Communication, marketing, entertainment, culture : nowadays the division between these areas is no longer so clear, indeed it would be easier to say that we live in an online / offline continuum that permeates our lives and continuously provides us with food for thought.
We therefore believe that, in our small way, proposing and implementing strategies (for us and for our customers) that are respectful of all differences is a value, not only in terms of marketing, but also for people, all people .
For this reason, today, 28 June 2021, World LGBTQIA + Pride Day , we have decided to give continuity to the activities undertaken in recent years by publishing a ” Rainbow Paper ” and promoting it through all the channels we usually use, including a set of stickers on Giphy , ready to be used in the most inclusive Stories.
Publications and initiatives that do not want to stop at the end of Pride Month , but on the contrary be an opportunity to continue the debate with brands, companies, customers, prospects and even competitors, on how to ensure that marketing and communication become inclusive and respectful of all individualities .
At the origins of Pride Month
But let’s take a step back and start from the ABC, going straight to the Pride Month matrix because a look at the past is always “good and right” and because this is where this series of initiatives take its cue from.
June is the month to celebrate the pride of the LGBTQIA + community , which includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual people. And not only. The “+” in fact indicates all those people who do not recognize themselves in any of these labels. But why is Pride Month celebrated in June?
Pride Month falls in June for what happened on the night between 27 and 28 June 1969 : a seemingly ordinary night, during which the police raid the Stonewall Inn , a gay bar in Greenwich Village in New York . A raid like so many others suffered in those years by those who frequented that place. That night, however, something different happened , because all the people present, accused of indecency only for their sexual orientation, are no longer there and rebel .
In the following days, the whole community takes to the streets to show themselves to everyone and send a precise message: the time to hide is over , you have to fight for your rights. We are at the beginning of the Stonewall riots and the dawn of the LGBTQIA + movement as we know it today.
Inclusiveness is a path that starts from afar
June is therefore an important month for all those who, like us, deem it important to communicate strongly and publicly their position against all forms of discrimination based on sex, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity . And it has always been.
This last clarification is important to make, since we live in a world where you easily run the risk of being labeled, and often with good reason, of rainbow washing purely for the sake of consensus. Well, that’s not our case.
At Social Factor we have always supported the need to question conservative and traditional values , so that they can be abandoned and replaced by others capable of laying the foundations for a renewed society, in step with the times and “in fact” truly inclusive.
All this pushes us to support the LGBTQIA + movement with conviction for years, trying to reaffirm – in our small way – the legitimacy and urgency of each of its requests as well as legislation that offers the right protection to all those people who are still discriminated against today, as unfortunately demonstrated. national and international daily news.
What drives us every day is the firm belief that everyone in Social Factor can act, exploiting their skills, to offer a contribution to the LGBTQIA + cause as long as this commitment is sincere, not impromptu and aimed at devising content, partnerships, sponsorships and special projects that do not lend themselves to a sensationalist and “like catcher” drift .
In our agency, the protection of all forms of diversity and the defense of the value of inclusiveness are the result of a widespread feeling of closeness and not of a passing trend.
In 2015 we came out with our first public stance with the ” Share your Pride ” campaign and over the years we have contributed to giving visibility to what social media was putting in place, to real time marketing connected to the approval of weddings. between people of the same sex in the USA and civil unions in Italy, through membership of the ” Italian League of Communicators and Communicators gathered for the Intergalactic dissemination of the Happy End ” and concrete support for Bologna Pride , through the crowdfunding of Idea Ginger.
Since 2018 we have been carrying out the ” inspired by love ” campaign , which this year we want to further substantiate, through a series of initiatives that will not stop on 1 July, but which we want to continue throughout the year.
Why we have created a “Rainbow Paper”
Words, therefore, as well as public stances, we believe that alone cannot be enough. If you believe in something, you have to prove it consistently and above all with concrete actions .
And it is from here that the idea of creating and sharing, on the occasion of the world day dedicated to LGBTQIA + pride, a Rainbow Paper capable of serving as a useful guide to identify which is the most appropriate methodological approach to take into consideration to set a communication strategy or, more generally, a project that can be defined as inclusive from A to Z.
Our hope is that with this rainbow paper it will now be easier to outline the path that brands and agencies can follow together to carry out communication projects in support of the LGBTQIA + community and therefore authentically inclusive.
Is it something new? Maybe not, but the concept of inclusive marketing itself is certainly not revolutionary. However, we believe that this rainbow paper is today, June 28, 2021, more than ever necessary to define on what basis to set our way of working and at the same time that of customers (and prospects) .
The Social Factor rainbow paper was therefore created to share 11 ideas, one for each of the 11 colors of the most inclusive rainbow flag, to rethink the methodological approach to marketing and digital communication of brands and companies in the name of respect for diversity and inclusiveness.
The tips that we have grouped in this rainbow paper, inspired by the colors of love, touch on different topics ( strategy, targeting, language, brand identity, art direction, community management and much more ) and we think they can also be used to positively distinguish themselves from competitors , acquire value within the market and increase the confidence of the relevant public .
Furthermore, at the end of the rainbow paper we have added a bibliography to deepen many of the themes and methodological ideas listed through the words of authors who are certainly more authoritative than us.