn as much as you can about queer history to be as empathetic and sensitive to the cause as possible, and always be willing to listen and support the cause throughout the whole year — not just in June.

Always in your corner,

The Content Queens