If you read my trends from last year, you’d know they were all about “brand safety.” In 2025 “brand safety” is no longer a trend, but a mandate. Brand safety means less untethered Social media, and certainly less Influencer marketing while for us it means more of a focus on why this market took off in the first place, which was long before DEI. Brands that need to reach men, consumers with higher discretionary income and the ever-elusive trendsetter consumer will find a market just waiting for them. Gone are the fair-weather advertisers and open is a market that is looking for new forward-thinking brands to embrace.
Funny, as our business has finally tipped over 50% to digital in a print-forward market, that I am predicting print campaigns to be bigger than ever. Why? Well for one, print is still king in LGBTQ-media and even most of the best digital extensions are off-shoots of the print product (think Out Magazine and Out.com). Print is warm, cozy, and lasts. A great example was when Mercedes pursued the LGBTQ market with print and digital. The digital impressions were way over the top, but later when they dropped print, the digital performance was average and we found this to be the case with all our campaigns. The decline in print was certainly not due to lack of demand, but to the costs involved. All the while agencies wanted to show their clients just how good negotiators they were, until they asked for too much and provided too little. Obviously the pandemic didn’t help matters. The advertising industry devalued, debased and constantly wanted print to do more and as a result, they almost lost a good lasting platform for their clients. However, print learned its lesson and while it has stayed the top medium in the LGBTQ market, mainstream print is making a nice comeback. Have you noticed quite a few holiday catalogs are back bigger than ever – Life, Ebony, Playboy, Nylon, Vice, Sports Illustrated and Field & Stream are planning or have already returned to print.
Advertising needs a base to make all the digital igniters work. Have you ever tried to search for something on Social Media that you forgot to like upon an initial viewing? Impossible! Social, Influencer and Event marketing all work best when the brand has a safe lasting place to stay, like TV, print or radio. In the LGBTQ market, we have no network TV and few options in radio which is also why print remains strong. Print advertising drives digital advertising, which has been the case with every campaign we have placed. There are other reasons I believe print is necessary in the LGBTQ market, but the most important is that it works.
