One of the biggest names on Madison Avenue is creating an entirely new division of advertising aimed at LGBT consumers.
Not just because it's en vogue, or for Pride, but because the company believes this consumer group is worth in excess of $3 trillion, according to Gay Star News.
Its name may be unfamiliar to most people, but Ogilvy & Mather is the marketing giant that represents so many of the brands you do know by name, like American Express, Coca Cola, IBM, British Airways, and S.C. Johnson.
Ogilvy & Mather Group scored a top ranking of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign's most recent Corporate Equality Index.
The company employs 22,950 staff in 538 offices in 126 countries. It specializes in advertising, public relations, and keeping its clients' brands well-known, well-liked, and most important: memorable.
Although O&M only launched its first LGBT employee network, Ogilvy Pride, last year, Gay Star News reports the company has developed Ogilvy Pride into a dedicated commercial specialty within the huge organization.
"Ogilvy Pride began as a grass roots community to champion diversity in the workplace and has quickly grown into a key specialism for the business," said a statement from Michael Frohlich, U.K. CEO for Ogilvy Public Relations. The initiative will be based within Ogilvy & Mather's U.K. group but will operate globally.
"Ogilvy Pride both responds to, and capitalizes on, the huge appetite from brands to understand and tap into LGBT audiences in order to further diversify and grow their consumer audiences," continued Frohlich, who is also Ogilvy Public Relations' chief operating officer for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
The initiative "will enable new and current clients to harness the consumer spending power of LGBT individuals in brand marketing and communication programs," said an additional statement from the company. "The inclusion of minority groups, such as the LGBT community, in mainstream marketing content allows our clients to reach consumer groups that have previously gone unrecognized and position their brand as progressive."
In its press release, Ogilvy & Mather said that Ogilvy Pride has already had an influence, helping the company to win the business of Turner Broadcasting's truTV in the U.K. TruTV is the broadcaster of RuPaul's Drag Race in the U.K.
"Shifts in social attitudes and the considerable spending power of LGBT people provides huge opportunity for brands to harness Ogilvy Pride's specialist expertise," said Andrew Barratt, head of Ogilvy Pride, in the press release. "By 2020 it is estimated that in London alone the traditional mainstream majority will be outnumbered by minority groups. For a global brand campaign to be truly strategic in its communications, consideration of minority consumer audiences such as LGBT is now key."
Ogilvy Pride is also the first international agency to partner with Stonewall, the U.K.-based LGBT advocacy organization. A spokesperson for Stonewall told Gay Star News, "It's great to see Ogilvy launch a specialism that specifically looks out for the needs of the LGBT community."
