It’s a marketer’s dream: Internet hosting a sold-out occasion for 10k attendees. That manufacturers are begging to be part of. Oh, and that was headlined this 12 months by none apart from Taraji P. Henson, Kerry Washington, and Jennifer Hudson.
That’s Shareese Bembury-Coakley’s actuality as one of many driving forces behind CultureCon, the world’s largest pageant for Black creatives and entrepreneurs.
Right here’s how she makes the magic occur.
Meet the Grasp
Shareese Bembury-Coakley
Vice President, Enterprise improvement and partnerships at CultureCon
Declare to fame: Efficiently offered a partnership between the TV present Killing Eve and buy-now-pay-later service Klarna; deliverables included an in-app expertise that sourced items from Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh’s (really unimaginable) wardrobes. (Lesson 0: Search for viewers habits that you may amplify. Bembury-Coakley had famous that viewers have been asking questions on social media about designers.)
Lesson 1: It’s not “Why this?”, it’s “Why you?”.
At CultureCon, Bembury-Coakley tells me, folks make a run for Activation Alley as quickly because it opens.
It’s not simply that the activations are wonderful or {that a} specific model is there — it’s that CultureCon’s attendees have excessive expectations, as a result of they belief that this 12 months’s activations might be nearly as good because the final. (Extra on this in a minute.)
With occasions and experiential areas turning into ever extra saturated, I ask Bembury-Coakley how she stands out in a crowd. Her reply is deceptively easy: As an alternative of answering the query, “Why do that concept?” reply the query, “Why do that concept with me?”
“It’s not nearly it being a novel concept,” she says. “Oftentimes, folks can’t reply the ‘with me’ query.” To reply it, consider your cultural relevancy, your group, and your consistency.
And consider it as a lens. Once you focus your concepts by “why me,” you may body your deliverables in a method that makes it “as simple as doable to get buy-in.”
Lesson 2: Construct belief earlier than opening wallets.
Belief was a through-line in our dialog, each interpersonally and between manufacturers and viewers. Bembury-Coakley credit a lot of her success to having had wonderful advocates all through her profession — however “it‘s double-sided,” she says. “It comes with the very heavy duty of creating positive that you just’re additionally fulfilling your guarantees on the again finish.”
In different phrases: Belief shouldn’t be one thing that Shareese Bembury-Coakley takes evenly.
She carries this duty into her work with manufacturers and partnerships. I ask her what makes her say “no” to a CultureCon partnership, and she or he instantly says, “something that might betray the belief we’ve constructed with our group.”
Belief is the underlying motive that Activation Alley is so standard — model activations “aren’t a obligatory evil that you just’re connecting with for a free water bottle,” Bembury-Coakley says. They’re “a testomony to how authentically our companions have confirmed up previously.”
The key behind the Activation Alley hype is fairly easy, actually: Consistency.
Lesson 3: Creators have audiences. Manufacturers have bosses.
“Creators ought to all the time keep in mind that their level of contact has a boss,” Bembury-Coakley says. “Normally the individual they‘re speaking to is a stakeholder — but it surely’s typically not the important thing stakeholder.”
“Something that you are able to do to be a useful resource to make it simpler in your companion goes to extend the chance of them working with you once more,” she says. “I believe generally you take a look at the manufacturers as a complete, however they’re [made up of] people.” It’s simple for creators to overlook that “figuring find out how to navigate these manufacturers internally in a method that makes it simple on them” — and that makes them extra more likely to need to preserve working with you.
And on the flip aspect, “the model ought to all the time bear in mind why they wished to work with that creator to start with.” What typically occurs, she says, is {that a} creator’s content material may be barely controversial, however as soon as they’ve signed with a model, the model “desires them to be extraordinarily brand-safe in a method that might be betraying their viewers.”
See? All of it comes right down to belief.
Masters in Advertising and marketing was a proud sponsor of this 12 months’s CultureCon, which came about October 4 – 5, 2025.
Lingering Questions
This Week’s Query
In terms of constructing partnerships for CultureCon, how do you resolve which individuals to collaborate with — whether or not that’s audio system, creators, or group leaders — to verify they authentically symbolize CultureCon’s mission and resonate along with your viewers? —Deesha Laxsav, Senior supervisor of brand name advertising and marketing, Clutch
This Week’s Reply
Bembury-Coakley: At CultureCon, knowledge is paramount to the whole lot we do. So, we‘re not making assumptions about our viewers, we’re not simply arising with concepts. We’re actually letting that [data] inform the whole lot that you just see.
So, the programming that you just see being hyper-relevant? Our communities advised us what they wished, the manufacturers that they like to interact with, the audio system they wished to listen to from, and we listened to them.
I believe quite a lot of manufacturers and communities are generally attempting to go in opposition to the grain, attempting to push one thing on their viewers, and it‘s not what they need. We evolve and iterate [based on data], and that’s why the manufacturers and the group and the audio system can come out and have a good time.
Subsequent Week’s Lingering Query
Bembury-Coakley asks: I believe nostalgia is one thing that‘s been overdone. I might like to know: What’s a greater method for manufacturers to interact with communities or customers that they need to join with?
