Campaign in market

What if there is backlash?

When you launch your campaign, some people in the community may be uncomfortable or angry about the people you have chosen to include. These voices can be very loud, especially on social media, but often represent a minority view in the community.

There are different ways that you can choose to respond to these situations. Regardless of how you respond, it’s important to stay true to your brand’s values, commitment to diversity and confidence in your campaign. If you remove your campaign, it could even increase the amount of negative attention you, the campaign, and the talent receive.

If you stand firm in your values, your audience is likely to support your organisation and campaign even more. This means they are more likely to be loyal to and trust your brand.

Prepare your responses

One way you might choose to respond is to re-state your commitment to diversity. This should be supported by a strategic social media policy, so you know when to report a comment or response that is in breach of your guidelines. You can share your community guidelines with the whole project team, and on all your social media channels, so everyone is on the same page.

You can turn off or hide comments on social media, but you might consider replying in a public way. This can be an opportunity to reiterate your brand’s values, and to support the message of the campaign. The best way to respond is to:

be direct: Let your audience know you are committed to inclusion. You can restate the purpose of your campaign.
keep it simple: Less is more when it comes to replying to people on social media. Do not be tempted to respond to everyone or have a conversation. Let your values speak for itself.
redirect: If you are not comfortable replying to offensive comments, consider replying to positive ones instead. This can be a subtle way to show your pride in your campaign.

You may also want to disable comments from the start of the campaign if comment engagement is not necessary to its success. Monitoring social media can take a toll on your team, so if you leave your comments on make sure they have support.

Tip – be bold

Remember that it is not just people who are making negative comments that are seeing your content. Many people in your audience will be looking to see how you respond, and if you stand by your talent.

An inclusive campaign has the power to impact the visibility of trans and gender diverse people. This helps the safety of so many people in the community and will lead to a positive perception of your brand.

In the long-term, your campaign will likely be celebrated and remembered as a trailblazer in a changing world.

Keep talent safe

The political landscape is constantly changing, and the safety of trans and gender diverse people is often directly tied to this. You will need to be aware of this landscape as it might impact how your campaign is received. This should be done early, so talent know exactly who they can go to for support when the campaign is live.

If your organisation has free mental health support for employees, you could extend this to talent involved in your campaign. Even if they never use it, it signals to them that you care about their experience and safety beyond production.

Before you suggest a service, it is good practice to check that they have experience with LGBTIQA+ people.

You may also want to give your agency regular updates about when the campaign is scheduled to go live. If it’s a large campaign, it can help the talent mentally prepare themselves and their friends and family if they need.

Resource: eSafety Commissioner - How the Online Safety Act supports those most at risk

Media buying

The way your brand engages with LGBTIQA+ communities can take many forms throughout your campaign. One way you can engage the community in-market is with your media buying strategy.

You can research LGBTIQA+ Pride events in your area to partner with, or other festivals and celebrations from the community. If your campaign is in Australia, you can also reach out to:

LGBTIQA+ radio stations like Joy 94.9
Archer Magazine
Out Magazine
The Star Observer.

Future use of content

It is likely that your campaign will create lots of great content for your brand, and you may use some of that content in the future. Make sure you have approval from talent to use the content for other campaigns, or marketing materials associated with your brand.

This is important as the message or tone may change from the original campaign. It might not be appropriate to have a trans and gender diverse person be the face of the new materials. It could also expose the talent to another audience who might be hostile. This can happen when there is a rise in anti-trans and anti-LGBTIQA+ sentiment.

It is also important that talent are correctly identified and not misgendered in future content. This can sometimes happen and causes distress for people in the community. You should notify talent if the campaign is relaunched, so they have control over the use of their image.

A great way to be inclusive in the use of your content would be to allow talent to rescind permission to use their content if their identity changes. For example, someone who identified as non-binary at the time of the campaign might transition and not wish for the older content to be used.

Important dates

There are important dates and events in the LGBTIQA+ calendar. You can check these dates to see if they overlap with your campaign. It can be a great time to include trans and gender diverse talent.

It’s important to remember though, that this should not be the only reason you include LGBTIQA+ talent in your campaign. For example, during Pride Month many organisations and brands feature LGBTIQA+ communities.

This is called ‘pink-washing’. It refers to when companies only focus on LGBTIQA+ communities when there is profit to be made, or a direct benefit to their organisation. It is a less authentic way of engaging with the community.

A calendar of significant dates is at Appendix 5 - Calendar.

More resources

There are thousands of resources available online, to educate yourself and your team about trans and gender diverse people, and broader LGBTIQA+ communities.

We’ve put together some links to key Australian organisations and useful resources, which can help you in developing your campaign.

Updated 19 November 2024