www.theage.com.au

LGBT market  they will buy your products too

EARLIER this week I found myself at Grossi Florentino in Melbourne  the famous restaurant established in 1923 and still going strong under chef Guy Grossi.

My guest was a senior executive of the prestigious New York merchant banking firm Allen & Co, which is renowned for its strong associations with global media companies such as News Corp and Google.

The restaurant was remarkably full for a Tuesday night, with all tables filled by couples enjoying themselves, many of them holding hands.

Suddenly I realised the dilemma of my position with Damian, my good male friend. It was February 14, Valentine's Day, with rose petals everywhere and love in the air. But in this modern world, there's nothing unusual about two chaps dining together and we chatted away happily about our wives and Damian's four kids and my two.

And thankfully in modern Australia we wouldn't have had to be concerned even if we were gay. Who cares these days?

In addition to the obvious matters of simple human rights and equality, the gay community is an important part of our economy. Yet many advertisers have been loath to embrace this important market.

The facts are overwhelming. It is estimated that one in 10 Australians is attracted to the same sex, that's 2.2 million people, with an estimated disposable income of about $20 billion. And that's an internal economy in our country about the same size as the national economy of entire countries, such as Zambia, Madagascar and Cyprus.

Most advertisers have been a bit shy about building their relationships with this incredible market. But some really get it, such as Google, Virgin Australia and ANZ.

Another good example is Gold Coast Tourism. Director of communications and marketing services Ben Pole goes on a lot about how the organisation allocates a big part of its budget to gay and lesbian holidaymakers.

This is a market full of acronyms.

"Stop there," says Louise. "Acronyms don't impress me. They're just the work of lazy English speakers trying to impress."

"Like my daughter on the phone," says Charlie. "Wait till she hears she's a LESTTI  all hell will break loose."

But back in the world of the media the acronym we need to know is LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). It is a rich market with many professional high-income earners with no kids.

Then there are the SINKs (single income, no kids) and DINKs (double income, no kids). They spend big on the good things of life and are very high-tech savvy.

And now there is a large range of media available  printed, digital and events  that can help any advertiser to reach them. We've just finished the Melbourne Midsumma Festival and we're headed right into the Gay Mardi Gras in Sydney. These events are big business and so are some of the new specialist services of the digital era such as websites like Grindr and Blendr. People who know stuff know what they are.

Charlie, who studies niche markets, reckons the LGBT market is now more mainstream than niche and advertisers should do the right thing by their shareholders, staff and customers.

As Magda Szubanski said earlier this week: "We pay taxes, fight wars for this country, nurse you when you are sick, make you laugh, sing and dance for you, play netball for you, star in your movies."

Hear, hear! And to that list we should be able to add, "We buy your products as valued customers."