It’s always Pride Month for Revry, an LGBTQ+-owned-and-operated streaming platform that focuses on queer creators.
Revry launched in 2015 with a free-to-watch content slate showcasing the LGBTQ+ experience, including licensed titles, such as Australian teen drama “Flunk,” and original series, including “Drag Latina” and “Gayborhood” (a personal favorite).
In 2017, Revry launched its first free ad-supported TV (FAST) channel on Pluto TV before expanding to as many programming distributors as possible. Today, Revry is also available on The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Vizio’s WatchFree+, Tubi, Xumo, Plex, Peacock and Apple TV, among others.
On the monetization front, Revry launched a programmatic ad network called PrismRiot last year.
With its focus on scale and its homegrown programmatic buying platform, Revry is in a better position to compete for minority-owned media, said Damian Pelliccione, Revry’s co-founder and CEO. Buyers started raising spend commitments with diverse-owned media companies in 2020, during the Black Lives Matter movement, although some of those lofty commitments haven’t quite panned out.
The LGBTQ+ community is “a very lucrative minority group,” Pelliccione said. LGBTQ+ people have roughly $3.9 trillion in global purchasing power, according to investment advisor LGBT Capital – and that number is only rising as more people self-identify as LGBTQ+.
Recently, Revry has seen an uptick in spend from agency holding companies representing brands that want to spread their diverse-owned media commitments across both direct and programmatic deals, Pelliccione said. Revry works with many national advertisers, including Lexus, CeraVe and Discover.
“What we’re most excited about is seeing new brands jump in and wanting to get it right,” they said, referring to the nuances involved in marketing to an LGBTQ+ audience.
Pelliccione spoke with AdExchanger about how Revry differentiates itself in the crowded streaming marketplace.
AdExchanger: How does Revry position itself within the streaming landscape?
DAMIAN PELLICCIONE: We don’t want to compete with any of the major owned-and-operated streaming services. The on-demand streaming space is already extremely saturated. Instead, we’re using FAST channels and free on-demand content to get in front of as many viewers as possible who want to watch LGBTQ+ storytelling but without juggling so many paid subscriptions.
Who is Revry’s audience?
Our audience skews very young. Roughly 70% is either Gen Z or millennial.
Also, not all of our audience is LGBTQ+. Over the last two years, just under 10% of our audience self-identifies as allies of the LGBTQ+ community, but are not LGBTQ+ themselves.
But allies watching LGBTQ+-aligned content are also receptive to seeing messaging and creative [targeted] toward LGBTQ+ audiences. Which is important for advertisers to know when they’re considering including LGBTQ+ media platforms like Revry into their marketing mix.
How does Revry sell its ad inventory?
We do a mix of direct and programmatic deals. We’ve done very custom deals with brands, including co-writing branded or sponsored content with big national advertisers like McDonald’s, Nike, P&G and iHeartMedia.
We also sell through our programmatic ad network, PrismRiot. This includes multicultural-focused content beyond Revry that our viewers enjoy, such as programming for or about Black, Hispanic and Asian American communities from Lionsgate, Crackle, Philo, Vizio and Fubo, for example.
Our distribution agreements with other publishers and distributors with multicultural audiences help us scale our business via programmatic ad sales. And by selling supply programmatically, we’re collecting a lot of data about campaign performance and audience viewership that we’re using to help advertisers super-serve the massive community of LGBTQ+ consumers.
What kinds of viewer data are you able to share with brands?
We collect information from user surveys to get an idea of who our users are, what they watch and what their brand preferences are. We mainly collect this data for feedback on the types of programming we should acquire or invest in, although we do also share brand survey-related responses with advertisers to help support our ad sales efforts.
As for information related to LGBTQ+ identity, we protect that data because it’s precious and sensitive. We know it feels intrusive to get served ads based on your dating habits.
And in reality, advertisers aren’t actually all that interested in the percentage breakdown of how many Revry viewers are lesbian versus bisexual, for example. Brands are more interested in age-and-gender demographics and breakdowns of our audience’s cultural background. We have some content that caters to specific subsets of our audience, including Revry Latinx for Latinx viewers in the LGBTQ+ community.
What success metric is most top-of-mind for Revry?
Right now, the KPI we’re most focused on is raising watch time. If we’re increasing the amount of time people spend on our platform, we’re creating new ad inventory.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
For more articles featuring Damian Pelliccione, click here.
