You hear the term "swag," and your mind goes to trade shows filled with free pens, stress balls modeled to look like a bastardized version of a product, and crap Wayfairer knockoffs of sunglass with the company's logo washed over the lenses.
All in Strategy
One of the countless things that internal marketing departments frequently overlook is their own staff's social graph. More often than not, every company has staffers with active social media footprints. Brands need to understand that no matter how robust their corporate social graph is, it will only get them so far.
I find it incredibly interesting that in an industry like advertising where we mold "reality versus perception," that the majority of the industry, as a whole, still seems adverse to marketing to the LGBT community. I get that it's incredibly difficult to teach old dogs new tricks. However, we as marketing professionals should be pushing the envelope of "risk versus reward" with our clients. And the simple truth is this: Brands and businesses that take the LGBT community seriously now will reap the rewards over their risk-averse competitors that are.