Interested in the future of culture and commerce with respect to the ever-growing LGBTQ community, Hornet teamed up with Kantar Consulting to relay the results of an in-depth new study. Knowing that sexuality exists on a spectrum, more so today than possibly ever before, we’ve labeled the LGBTQ community, which includes the young queer people and identity-fluid individuals previously unseen and not catered to by marketers, as “the $1 trillion blind spot.”
Despite the fact that the buying power of LGBTQ people in 2016 totaled $1 trillion — which is on par with African-American and Hispanic consumers in America — ad revenue targeted at us remains only a fraction of the totals seen by other minority groups.
For years many have believed the population of “Q+” or queer people — those who lay somewhere on an increasingly fluid LGBTQ spectrum — is too small to provide a worthwhile return. But they’d be wrong.
More and more people per successive generation identify as LGBTQ+ (including a shockingly high 31% of Centennials, compared to only 8% of Boomers). Also, among the progressing generations, more and more queer people are choosing to identify as “fluid” rather than “non-fluid” (meaning gay or lesbian).
And when it comes to metrics that really matter to marketers — the metrics that make discerning customers able to provide a return on their investment — queer people are early adopters, aspirational and forward-thinking.
Another amazing result of this Hornet / Kantar study is the effective doubling of America’s LGBTQ population. Where lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans individuals make up around 7% of Americans (around 17 million people), “Q+” people, who often identify as heterosexual but who live outside of heteronormative confines and are more aligned with LGBT people than hetero people, themselves make up an additional 6% of Americans (roughly 15 million people).
That’s huge.
Check out the video from Hornet President Sean Howell explaining the amazing data we’ve uncovered:
And check out this infographic on the Hornet / Kantar study on queer people (or click here to view as a PDF):
