"“The New, Frontier-Free Business World Requires a Two-Sided Brain, Argues Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Partner”
Wednesday, July 13 - Upcoming Event
(seating limited to 100 on a "first confirmed" basis)
The Diversity Series II: "The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Market and Luxury Goods: A Match or A Miss?"
Time:
8am - 10am
Location: 220 East 42nd Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues), 11th Floor, Main Conference Room
While some luxury marketers are already active in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) marketplace, many more are still unsure as to the size, scope and reach of the market and others question the impact of boycotts on luxury brand image and sales. Ben Finzel, Senior Vice President at Fleishman-Hillard, and Mike Wilke, Executive Director and Founder of Commercial Closet, will discuss the buying power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, opportunities for luxury marketers to reach this market, the real impact of boycotts, pitfalls to avoid in reaching out to this market and examples of successful efforts to reach this largely untapped lucrative market.
Please RSVP: attendance is limited to 100 people on a "first confirmed" basis
About the Speakers:
Ben Finzel
Senior Vice President
Co-Chair, FH Out Front
Ben Finzel is a senior vice president in Fleishman-Hillard's (FH) Washington, D.C., office. He has more than 15 years of communications and public affairs experience in Washington, including service as a presidential appointee, more than six years experience as a public relations professional working for two international communications firms and six years as a Congressional press secretary and legislative director.
Mr. Finzel is co-chair of FH Out Front, the gay and lesbian communications practice at FH. Mr. Finzel developed and launched the practice and helped secure nearly twenty different news stories about the launch in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, PR Week, AdWeek, and Business 2.0 as well as a number of print and online LGBT publications.
As co-chair of the practice, Mr. Finzel and his co-chair, Steve Kauffman of FH Chicago are working with a team of nearly 30 colleagues in 10 offices on four continents to build what is intended to be the largest practice of its kind at a major global communications firm. Clients of the practice have included Kodak, the National Gay Newspaper Guild (NGNG) and the Washington, D.C. and New York City chapters of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).
In 2003 and 2004, Mr. Finzel served as national co-chair of the public relations caucus for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), the national membership organization advocating for GLBT employees in newsrooms and accurate coverage of GLBT issues by news media nationwide.
Before joining Fleishman-Hillard, Mr. Finzel was a presidential appointee at the U.S. Department of Energy in the second term of the Clinton administration. He was also a Senior Account Supervisor at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide in Washington working on behalf of a number of consumer and public affairs clients. Mr. Finzel began his career as a press secretary and later, legislative director for two members of Congress. Mr. Finzel was a founding member of the Gay and Lesbian Congressional Staff Association.
Mr. Finzel is a cum laude graduate of Texas Tech University. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and is conversant in German. Mr. Finzel is also a former college radio news director (KTXT-FM).
Mike Wilke
Executive Director and Founder
The Commercial Closet
Business journalist Michael Wilke has charted the emergence of gay marketing and advertising since 1992. His work is widely cited by college textbooks and news agencies, and he is credited with coining the popular term "gay vague" by major newspapers.
Wilke is Executive Director and Founder of Commercial Closet Association, launched in New York City in May 2001. His syndicated column about gay marketing and media appears in leading gay newspapers and web sites, he travels regularly across the U.S. and overseas with his video lecture, and consults to advertising agencies and corporations.
Wilke was a business reporter at Advertising Age for over four years and won a 1998 Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Award and was one of OUT magazine's OUT 100 in 2001 for his extensive coverage of gay advertising issues. In 2004 he was selected by Girlfriends magazine for its "Men We Love" issue. He has been a Crain Lecturer at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and in 2004 awarded a Hearst Professional in Residence fellowship at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has written about gay advertising and media for The New York Times, Adweek, Brandweek, The Advocate, Haymarket's Revolution marketing magazine and Inside Media. Wilke has appeared frequently on national news networks, internationally on CNN and the BBC, and on "Entertainment Tonight," "Extra!" and VH1 to discuss the subject.
Entering new media in 1999, Wilke became a news producer for New York City's WNBC-TV web site, NewsChannel4.com, then helped launch CBSHealthwatch.com as a project director.
Wilke was a leader in the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association since 1992 and served as president of the organization's largest chapter, New York, from 1998 to 2000. He co-chaired the organization's 1998 national convention.
He studied journalism at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. To this day, Wilke remembers way too many commercial jingles from his childhood.
About Stepanie Blackwood and Arthur Korant
Stephanie K. Blackwood
Double platinum is Stephanie's latest gay and lesbian marketing venture. She had previously started or partnered in Blackwood and Friends Public Relations (1991), Spare Parts, Inc. (1995) and the New York office of The Advocate, where she was associate publisher and vice president directing marketing plans to reposition the magazine within the gay and lesbian market.
In addition to double platinum's current clients, Stephanie has planned the strategic entry or supported existing gay and lesbian marketing programs for ABSOLUT Vodka, American Airlines, American Liver Foundation, and Seagram Americas as well as providing pro bono service to the Women_s Economic Development Corporation, Ms. Foundation for Women, GLAAD, and Lambda Legal, Astraea National Lesbian Foundation, the Community Centers of New York and Los Angeles and the Commercial Closet, among others.
Arthur R. Korant
In September 2001, Arthur co-founded double platinum, a full-service marketing communications agency that specializes in the gay and lesbian market and is affiliated with the Publicis Groupe's Pangea Partners, a multicultural marketing group. Clients include Procter & Gamble Canada (Crest Whitestrips), Pernod Ricard USA (Mojito Club), PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, and Miracle House.
Arthur's career had two long-term affiliations with J. Walter Thompson, New York and London, and Grey Global, where he worked with a stellar and diverse client roster that included Procter & Gamble, Uni-Lever, Revlon, The Wedgwood Group, The USMC, UPS, Rolex watches, Hasbro Toys, many fashion and cosmetic clients, Universal Studios and the Disney Corporation. Throughout his career, Arthur has worked with a variety of pro bono clients (United Cerebral Palsy, UNICEF, Aids-Films, GLAAD, Lambda Legal Defense Fund), and in fact, met his partner in double platinum while chairing the marketing committee for the New York Gay Games in '94.
About Double Platinum
Double Platinum, a full-service marketing communications agency that specializes in the gay and lesbian market, was founded in 2001 by veteran marketers Stephanie K. Blackwood and Arthur R. Korant.
Arthur and Stephanie met in 1992, when Arthur was chair of the Gay Games IV marketing committee and Stephanie was the only lesbian member among the 30 volunteers. The committee succeeded in securing the first-ever Gay Games corporate sponsorships from AT&T, Continental and Miller Beer, and also forged a friendship that continues. And a powerful partnership it has been. Together, Stephanie and Arthur have amassed a solid record in high-level volunteer positions for national and New York-based GLBT non-profits, lending their marketing and communications expertise to the GLAAD Media Awards, the GLAAD Art Auction, Lambda Liberty Awards, Astraea Foundation, Out & Equal, GLBT Center of New York, Anti-Violence Project of New York and Miracle House, among others.
With a solid team resume in volunteer work, it seemed only nature that this platinum blond duo joined forces as the first lesbian and gay team in gay/lesbian marketing. Others took immediate notice of this unique team, which couples an experienced veteran of global marketing (Arthur) and an experienced veteran of gay/lesbian-focused marketing (Stephanie) in a balanced perspective. Within weeks of Double Platinum's founding, the Publicis Groupe invited the new agency to join their global network of nearly 1000 agencies. This affiliation, unique among gay/lesbian-focused agencies, provides Double Platinum with a wealth of superlative talent and resources through the network.
In only three years, Double Platinum has developed ongoing relationships or has completed work for North American clients in automotive (Cadillac, 2004), package goods (Procter & Gamble, 2001-05), financial services (Merrill Lynch, 2003; Nationwide, 2004; Allstate, 2005), alcohol/spirits (Allied Domecq, 2004-05; Pernod Ricard, 2002; Amstel Light, 2004; Presidio Beverage, 2004) communications (Passport Magazine, 2003; Pridevision Television, 2003; America Online, 2003; UC Media, 2004; Adam Raphael, 2004 and 2005), as well as GLBT national organizations (Miracle House, 2001-03; GLSEN, 2003; Gill Foundation, 2003-05; Lambda Legal, 2002-04).
Arthur and Stephanie speak regularly on gay/lesbian marketing and related subjects before such groups as the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Multicultural Marketing Conference, Out Professionals, GlaxoSmithKline Multicultural Pharmaceutical Conference, National Tabletop Association Conference, Out and Equal Workplace Advocates, Echelon Marketing Conference and Outlook Network/Metro Cleveland Outlook Network.
The agency's successful client work and community contributions attest to its philosophy: Double Platinum thinks strategically, acts responsibly and produces great work while doing good works.