Corporate involvement in Pride Month is expected to surpass its peak in 2019, unless the ongoing pandemic disrupts this summer.

A new wave of COVID variants may put a stopper on business sentiments toward Pride. This is according to a study by internet marketing firm AccuraCast, which found that online searches for Pride Month have risen by 100% since 2008.

This spike indicates two things. One, that mainstream brands have increasingly shown more support toward Pride, and two, that tolerance toward Pride has also increased.

OUT Loud founder and AccuraCast MD, Farhad Divecha, said: “I’ve no doubt that growing acceptance and understanding over time has played a large part in searches for Pride Month increasing so sharply.¨

The exponential growth in consumer-interest presents opportunities to further educate people about Pride, as well as to celebrate it.

Divecha added: “Peoples’ mindsets are changing for the better but marketing still has a major role to play.”

He elaborated that some people believe that when brands post Pride-related content on social media, it is “an attempt to jump on the bandwagon to grow their customer base.”

However, he contends that “it can’t be denied that it’s these brands and campaigns that have helped in progressing the Pride movement and all it stands for”.

Business interest in Pride declined in 2020 by 15% due to the pandemic. That said, consumer interest remained mostly unaffected. In fact, it rose by 48%. Popular searches ranged from ‘Pride Month’ to ‘Pride clothing’.

Since 2017, the annual search volume for Pride has increased roughly by six million.

AccuraCast’s research was conducted in the UK and US, using 17 million search queries to draw its conclusions.