Nissan Hopes that its Queerty DRIVEN Campaign will Yield LGBTQ+ Customer Affinity via AllyshipNissan's LGBTQ+ affinity campaign is a paid partnership with Q.Digital
Now nominated for a Shorty Impact Award, the Queerty DRIVEN Channel, Presented by Nissan was the result of a paid partnership with Queerty.com, a queer culture and entertainment website. The affinity cause marketing campaign was active from June 2022 to March 2023.
Queerty.com is a property of Q.Digital, which specializes in making “meaningful connections between brands and the LGBTQ+ community.”
Queerty’s DRIVEN, Presented by Nissan
The DRIVEN channel on Queerty’s website features content which “elevates the thrill of the LGBTQ journey and the many routes LGBTQ people can take to become their authentic selves.” The microsite features a combination of: Nissan-branded videos, Nissan banner ads targeted to an LGBTQ+ audience, and curated editorial content showcasing “the spectrum of queer people leading successful lives.”
The curated articles are sorted into audience-appealing categories such as “closet door bustdown,” “midnight snacc,” and “werkin’ it.”
The DRIVEN videos feature conspicuous Nissan product placement and high-achieving members of the LGBTQ+ community talking about what drives them. For instance, chef Vanessa Parish discusses her catering company, and her nonprofit Queer Food Foundation, while driving a Nissan automobile. The 2023 Nissan Altima and the all-electric 2023 Nissan Ariya are frequent ‘co-stars’ in the videos.
Each DRIVEN video delivers an inspirational message about the featured LGBTQ person overcoming challenges to become successful. For instance, make-up artist Laurel Charleston remarks: “If there is one thing I can control as a trans woman navigating it all is how I show-up for myself in my craft.”
The videos were shared across six websites in the Q.Digital portfolio, including: Queerty, LGBTQ Nation, GayCities, INTO, PinkNews, and Autostraddle. Q.Digital also shared the videos across their Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) feeds.
The DRIVEN series peaked in February and March 2023 with videos that profiled Chef Parish and HGTV’s Orlando Soria, an interior designer on the television show Build Me Up. Their videos yielded 3.1 million views, watched mostly on Q.Digital websites. Approximately 39% of the video views were completed.
Nissan’s Broader LGBTQ+ Support
In addition to the Queerty partnership, Nissan also ran a Partners of Progress campaign which included a series of videos “sharing authentic stories of chosen families who are living their truth and using their voices to push the community forward on the road to equality.” The following Partners of Progress video was launched as a commercial in June 2022:
This year, in advance of Pride Month (June 2023), Nissan published Nissan Celebrates Pride on its own website, listing the ways that the company “recognizes the progress the LGBTQ+ community has made towards equality and inclusion.”
The Nissan Pride page includes photos of the company’s sponsorships of various Pride events. The photos show smiling people with rainbow-colored branded swag posing in front of Nissan cars and Nissan signage.
Impact of Nissan’s LGBTQ+ Affinity Outreach
Results from a Nielsen Custom Branded Content Study showed that the DRIVEN videos successfully boosted customer affinity between Nissan and the LGBTQ+ community.
Among the best-performing videos, their affect on affinity was as much as:
- 33% brand lift (vs. control group) for “Nissan is an Ally of the LGBTQ community.”
- 18% brand lift for “Nissan cares about people like me.”
- 7% increase in purchase intent for Nissan
- 8% increase in recommendation intent for Nissan
Unsurprisingly, then, other automobile manufacturers also seek affinity with the LGBTQ+ community. That includes Chevrolet, which is currently promoting its Chevy Bolt at queer websites, such as Queerty.com, with the tagline: “Proud to Find New Roads.” Notice how their modular ad concept is shown with varying combinations of ‘chosen families’.
