Pink Banana Media & LGBTBrandVoice.com

We've been fortunate this year to renew our client, Spain Tourism, for their LGBT marketing outreach in 2016.  As the LGBT destination marketing environment is a busy one in today's world, it's important to stand out and be noticed, and Spain Tourism is one of those few destinations able and willing to push the boundaries in terms of their online marketing strategy and technique.  Their strategy consists of: Facebook Newsfeed & Website Banner Advertising using Programmatic Technology Social Media, including LGBT Travel Writers, Bloggers, YouTube Content Creators & Influencers User-Generated and Curated Content related to LGBT Travel to Spain When it comes to banner advertising, we now have the ability to both target LGBT travelers across a variety of websites and mobile apps online, as well as target specific sub-groups of LGBT travelers, including as those interested in taking a cruise, or those focused more on luxury travel.  We currently have a varie...

We here at PinkBananaMedia.com believe the future of marketing in 2011 is the merging of the "real world" with the newly developed " online social world " we've all been personally building over the past few years.  Many analogies have been made to social media marketing being " word of mouth " marketing, but it's so much more than that.  It's not just what we say that helps spread the word and make a video, a photo or a really good article stand out amongst our friends... it's also in what we do, how we " tag, comment, like or share " that allows the best of the best in these categories to rise to the top and get the most visibility. Utilizing the power of Photo Tagging , one solution we developed with our friends at Travelocity was the idea of shooting compelling photos at a sponsored event and encouraging folks to quickly and easily find their photos on Travelocity's Facebook fan page and tag themselves (see Tips & T...

What an incredible whirlwind of a week!  For me, it all started a bit early as I flew into Philadelphia on Saturday, May 2nd to attend the Equality Forum Dinner that Saturday night.  As Malcolm Lazin of Equality Forum has always been such a great friend personally and such a great supporter of IGLTA over the years, I really wanted to attend this event prior to arriving in Toronto for the IGLTA Convention, and I'm so glad I did.  The evening's reception was such a pleasure and I had the opportunity to hang out with Bruce Yelk and Jeff Guaracino of the GPTMC, as well as run into old friends also flying in for this event such as Janice Mahlmann of the NGLCC-NY, John Kenyon of Proud FM in Toronto, and Rodney Hameroff of Columbia Fun Maps. That evening, Gavin Newsom, our potential future governor of California, got up and gave an eloquent speech to cap off a truly remarkable evening. The next day, after waking up with a Philly cheesesteak sandwich still in my stomach (I ordered a ...

The first step in the social network marketing process is to develop your primary “Touch Points” , including a Facebook Business/Fan page and Twitter account (see this link for more information:  http://gaybizreport.blogspot.com/2009/04/social-network-marketing-updates-for.html ) . Touch Points need Connections/Friends in order to make them work for your business.  To get started, follow GLTBT travel individuals and businesses on Twitter (use the SEARCH function on Twitter to identify new connections to follow).  Also, invite GLBT travel contacts in Facebook to join your Facebook Business/Fan page.  You may also want to consider advertising with Facebook on a CPC basis (cost per click) in order to drive more traffic and get more people to connect with you on your Facebook page.  Your ad can target "gay" and then keywords such as "travel" and "vacation".  This ad can be set to target travelers in specific regions (thus focusing on your destination’s “fee...

Community Marketing and their team ( Tom Roth and David Paisley ) held yet another successful all-day series of workshops, panels and seminars, helping to educate companies as to the "how's and why's" of marketing to the GLBT community, in this case specifically for the travel market. The turnout, despite the recession, was very good and incredibly, almost everyone stayed until the very end where myself, Thomas Boemke s and Serge Gojkovich spoke on GLBT online marketing in terms of more advanced social network marketing. The presentations during the day came from an incredible roster of speakers, including Martine Ainsworth Wells of Visit London , and Andrew Stokes of Marketing Manchester .  In addition, we got to hear from Andrew Roberts of Amro Worldwide Travel on the success and increased PR achieved through the "So Gay" campaign they did in 2008, together with Ian Johnson of Out Now Consultin g. Attendees included tourism folks from Sweden, Londo...

Over the years, quite a few gay travel websites have come along, with some emerging as real leaders in this strong GLBT niche market.  Very few, however, have managed to keep up by utilizing some of the latest technology online today including travel social networking, online video and blogs.   NewGayTravelGuide.com , however, is one of those exceptions.  Starting out as a single blog covering the GLBT travel market, the folks at NewGayTravelGuide.com ( Michael Snel l and Derrick Sorles of Chicago, IL) have developed an entire network of GLBT travel blogs covering such popular destinations as Puerto Vallarta, Palm Springs, and of course, their home town of Chicago itself. Providing daily GLBT travel articles on their sites was one of the more important aspects of how they've gotten started.  Their articles are of the breadth and quality that has earned this team the opportunity to be included on a variety of destination's GLBT media familiarization trips, including one recent ...

It seems like this past week has been a whirlwind. We all arrived in Vancouver on Sunday night, October 5th, for the opening night cocktail reception at the Sheraton and as usual, this night proved to be a prelude to what turned into a fantastic week of workshops, panels, seminars and good old fashioned networking with some of the leaders in the GLBT travel industry. Highlights include the party at Celebrity's on Tuesday night, hosted by Mya Lake Reyes of the Las Vegas CVA. But that was the closing night party... in between Sunday and Tuesday night, we were entertained by Travelocity at an incredible party at Oasis, as well as some over the top dinners with our friends at both PlanetOut.com (thanks to Gus Preston and Scott Furman) at Delilah's and Logo.com thanks to Matthew Habib. At the workshops, some of the new information we learned included the Bear market thanks to Stevo of A Bear's Life Magazine (but Stevo, some of those video clips were just a tad over the top!) a...

There are several marketing campaigns in the GLBT community that most everyone is familiar with - the Absolut campaign with their back cover ads on various GLBT print publications, the American Airlines campaigns ranging from event sponsorship to print and online advertising to extensive in-person networking with the infamous Rainbow Team, and the then there is the VisitBritain and Visit London advertising campaigns, consistently running for the past several years in a way that continually reminds us of the UK as a top GLBT travel destination. It seems that everywhere we would turn we would run into some marketing effort of this campaign, ranging from a billboard on Santa Monica Boulevard to a large booth at Chicago’s North Halstead Market Days (with hot, kilt-wearing men recruiting passers-by to come on over), with all points online and in print covered in between. So how did they do it? As a destination ahead of the curve and setting the path for other destinations to follow, what...

In This Issue Technology Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Which is Better for Professional Networking, Job Hunting and Collaboration? This in-depth review investigates how the two social networking sites compare for business purposes Travel Industry Highlighting some of the current trends and the market research focused on the GLBT Travel Community, with updates from Community Marketing, Witeck-Combs and a special feature from Jeff Guaracino, author of Gay & Lesbian Tourism: The Essential Guide to Marketing. Offering a comprehensive look at the business of travel in the GLBT marketplace. Spotlight on Dallas Everything is bigger in Texas! Featuring a fully updated summary of GLBT life in Dallas, from a business perspective. Focusing on the ever-growing number of companies now scoring a perfect 100 on the HRC Corporate Equality Index, as well as the variety of resources available in this region supporting both the smaller GLBT business community and those corporations wishing to target the G...