It’s a marketer’s dream: Web webhosting a sold-out event for 10k attendees. That producers are begging to be a part of. Oh, and that was headlined this 12 months by way of none versus Taraji P. Henson, Kerry Washington, and Jennifer Hudson.

That’s Shareese Bembury-Coakley’s fact as one of the driving forces behind CultureCon, the sphere’s largest festival for Black creatives and entrepreneurs.

Proper right here’s how she makes the magic happen.

Meet the Clutch

Shareese Bembury-Coakley

Vice President, Business building and partnerships at CultureCon

Claim to standing: Successfully introduced a partnership between the TV show Killing Eve and buy-now-pay-later supplier Klarna; deliverables integrated an in-app experience that sourced pieces from Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh’s (in truth unbelievable) wardrobes. (Lesson 0: Seek for target audience behavior that you just’ll be capable of enlarge. Bembury-Coakley had well-known that target market were asking questions on social media about designers.)

Lesson 1: It’s not “Why this?”, it’s “Why you?”.

At CultureCon, Bembury-Coakley tells me, other folks make a run for Activation Alley as briefly as it opens.

It’s not merely that the activations are very good or {{that a}} particular fashion is there — it’s that CultureCon’s attendees have most sensible expectations, on account of they trust that this 12 months’s activations it will be as superb since the ultimate. (Further on this in a minute.)

With events and experiential spaces becoming ever further saturated, I ask Bembury-Coakley how she sticks out in a crowd. Her solution is deceptively simple: Instead of answering the question, “Why do this idea?” solution the question, “Why do this idea with me?”

“It’s not as regards to it being a novel idea,” she says. “Oftentimes, other folks can’t solution the ‘with me’ question.” To respond to it, evaluation your cultural relevancy, your crew, and your consistency.

And call to mind it as a lens. While you point of interest your ideas by the use of “why me,” you’ll be capable of frame your deliverables come what may that makes it “so simple as conceivable to get buy-in.”

Lesson 2: Assemble trust previous than opening wallets.

Consider was a through-line in our conversation, each and every interpersonally and between producers and target audience. Bembury-Coakley credit score numerous her excellent fortune to having had very good advocates all through her career — alternatively “it‘s double-sided,” she says. “It comes with the very heavy accountability of making positive that you just’re moreover enjoyable your promises on the once more end.”

In several words: Consider is not something that Shareese Bembury-Coakley takes calmly.

She carries this accountability into her artwork with producers and partnerships. I ask her what makes her say “no” to a CultureCon partnership, and she or he right away says, “anything that may betray the trust we’ve built with our crew.”

Consider is the underlying the reason why that Activation Alley is so widespread — fashion activations “aren’t a necessary evil that you just’re connecting with for a unfastened water bottle,” Bembury-Coakley says. They’re “a testament to how authentically our partners have showed up in the past.”

The secret behind the Activation Alley hype is gorgeous simple, in truth: Consistency.

Lesson 3: Creators have audiences. Producers have bosses.

“Creators will have to always keep in mind that their degree of contact has a chairman,” Bembury-Coakley says. “Maximum frequently the person they‘re speaking to is a stakeholder — but it surely indisputably’s maximum frequently not the key stakeholder.”

“The rest that you just’ll be capable of do to be an invaluable useful resource to make it easier for your partner is going to increase the opportunity of them operating with you over again,” she says. “I consider every now and then you check out the producers as a whole, alternatively they’re [made up of] folks.” It’s easy for creators to forget that “figuring one of the simplest ways to navigate the ones producers internally come what may that makes it easy on them” — and that makes them a lot more more likely to want to keep operating with you.

And on the flip facet, “the emblem will have to always have in mind why they wanted to artwork with that writer to begin with.” What eternally happens, she says, is {{that a}} writer’s content material subject material might be reasonably controversial, alternatively after they’ve signed with a fashion, the emblem “wants them to be extremely brand-safe come what may that might be betraying their target audience.”

See? It all comes all of the manner right down to trust.

Masters in Promoting and advertising and marketing was a proud sponsor of this 12 months’s CultureCon, which took place October 4 – 5, 2025.

Lingering Questions

This Week’s Question

In terms of building partnerships for CultureCon, how do making a decision which people to collaborate with — whether or not or no longer that’s audio device, creators, or crew leaders — to ensure they authentically represent CultureCon’s problem and resonate along side your target audience? —Deesha Laxsav, Senior manager of brand name promoting, Snatch

This Week’s Answer

Bembury-Coakley: At CultureCon, data is paramount to the whole thing we do. So, we‘re not making assumptions about our target audience, we’re not merely arising with ideas. We’re in truth letting that [data] inform the whole thing that you just see.

So, the programming that you just see being hyper-relevant? Our communities steered us what they wanted, the producers that they like to engage with, the audio device they wanted to hear from, and we listened to them.

I consider a lot of producers and communities are every now and then taking a look to go against the grain, taking a look to push something on their target audience, and it‘s not what they would love. We evolve and iterate [based on data], and that’s why the producers and the gang and the audio device can come out and have a great time.

Next Week’s Lingering Question

Bembury-Coakley asks: I consider nostalgia is something that‘s been overdone. I wish to perceive: What’s a better approach for producers to engage with communities or shoppers that they want to hook up with?

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