A group of multi ethnic coworkers are celebrating gay pride month with rainbow flags.
It’s Pride Month, a time for celebrating the diversity, breadth and inclusiveness of the LGBTQ+ community from flamboyant drag queens to queer music to emerging politicians such as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. All of which of course brings to mind…McDonald’s! Wait…what?
It turns out that the iconic middle-of-the-road American brand is diving into Pride Month in a big way, partnering with Revry, the biggest little queer-focused media company in the world. It looks like a splashy kickoff to this month of revelry (sorry, no near-pun intended).
Revry’s simple but powerful mission is “Free Queer TV 24/7.” As Revry’s CEO and Co-founder Damian Pellicone told me, “For Revry, it’s Pride Month 365 days a year…and the rest of the world is just catching up to us!” Pellicone (whose preferred pronouns are they and them) created Revry in 2015 with a diverse group of partners: their husband Christopher Rodriguez (Chief Business Officer), COO Alia Daniels and Chief Product Officer LaShawn McGhee. In 2019 Business Insider named Pellicone as one of 16 “Power Players” in the streaming world.
Like any founder, Pellicone claims with a smile that they “just want to change the world,” but besides doing good there is also a huge opportunity to do well in an influential business market. The LGBTQ+ market represents $5 trillion of spending power globally and just under $1 trillion in the U.S. alone. As Pellicone told me, 52% of GenZ, the largest age demographic in the world, doesn’t identify with a specific gender or sexual orientation. This is the “queer” audience that is at the heart of Revry’s programming strategy, but Pellicone is quick to point out that “we’re looking to speak to queer allies as well” a group that could include, well, anyone. Revry prides itself - again, no pun intended – on speaking in an authentic voice to and on behalf of its audience, one that has not historically seen itself front and center in content programming decisions in mainstream media.
Revry’s offerings include a mix of live-streamed “Fast Channels” and advertiser-supported video on demand programming that has been downloaded in 135 countries and reaches over 280 million households. The audience is comprised of 74% 18-45- year-olds, and Revry is proud to trumpet the fact that its dedicated users spend an average of an hour and 28 minutes per day with Revry content. In a world where global media companies are seeking to extend their historic franchises into Connected TV, Revry is “not niche,” but as Pellicone prefers to say, it is “specifically focused” on its audience.
So with all of this momentum, who needs McDonald’s? Well, everyone and anyone in media as the company spends hundreds of millions on TV advertising annually. Pellicone told me that Revry had McDonald’s in their sights for almost a year as a possible marketing partner. With creative agency Walton Isaacson serving as matchmaker, Revry formally bagged its white whale only a month ago, with what Pellicone calls the “star moment” of Pride Month quickly looming.
The collaboration between McDonald’s and Revry has resulted in a variety show entitled Revry Presents House of Pride brought to you by McDonald’s, premiering Sunday evening June 6th exclusively on Revry live-streamed networks. As Elizabeth Campbell, McDonald’s Senior Director of Cultural Engagement, told me: “[W]e worked with Revry’s team to create a fun and meaningful event that brings together the LGBTQ+ community in a celebratory and unique way.” The collaboration also supported McDonald’s recent commitment to expand the percentage of its national media spending on “diverse owned media platforms” from four to ten percent.
The content for House of Pride reflects Pellicone’s observation that McDonald’s was “all in” on this project not just as a business venture but creatively. According to Christopher Rodriguez, Revry Co-founder and Chief Business Officer: “We have brought together a community of the top LGBTQ musical artists, comedians, drag celebrities, and ballroom luminaries.” And it’s followed by the “first-ever virtual VR LGBTQ dance club.” Overall that’s a pretty good immersion into LGBTQ iconography from a corporate giant.
As to the blending of the McDonald’s and Revry corporate cultures, Pellicone only raved. They were particularly taken with the rapid decision-making McDonald’s was able to provide given such a compressed time frame and a partner that McDonald’s had never worked with before. As one example of the quickly-built relationship of mutual trust, Pellicone noted McDonald’s consistent support for the work of Laganja Estranja, a drag queen luminary directing for the very first time.
As to the future for Revry, the investment world has already taken notice. Revry was selected as part of a small initial cohort for Goldman Sachs’ Launch with GS, a program designed to “increase access to capital and facilitate connections for women, Black, Latinx and other diverse entrepreneurs and investors.” And Arlan Hamilton, the founder of Backstage Capital and the company’s first institutional investor, recently stated about Revry that “their scalability is simply boundless and they are primed to be the most valuable and influential LGBTQ+ media company in the world.” Not bad for a 6-year-old.
