LGBT Market - Stockholm Visitors Board
Stockholm's Stylish Lesbian Moves
LGBT marketing is advanced by leadership.
It is one of the hallmarks of Out Now that we create some of our
best work when our client is one which is pleased to work on that
marketing leading-edge with us.
The most successful lesbian-specific social media marketing
campaign is a good case-in-point - it was for Out Now client
Stockholm Visitors Board and Visit Sweden - two organisations that
have been responsible for seeing Stockholm place highly in the
annual LGBT2020 research data.
LGBT marketing success does not just happen.
It takes imagination, commitment and implementation - and the 2011
'Stockholm's Leading Ladies' campaign targeting the UK lesbian
market is a textbook example of the results able to be derived from
the liberal application of all three of these marketing
ingredients.
Lesbian marketing does not have to be done with a
little L
There has been a lot of recognition over the last few years that
the LGBT market is not just one single market.
'Homosexual, not homogenous' - is a term that Out Now Consulting
coined a few years ago, and it is a position that is now fairly
well established within LGBT marketing circles. One quarter of the
acronym LGBT probably has more reason to celebrate this shift in
thinking than any other, and that is the lesbian market.
For a long time companies, destinations and brands that wanted to
reach the LGBT market did so with advertising that only portrayed
gay men in their attempts to woo both the gay and lesbian market.
However this approach quickly became passé, and
non-representational ads of young chiselled men with very few
clothes on increasingly run this risk of looking clichéd - and
showing no real insight into the lives of real LGBT people.
The plus side of this for advertisers looking to engage with an
L,G,B or T audience, is that by embracing diversity in their
campaigns they can also showcase a much broader range of aspects of
their products, which will appeal to all segments of this diverse
community.
Stockholm's Leading Ladies
One such campaign that Out Now was delighted to work on over the
last two years was Stockholm's Leading Ladies campaign. Stockholm
is of course one of the most committed and consistent cities in the
world when it comes to a forward-thinking LGBT marketing strategy.
Over a number of recent years Stockholm has built a solid
reputation as a progressive and tolerant city, where the LGBT
community is celebrated and supported, and seen as a real asset to
the city's international image as a truly diverse and modern
metropolis for the new millennium.
As well as hosting frequent visits by journalists from the world's
leading LGBT media, Stockholm has also utilised a well-planned
international marketing strategy, and a solid and innovative social
media platform to communicate the many desirable qualities that the
city has to offer for everyone, including of course, LGBT visitors.
The success of this activity is evident in the number of people who
are expressing an interest in visiting Stockholm, which
consistently ranks highly in LGBT2020 research amongst other
prestigious European cities vying for the attention of this
attractive segment.
So what does a destination that has done so much in terms of their
engagement with the LGBT market do next? Well - in the case of
Stockholm, a destination that has always looked to do what is next
and set the trends, not follow them, a dedicated lesbian campaign
seemed not only logical - but inevitable. As anyone who has visited
this beautiful city will tell you it has a feminine power that is
hard to miss. Simultaneously at one with nature, yet also modern
and energetic, safe and progressive, yet still retaining an air of
the wild and a sense of unpredictability, Stockholm nurtures its
lesbian community - which is why it made perfect sense to include
them in a campaign about what makes Stockholm such a fantastic
'Lesbian with a capital L' destination.
"Ladies" starts with the letter 'L'
The Leading Ladies campaign took it's theme from Sweden's eminent
actresses including the likes of Ingrid Bergman and Greta Garbo,
whose style and timeless grace exemplify Stockholm's own
personality so well. By using social media, a platform that
Stockholm Visitor's Board has used so successfully in the past, the
campaign was able to be bought bang up to date, and so highlighted
the modernity of the city as a destination.
Stockholm continued to innovate with the delivery mechanism of the
campaign, which sought to engage with the target lesbian audience
in a fun and engaging manner - and which also successfully
communicated an authentic invitation for lesbians to visit the
city. Stockholm was able to find eight lesbian residents of the
city who each described online what they loved most about the city
that they called home. These 'perfect Stockholm weekends' were able
to be voted on by the target audience, who then had the chance to
win their own city break for two people to Stockholm.
By partnering with leading lesbian magazines, blogs, and online
and social media communities, the campaign managed to effectively
reach and engage with lesbian communities across the United
Kingdom.
The uptake and engagement with this campaign was beyond all
expectations - generating excellent results but also a great deal
of kudos from the lesbian community that Stockholm saw them as a
valuable market within its own right.
During and just after the campaign the resulting traffic to
Stockholm's official blog increased by 86,7 %, traffic to
Stockholm's Lesbian Guide has increased by 167%, and the
competition gained 126 entries from the UK alone.
Just on these metrics alone the campaign was judged to be a huge
success - but we think that Stockholm's accomplishment here goes
much, much further.
At Out Now we believe that marketing is so much more than just
pictures and words on a page. It is about establishing and defining
the leading edge, and understanding how best to communicate with
credibility, empathy and sensitivity - three qualities that we
believe Stockholm got absolutely right with this forward-thinking
campaign.
Hats off to stylish Stockholm for a brilliant case of
marketing leadership.
The 'Stockholm Leading Ladies campaign ran for two months in
2011 and was the most successful lesbian-specific marketing
campaign in the world to date. The campaign was conceived and
implemented by Out Now for our clients Stockholm Visitors Board and
Visit Sweden. Members of Out Now
Business Class can view details of this campaign on both video
and as a case study in the Education section of ONBC - visit
BetterLGBT.com for membership information. Check out Stockholm's LGBT Facebook page.