Jeff Marsh received a phone call from his brother-in-law, a cruise travel agent in Atlanta, one day in 2000. Marsh was told that the airlines were coming together to form a new company, called Orbitz, that hopefully would revolutionize the online travel space.
Marsh ultimately joined that upstart company in October, 2000, as the first marketing hire after the vice-president of marketing, starting before the website even was launched. Marsh was the director of strategy and advertising, and worked there for four years before leaving Orbitz to form his own company—Marsh Partners, LLC—and his primary client was … Orbitz.
"What I wanted to do was, specialize in LGBT marketing," said Marsh, who grew up in Greenville, S.C., and went to the University of Virginia. His first job out of school was with Bain & Company (on the consulting side), and he moved to Chicago in 1992 to pursue his MBA at Northwestern.
Marsh had been working at Quaker Oats Co., in the marketing department with the Gatorade brand, before moving to Orbitz, which is one of the most gay-friendly, gay-accepting companies in Chicago, if not the U.S.
The openly gay Marsh returned to work full-time at Orbitz about two years ago, and is now the director of marketing, and his primary focus is the LGBT market.
"The history of our success with LGBT is because of the straight-allies, both in and out of Orbitz," Marsh said. "For example, the first LGBT-inclusive TV ad that we did, in 2003, was in a campaign that [featured] puppets—and the director for our advertising was Roman Coppola, of the Coppola family; his dad is Francis Ford Coppola. When I brought up the idea of re-casting the ad to be LGBT-inclusive, it wasn't something that he said 'OK' to, but rather, something that he really wanted to do. He was one of those straight-allies who made a difference." The ad was shot in March of that year, landed on Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, and won the GLAAD Media Award.
Marsh admits, "I had no idea," that the 2000 phone call from his brother-in-law would lead to his Orbitz life. But, "helping [to] shape the brand from the get-go was something that I just had to pursue, and did," he said. "And things have been better than I expected.
"The things that I think are great about this company and my job are, my expertise in LGBT marketing is very much valued and appreciated. Sure, there have been staff changes, but the one constant has been the long-term commitment to being non-discriminatory. I work for a brand that is, arguably, one of the leading LGBT-friendly brands in the world."
Such that, Orbitz has the word "gay" on its homepage, leading LGBT travelers to a vast, wide-ranging, detailed and dedicated gay travel micro-site.
Marsh said that, through third-party research, the company has determined that about 7 percent of Orbitz' business comes from the gay community.
The Chicago-based company has about 800 employees in its Chicago office, and Marsh works with dozens of them on LGBT travel matters.
Orbitz had a presence this summer in the Chicago Pride Parade, also at Pride events in San Diego, Dallas and Atlanta.
"Any brand that has a lot of money can advertise, and they can advertise to the gay community, especially if they recognize the disposable income [within the LGBT market]," Marsh said. "But seeing that brand everywhere is something else, which includes giving back to the community."
Orbitz, for instance, will donate up to $10 to select LGBT charities, including the Center on Halsted, for everyone who downloads its award-winning free app for Apple or Android mobile devices.
Orbitz CEO Barney Harford also was one of the first to sign the document for the Marriage Equality Coalition in Illinois, Marsh said.
In addition, Orbitz this summer held a photo contest to celebrate marriage equality progress.
"It's very difficult to find good LGBT photographs. A lot of brands go to stock photography houses, and the quality is terrible," Marsh said. "So we had a real reason for having this photo contest—to get LGBT photos that we could use on the website and off."
The contest featured five categories, including Pride, Outdoor Adventures, etc. The winners were awarded first-class domestic flights, but only to destinations where marriage equality exists.
The grand prize winner also could go overseas, to Paris or London, for instance.
The winners were announced on Friday, Aug. 9.
Marsh said that Orbitz was expecting 600 or maybe 700 photos to be sent in for the contest, but more than 1,000 arrived.
At least half of the photos were sent via a mobile device, such as a smart phone or tablet, "which is pretty interesting," he said.
"We always get the question, 'Why have a gay travel micro-site? Why segment out gay travel; we travel like anyone else.'" Marsh said. "The answer is, because there are hotels in these locations that want to throw out the welcome mat to same-sex couple or individuals—and we want to provide that information."
-The Orbitz gay travel site is: www.orbitz.com/vacations/Lesbian_and_Gay.tGAY-FRIENDLY/ .
-Here is the grand prize photo from the Orbitz photo contest, from the Urban Escape category (Paris, submitted by Julian McCleary): tinyurl.com/mkj6yme .
Unforgettable Five: The top five USA travel destinations for the LGBT community are:
—New York City
—Chicago
—Los Angeles
—San Francisco
—Las Vegas
Super Eight: The top international destinations for the LGBT community are:
—Barcelona
—Madrid
—Puerto Vallarta
—Curacao
—Montreal
—London
—Paris
—Amsterdam
Up-and-coming: Two domestic destinations that are becoming more and more popular with LGBT travelers:
—Savannah, Ga.
—Providence, R.I.
