Thomson are the first major operator in the UK to openly chase the pink pound with their new offering called Freedom. Given the size of the gay market it’s surprising that it has taken the major players so long to come up with something.
Thomson have decided to work on Freedom in-house, rather than buy one of the existing gay specialists on the market. They’ve worked closely with Out Now Consulting who have developed the GayComfort programme.
The logo has the reversed e and you do wonder whether Thomson came up with that all by themselves, or simply copied someone else’s logo. As a website, it’s neatly done and clearly designed to sit readily next to Thomson’s existing portfolio of products, providing high-street agents another option.
There’s no confusing what the product is with Thomson Freedom; the word gay features no less than sixty five times on the landing page. However, there is a clear contrast with how Thomson are approaching this market with the more overt marketing of the current market leaders.
Most of the other operators’ sites have screens filled with young men showing off ridiculously honed torsos. The emphasis with the Thomson site centres a lot more around the accommodation on offer rather than any extra-curricular activities.
Whereas Thomson’s competitors have websites that are predominantly male orientated, Thomson try to give equal importance to the smaller lesbian market, despite the majority of its properties being for the male market.
The only non-property image Thomson features on its site is a tasteful shot of two girls in conversation. Does this mean that Thomson are 
playing it fairly safe with Freedom in the knowledge that they have an existing market of Thomson customers? It will be interesting to see how Freedom develops over time.
