It’s a marketer’s dream: Internet hosting a sold-out tournament for 10k attendees. That manufacturers are begging to be part of. Oh, and that used to be headlined this yr through none as opposed to Taraji P. Henson, Kerry Washington, and Jennifer Hudson.
That’s Shareese Bembury-Coakley’s truth as one of the most riding forces at the back of CultureCon, the sector’s greatest competition for Black creatives and marketers.
Right here’s how she makes the magic occur.
Meet the Grasp
Shareese Bembury-Coakley
Vice President, Industry construction and partnerships at CultureCon
Declare to status: Effectively offered a partnership between the TV display Killing Eve and buy-now-pay-later provider Klarna; deliverables incorporated an in-app enjoy that sourced items from Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh’s (actually improbable) wardrobes. (Lesson 0: Search for target market conduct that you’ll be able to magnify. Bembury-Coakley had famous that audience have been asking questions about social media about designers.)
Lesson 1: It’s now not “Why this?”, it’s “Why you?”.
At CultureCon, Bembury-Coakley tells me, other people make a run for Activation Alley as quickly because it opens.
It’s now not simply that the activations are superb or {that a} explicit model is there — it’s that CultureCon’s attendees have top expectancies, as a result of they accept as true with that this yr’s activations will probably be as excellent because the remaining. (Extra in this in a minute.)
With occasions and experiential areas changing into ever extra saturated, I ask Bembury-Coakley how she stands proud in a crowd. Her resolution is deceptively easy: As an alternative of answering the query, “Why do that concept?” resolution the query, “Why do that concept with me?”
“It’s now not near to it being a singular concept,” she says. “Oftentimes, other people can’t resolution the ‘with me’ query.” To reply to it, review your cultural relevancy, your group, and your consistency.
And bring to mind it as a lens. Whilst you focal point your concepts by way of “why me,” you’ll be able to body your deliverables in some way that makes it “as simple as imaginable to get buy-in.”
Lesson 2: Construct accept as true with earlier than opening wallets.
Believe used to be a through-line in our dialog, each interpersonally and between manufacturers and target market. Bembury-Coakley credit a lot of her good fortune to having had superb advocates during her occupation — however “it‘s double-sided,” she says. “It comes with the very heavy duty of constructing certain that you simply’re additionally pleasing your guarantees at the again finish.”
In different phrases: Believe is now not one thing that Shareese Bembury-Coakley takes frivolously.
She carries this duty into her paintings with manufacturers and partnerships. I ask her what makes her say “no” to a CultureCon partnership, and he or she straight away says, “anything else that will betray the accept as true with we’ve constructed with our group.”
Believe is the underlying explanation why that Activation Alley is so well-liked — model activations “aren’t a important evil that you simply’re connecting with for a loose water bottle,” Bembury-Coakley says. They’re “a testomony to how authentically our companions have confirmed up up to now.”
The name of the game at the back of the Activation Alley hype is beautiful easy, actually: Consistency.
Lesson 3: Creators have audiences. Manufacturers have bosses.
“Creators must all the time needless to say their level of touch has a md,” Bembury-Coakley says. “Most often the individual they‘re chatting with is a stakeholder — but it surely’s most often now not the key stakeholder.”
“Anything else that you’ll be able to do to be a useful resource to make it more straightforward to your spouse goes to extend the possibility of them running with you once more,” she says. “I believe from time to time you take a look at the manufacturers as an entire, however they’re [made up of] people.” It’s simple for creators to overlook that “figuring the best way to navigate those manufacturers internally in some way that makes it simple on them” — and that makes them much more likely to need to stay running with you.
And at the turn aspect, “the logo must all the time take into account why they sought after to paintings with that author to start with.” What ceaselessly occurs, she says, is {that a} author’s content material could be rather debatable, however when they’ve signed with a model, the logo “desires them to be extraordinarily brand-safe in some way that will be betraying their target market.”
See? All of it comes all the way down to accept as true with.
Masters in Advertising and marketing used to be a proud sponsor of this yr’s CultureCon, which came about October 4 – 5, 2025.
Lingering Questions
This Week’s Query
With regards to construction partnerships for CultureCon, how do you make a decision which individuals to collaborate with — whether or not that’s audio system, creators, or group leaders — to verify they authentically constitute CultureCon’s challenge and resonate along with your target market? —Deesha Laxsav, Senior supervisor of name advertising, Take hold of
This Week’s Resolution
Bembury-Coakley: At CultureCon, information is paramount to the whole lot we do. So, we‘re now not making assumptions about our target market, we’re now not simply bobbing up with concepts. We are actually letting that [data] tell the whole lot that you simply see.
So, the programming that you simply see being hyper-relevant? Our communities instructed us what they sought after, the manufacturers that they prefer to have interaction with, the audio system they sought after to listen to from, and we listened to them.
I believe a large number of manufacturers and communities are from time to time looking to pass in opposition to the grain, looking to push one thing on their target market, and it‘s now not what they would like. We evolve and iterate [based on data], and that’s why the manufacturers and the group and the audio system can pop out and feature a good time.
Subsequent Week’s Lingering Query
Bembury-Coakley asks: I believe nostalgia is one thing that‘s been overdone. I would like to understand: What’s a greater means for manufacturers to have interaction with communities or customers that they need to connect to?
