Gay Ad Network

Mark Elderkin, CEO of the Gay Ad Network talks with Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™.  Elderkin is a dot com visionary and entrepreneur. He co-founded gay.com in 1994, served as President and CEO of PlanetOut Inc., retired in 2006 and then founded Gay Ad Network in 2007. The Gay Ad Network and Lesbian Ad Network together form the leading gay media network, reaching over 6 million unique users per month across 290 popular LGBT web sites, blogs and social networks. It is ranked as the largest U.S. gay media property. Gay Ad Network provides online, mobile and video advertising services to global and national brands targeting the gay and lesbian market. Our LGBT community has an annual buying power of 712 billion dollars a year and will hit a trillion dollars annually by 2012 according to Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc. When asked whether mainstream advertisers are taking advantage of this ‘final frontier’ in marketing to our LGBT community Elderkin stated, “We’re seeing more and more first time advertisers come into the market. They typically try and get their house in order first to make sure they have nondiscrimination policies in place and that they are supporting an LGBT employees group. Then they work with us or another gay agency to make sure they’re marketing correctly with the right messaging. So it tends to be a small task that expands as they get more comfortable with it and they see the success generated from the program. We’re seeing continued growth in the market, more and more as advertisers are coming in.” Elderkin holds a BS degree in Systems Engineering from Boston University and MBA from UC Berkeley Haas School. He has served on the boards of Online Partners, GLAAD and Stellar Networks. Mark lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with his partner Jeff and daughter Chloe. For More Info: GayAdNetwork.com

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