It’s every marketer’s dream: hosting a sold-out event with 10,000 attendees. There are brands begging to be a part of it. Oh, and the headliners this year were none other than Taraji P. Henson, Kerry Washington and Jennifer Hudson.
That’s the reality of Shareese Bembury-Coakley as one of the driving forces behind CultureConthe world’s largest festival for black creatives and entrepreneurs.
Here’s how she makes the magic happen.
Meet the Master
Shareese Bembury Coakley
Vice President, Business Development and Partnerships CultureCon
Claim to Fame: A partnership between the TV show was successfully sold Kill Eve and the “buy now, pay later” service Klarna; Services included an in-app experience selecting pieces from the (truly incredible) wardrobe of Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh. (Lesson 0: Look for audience behavior that you can reinforce. Bembury-Coakley had noticed viewers asking questions about designers on social media.)
Lesson 1: It’s not about “why this?”, it’s about “why”. You?”.
At CultureCon, Bembury-Coakley tells me, people do one run for the activation lane as soon as it is open.
It’s not just that the activations are great or that a particular brand is there – it’s also that CultureCon attendees have high expectations because they trust that this year’s activations will be just as good as the last. (More on that in a moment.)
As events and experiential spaces become more saturated, I ask Bembury-Coakley how she stands out from the crowd. Her answer is deceptively simple: Instead of answering the question, “Why this idea?” Answer the question: “Why this idea?” with me?”
“It’s not just about it being a unique idea,” she says. “Often people can’t answer the ‘with me’ question.” To answer the question, evaluate your cultural relevance, your community, and your consistency.
And think of it like a lens. By focusing your ideas on “why me,” you can design your deliverables to make it “as easy as possible to get buy-in.”
Lesson 2: Build trust before opening wallets.
Trust was a key point in our conversation, both interpersonally and between brands and audiences. Bembury-Coakley attributes much of her success to having great advocates throughout her career—but “that’s two-sided,” she says. “It brings with it a very big responsibility to ensure that you keep your promises on the back end.”
In other words: trust is not something Shareese Bembury-Coakley takes lightly.
She carries this responsibility into her work with brands and partnerships. I ask her why she says “no” to a CultureCon partnership and she immediately replies, “Anything that would betray the trust we’ve built with our community.”
Trust is why Activation Alley is so popular — branded activations “are not a necessary evil that you associate with for a free bottle of water,” says Bembury-Coakley. They are “proof of how authentic our partners have been in the past.”
The secret behind the Activation Alley hype is actually pretty simple: consistency.
Lesson 3: Creators have an audience. Brands have bosses.
“Creators should always remember that their contact has a boss,” says Bembury-Coakley. “Typically the person they’re talking to is a stakeholder – but generally not Key Stakeholders.”
“Anything you can do to make things easier for your partner will make them more likely to work with you again,” she says. “I think sometimes you look at the brands as a whole, but they are (made up of) individuals.” It’s easy for creatives to forget that they’re “thinking about how to deal with these brands internally to make things easier for them” – and that makes them more likely to want to continue working with you.
And on the other hand: “The brand should always remember why it wanted to work with this creator in the first place.” What often happens, she says, is that a creator’s content might be slightly controversial, but once they’re signed to a brand, the brand “wants it to be extremely brand-safe in a way that would betray their audience.”
See? It all comes down to trust.
Masters in Marketing was a proud sponsor of this year’s CultureCon, which took place October 4-5, 2025.
Lingering questions
This week’s question
When it comes to building partnerships for CultureCon, how do you decide which people to work with – be they speakers, creators, or community leaders – to ensure they authentically represent CultureCon’s mission and resonate with your audience? —Deesha Laxsav, senior manager of brand marketing, Clutch
This week’s answer
Bembury Coakley: At CultureCon, data is at the forefront of everything we do. So we don’t make assumptions about our audience, we don’t just come up with ideas. We really let this (data) influence everything you see.
So, in your opinion, programming is extremely relevant? Our communities told us what they wanted, what brands they liked to interact with, what speakers they wanted to hear from, and we listened to them.
I think a lot of brands and communities sometimes go against the grain and want to force something on their audience, but that’s not what they want. We evolve and iterate (based on data), and that’s why the brands, the community, and the speakers can come out and have a great time.
Next week’s remaining question
Bembury-Coakley asks: I think nostalgia is something that is overdone. I would like to know: How can brands better engage with communities or consumers they want to engage with?
