As we near the end of #PrideMonth, recent LGBTQ+ controversies make clear that brands must tread carefully when supporting social causes. For example, Starbucks had employees strike over Pride-related decor allegedly being removed from their locations, and Target has received public pushback for displaying LGBTQ+ products. A new research study finds that seeing these events play out has clearly impacted other brands’ #Pride activity, as fewer are producing such campaigns or content.
The new research into brand-led Pride campaigns from customer experience firm Emplifi also reveals that many consumers view Pride-related initiatives from brands as inauthentic, sensing those companies are just “jumping on the brand-wagon” with fake or inflated levels of support. The new findings reveal that while the number of Pride-related posts by brands has been on a steady decline over the last three years, there has been a rapid decline in engagement on #Pride content during the same time period as a possible result of this skepticism.
“Brand-led social campaigns supporting #Pride simply aren’t cutting it with the modern consumer any longer. Our data shows that, while the number of brands publishing pride content has slightly decreased in the last three years, engagement with such posts has rapidly declined over the same amount of time,” said Emplifi CMO Zarnaz Arlia, in a statement. “The reality is that consumers are likely becoming desensitized to the ‘rainbow washing’ that happens during Pride, instead wanting brands to be more introspective and honest about their involvement in social causes. Consumers crave authentic brand interactions and jumping on the ‘brand-wagon’ for social movements like Pride is not enough. We know that brands have a fine line to walk, and ultimately, the decline in pride-related posts shows many are opting to stay neutral.”
The top three most popular brand-led Pride posts on Facebook:
Top posts on Instagram:
The findings uncover a number of insights on branded #PrideMonth posts, including the number of brands using Pride-related hashtags on Facebook and Instagram, median engagement rates for such posts, top PrideMonth posts by brands on both Facebook and Instagram, and more.
Though brands seem to be keeping a steady cadence of Pride content coming, these posts are progressively receiving fewer interactions. On Instagram, there was a 73 percent decrease from 2020 (the peak of engagement) to present day.
Fewer brands are posting about Pride on Instagram and Facebook this year:
For the specific time range between June 1 – June 25 of 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, Emplifi looked for brand posts containing at least one pride related hashtag from the list below:
[‘ally’, ‘bisexual’, ‘bisexualboys’, ‘bisexualboysandgirls’, ‘bisexualgirls’, ‘bisexualpride’, ‘blackpride’, ‘boyswhokissboys’, ‘comingout’, ‘drag’, ‘dragqueen’, ‘equality’, ‘femmelesbian’, ‘gay’, ‘gayboy’, ‘gaycouple’, ‘gaycute’, ‘gayfollow’, ‘gayguy’, ‘gayhot’, ‘gaylife’, ‘gaylove’, ‘gayman’, ‘gaymen’, ‘gaypride’, ‘gayrights’, ‘gayselfie’, ‘gaystagram’, ‘gayteen’, ‘gayworld’, ‘genderfluid’, ‘girlswhokissgirls’, ‘globalpride’, ‘happypride’, ‘happypridemonth’, ‘homosexual’, ‘instagay’, ‘interpride’, ‘intersex’, ‘lesbian’, ‘lesbianpride’, ‘lgbt’, ‘lgbtcommunity’, ‘lgbtplus’, ‘lgbtpride’, ‘lgbtproud’, ‘lgbtq’, ‘lgbtqia’, ‘lgbtqiaplus’, ‘lgbtqiapride’, ‘lgbtqpride’, ‘lgbtqrights’, ‘lgbtqsupport’, ‘lgbtyouth’, ‘localpride’, ‘loveisequal’, ‘loveislove’, ‘loveisnotcancelled’, ‘lovewins’, ‘nonbinary’, ‘outandproud’, ‘pansexual’, ‘pride’, ‘pride2019’, ‘pride2020’, ‘pride2021’, ‘pride2022’, ‘pride2023’, ‘prideally’, ‘prideandjoy’, ‘prideart’, ‘pridecelebration’, ‘prideday’, ‘pridefest’, ‘prideflag’, ‘prideforall’, ‘pridegay’, ‘pridei’, ‘pridemakeup’, ‘pridemarch’, ‘pridematters’, ‘pridemonth’, ‘prideneverdie’, ‘prideoutfit’, ‘prideparade’, ‘prideparty’, ‘priderainbow’, ‘priderights’, ‘priderock’, ‘pridesupport’, ‘prideto’, ‘prideweareproud’, ‘prideweek’, ‘prideweekend’, ‘queer’, ‘queerandproud’, ‘queerlove’, ‘queerpride’, ‘queeryouth’, ‘rainbow’, ‘rainbows’, ‘samelove’, ‘stonewall’, ‘trans’, ‘transgender’, ‘transpride’, ‘transrights’]
Emplifi looked at how many brands during this time period had at least one post containing a given hashtag over each year, and also looked at the Engagement Rate of users who see these posts.
