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 yr by none aside 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 bought 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 unbelievable) wardrobes. (Lesson 0: Search for viewers conduct that you would be able to 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, individuals make a run for Activation Alley as quickly because it opens.
It’s not simply that the activations are superb or {that a} explicit model is there — it’s that CultureCon’s attendees have excessive expectations, as a result of they belief that this yr’s activations might be pretty much as good because the final. (Extra on this in a minute.)
With occasions and experiential areas changing 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 thought?” reply the query, “Why do that thought with me?”
“It’s not nearly it being a singular thought,” she says. “Oftentimes, individuals can’t reply the ‘with me’ query.” To reply it, consider your cultural relevancy, your neighborhood, and your consistency.
And consider it as a lens. Whenever you focus your concepts by way of “why me,” you may body your deliverables in a means 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 superb advocates all through her profession — however “it‘s double-sided,” she says. “It comes with the very heavy duty of constructing certain that you just’re additionally fulfilling your guarantees on the again finish.”
In different phrases: Belief is not 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 will betray the belief we’ve constructed with our neighborhood.”
Belief is the underlying cause that Activation Alley is so in style — model activations “aren’t a mandatory 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 up to now.”
The key behind the Activation Alley hype is fairly easy, actually: Consistency.
Lesson 3: Creators have audiences. Manufacturers have bosses.
“Creators ought to at all times do not forget that their level of contact has a boss,” Bembury-Coakley says. “Normally the particular person they‘re speaking to is a stakeholder — however it’s usually not the key stakeholder.”
“Something that you are able to do to be a useful resource to make it simpler in your associate goes to extend the probability of them working with you once more,” she says. “I believe generally you have a look at the manufacturers as an entire, however they’re [made up of] people.” It’s simple for creators to neglect that “figuring the way to navigate these manufacturers internally in a means that makes it simple on them” — and that makes them extra more likely to need to preserve working with you.
And on the flip facet, “the model ought to at all times 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 could be barely controversial, however as soon as they’ve signed with a model, the model “desires them to be extraordinarily brand-safe in a means that will be betraying their viewers.”
See? All of it comes all the way down to belief.
Masters in Advertising and marketing was a proud sponsor of this yr’s CultureCon, which happened October 4 – 5, 2025.
Lingering Questions
This Week’s Query
In the case of constructing partnerships for CultureCon, how do you determine which individuals to collaborate with — whether or not that’s audio system, creators, or neighborhood leaders — to verify they authentically signify CultureCon’s mission and resonate along with your viewers? —Deesha Laxsav, Senior supervisor of name advertising, Clutch
This Week’s Reply
Bembury-Coakley: At CultureCon, information is paramount to the whole lot we do. So, we‘re not making assumptions about our viewers, we’re not simply developing 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 have interaction with, the audio system they wished to listen to from, and we listened to them.
I believe a whole lot of manufacturers and communities are generally attempting to go towards 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 neighborhood 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’d like to know: What’s a greater means for manufacturers to have interaction with communities or customers that they need to join with?
