BUSINESS
Apple in LGBTQ Homes But Not in Queer Media
Tech giant, with gay CEO, ignores chance to say, “We want your business”
BY SCOTT STIFFLER
We buy Apple’s
phones, wear their
watches, and use
their products to
drive our businesses — but fi nding
their iconic ads in the pages of
your local LGBTQ newspaper or
website is like looking for an apple
in an orange grove.
“Some big companies with a
good reputation in the community,
like Apple, fail when it comes to
speaking to us directly, effectively,”
said Leo Cusimano, publisher and
owner of the Dallas Voice newspaper,
and OUT North Texas, a
glossy magazine. “More and more,
LGBT individuals are frustrated by
brands that treat them as an afterthought.”
National advertising via mainstream
media certainly gets the
word out — but depictions of LGBTQ
consumers remain rare to the
point of novelty, leaving many wondering
why companies who lavish
their attention on the general public
don’t appeal directly to a niche
market eager for a signal that they,
too, are valued.
“When I see an ad in a local
LGBT publication or website,”
Cusimano said, “I think, ‘Look,
they are targeting me.’ This local
perspective is very important, particularly
from a grassroots effort.
We see brand switching from one
product or service when advertisers
utilize this approach. We’re a
loyal demographic who likes to do
business with companies that advertise
in our backyard.”
Cusimano said the onus is on
LGBTQ media to “make an advertiser
aware of the advantages
of niche marketing. Our job is to
elevate their brand in the community.
And when you do that, it really
VALERY MARCHIVE/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Tim Cook, Apple’s out gay CEO, has shown no
interest in reaching LGBTQ consumers through
the community’s media.
helps trigger that sale.”
Cusimano cited Wells Fargo and
Facebook as companies that have
advertised with his publications.
You’ll fi nd Bridgestone tires on his
car, he noted, because a few years
ago, “They did a 12-month campaign
with Dallas Voice. It really
changed people’s minds, to know
there is a company that advertises
with us,” instead of ghosting the
community once Pride Month has
come and gone.
“They’re missing a good opportunity,”
Pride Source Media CFO
Jan Stevenson said of Apple.
For 26 years, Stevenson and her
wife, Susan Horowitz, have published
Michigan’s weekly newspaper,
Between the Lines, which,
along with their Pride Source Yellow
Pages, serves the LGBTQ community.
“Every single computer in our
business” is an Apple product,
said Stevenson, who noted the
company’s “excellent reputation as
an LGBT-friendly player” could be
leveraged “so easily, with just some
simple ads that say, ‘We want your
business.’”
A positive perception pays dividends,
as noted in Community
Marketing & Insights’ 13th Annual
LGBTQ Community Survey,
released earlier this year. Some 27
percent of respondents said they
were “signifi cantly more likely to
purchase” when companies advertise
in the LGBTQ digital and print
media, and 41 percent said advertising
in the LGBTQ media had a
greater impact on them than when
companies advertise in the mainstream
media.
And a 2016-2017 National LGBT
Media Association study on consumer
shifts found two in three
LGBTQ individuals saying, “I am
frustrated by brands that treat
people like me as an afterthought.”
(Fifty-one percent of respondents
purchased a new smartphone in
the last 12 months.)
Still, Stevenson’s company has
had no success in its sales outreach
to the tech behemoth. Nor
has Todd Evans, who, as president
and CEO of Rivendell Media, represents
95 percent of all LGBTQ media
in the US. Rivendell has made
numerous overtures to Apple, with
no results.
“The demographics seem perfect
for Apple,” said Evans. “LGBTs are
early adopters of new technology,
and have very high entrepreneurial
tendencies, which would be a
natural target for a tech company.
They’re a very progressive company,
or thought to be. Even the CEO
is LGBT. Yet to our knowledge, Apple
has never done any direct-toconsumer
LGBTQ outreach with
any of their ad campaigns.”
If they have, that call has yet to
reach Rivendell, which credits Apple
products for “part of our success
in business, back to when our
founder was beta-testing for Apple,”
said Evans. “We’ve reached out to
their agencies currently OMD,
and they’ve been very open to proposals.
But it never seems to go
anywhere. And Apple, it’s impossible
to get through to the client.
Once the client is interested, the
agency does whatever they want.”
Of late, said Evans, Rivendell
has placed an emphasis on educating
potential buyers that LGBTQ
media is “completely different
than other minority media, like
African-American or Hispanic. For
example, in our community, there
is no network TV like Telemundo,
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October 24 - November 6,18 2019 | GayCityNews.com
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