Today, Gay Times is celebrating a run of standout partnerships across the first half of 2025.
In a year that has highlighted the importance of queer spaces and stories, Gay Times’ collaborations prioritised safety, visibility and joy – whilst typically outperforming internal branded-content benchmarks with standout social engagement.
While some areas of the market have pulled back their advertising support for LGBTQIA+ titles, Gay Times campaigns continue to perform to a growing LGBTQIA+ community and demonstrate superior performance in numerous metrics. From large-scale cultural takeovers to evidence-led community initiatives, the work proved that when brands back outcomes that matter, audiences respond.
Across immersive moments, data-driven concepts and cross-platform storytelling, these campaigns moved beyond impressions to deliver measurable impact for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Highlights from the company, which is the most followed LGBTQIA+ media brand in the world on major social platforms such as Instagram, include:
Garnier Micellar Water: Pride Party and Outernet Takeover
Gay Times joined forces with Garnier Micellar Water for an immersive takeover of Outernet Tottenham Court Road throughout Pride Month and beyond. The campaign, titled Messages To Our Younger Selves, showcased heartfelt letters from LGBTQIA+ individuals to their younger selves, creating a powerful tapestry of resilience. Created to support Garnier Micellar Water’s partnership with Just Like Us, the exhibition was a direct response to the statistic that 91% of LGBTQIA+ school pupils encounter hostile language about their identity, serving as a beacon of hope and a reminder that brighter days lie ahead.
The collaboration continued as the brand sponsored the annual Gay Times Pride Party at The Broadwick in Soho. The event was a spectacular celebration, centered around the campaign theme of celebrating queer hope and resilience, and attended by a cohort of LGBTQIA+ trailblazers and tastemakers including Trixie Mattel, Dylan Mulvaney and Joe Locke. At a time when Pride feels more important than ever, the event was testament to the strength and unity of the community, complete with a live performance from Tayce and DJ sets from the likes of Bimini and Absolute.
The campaign sparked over double the average editorial engagement for Gay Times partnerships and creator content performed more than seven times better than expected, while community response praised Garnier for showing up authentically.
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Supporting LGBTQIA+ Spaces with Uber
This summer, Gay Times curated a comprehensive report on the concerning rate of the shuttering of LGBTQIA+ venues. To gain powerful insight to support the campaign, Gay Times gathered data via a survey on the lived experiences of hundreds within their audience, all LGBTQIA+ community members, regarding their perception of venue closures across the country. The data revealed that 85% believe queer venues reduce feelings of loneliness, yet 46.3% said there are fewer such venues in their area now than there were three years ago.
The report also highlighted that nearly half of respondents (49.3%) reported avoiding queer venues due to safety concerns while traveling. In response to this urgent reality, Gay Times worked with Uber to offer thousands of discounted rides to independent LGBTQIA+ venues across the UK, helping to ensure people can travel hassle-free to the venues that are so vital for connection and safety.
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Hinge: Exploring Love Beyond Labels
Gay Times sat down with two queer couples, Leo and Nkem, and Macy and Naissa, to explore the true meaning of loving beyond labels with dating app Hinge. The campaign amplified Hinge’s LGBTQIA+ D.A.T.E Report, which reveals that 48% of queer daters feel frustrated by gender and sexuality categories, a phenomenon known as Label Fatigue.
The series of content explored freedom and growth in love through embracing change, with the couples sharing their stories of navigating identity fluidity. Like 37% of LGBTQIA+ daters, both couples have updated the sexuality labels they previously identified with, showing how prioritising connection and chemistry allows for personal growth and deeper intimacy.
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Arsenal Football Club: The Connective Power of Sport
For LGBTQIA+ History Month, Gay Times celebrated the power of sports as a means for connection in partnership with Arsenal Football Club. Four sapphic couples spoke to Gay Times about how they found their biggest loves in life: Arsenal Women and their partners.
The series across social and digital channels highlighted the inclusive space that AWFC has created, with one couple noting, “The community is thriving both at matches and online.” The club’s growing queer fanbase is undeniable, with many of the more than 60,000 fans attending their matches being from the community, demonstrating that queer love and expression are embraced and celebrated on and off the pitch.
The campaign proved to be one of Gay Times’ strongest performing partnerships to date and a firm community-favourite – outpacing similar content with over 15x the benchmarked engagement rate on social media.
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ViiV Healthcare: The New Reality of Living with HIV
With the support of ViiV Healthcare, Gay Times explored how the realities of living with HIV have changed, allowing many people to lead full and healthy lives. This vital conversation took the form of an empowering interview between Dr. Tristan Barber, a consultant physician specialising in HIV, and Tom Hayes-Isaacs, an activist living with HIV.
The discussion highlighted that today, treatment can be as simple as a single pill a day, and once on successful treatment, a person with an undetectable viral load cannot transmit the virus through sex. This project underscored the publication’s commitment to combating misinformation, whilst arming audiences with the tools to navigate healthy patient doctor conversations and educating them on the immense progress made in HIV medicine.
The campaign reached nearly three times the expected audience, far surpassing delivery goals.
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Channel 4: A Spoof Cover for The Inheritance
To celebrate the launch of series one of The Inheritance on Channel 4, Gay Times created its first-ever branded spoof cover with the British broadcaster.
The project featured Drag Race UK icons Michael Marouli and Tomara Thomas who gave a hilarious and exaggerated interview about their “newfound wealth.” The playfully chaotic piece perfectly captures the show’s “campy and chaotic” essence and demonstrates the power of creativity and humor in branded content.
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This incredible summer of partnerships not only delivered impressive metrics but reinforced the publication’s commitment to producing content that is both authentic and impactful, serving the LGBTQIA+ community with integrity and celebration.
If you’d like to explore a collaboration with Gay Times, you can speak with the GT Partnerships team at partnerships@gaytimesgroup.com.
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