Shades of Marketing Tour

The Black Marketers Association of America wanted to create an experience that brought Black marketing professionals together in cities across the country.

Shades of Marketing would need to serve professionals at very different stages of their careers, from entry-level marketers to C-suite executives, while giving them opportunities to build relationships, exchange knowledge, and engage with brands invested in reaching this audience.

But for the experience to grow beyond a single successful event, BMAA also needed a model that could work from city to city.

The objective was to create an experience that could deliver meaningful connection for attendees, measurable value for sponsors, and a sustainable framework BMAA could repeat.

The vision was there. The infrastructure to scale it was not.

Taking Shades of Marketing across five cities meant BMAA wasn’t simply planning an event five times. Each stop required sponsorship, promotion, registration, talent coordination, vendors, catering, content capture, and day-of execution while still needing to feel like one cohesive experience.

There was also a financial target to meet. BMAA needed a sponsorship strategy capable of generating $15,000 while giving partners like Southwest Airlines more meaningful ways to engage than simply placing their logo in the room.

Without a repeatable structure behind the tour, growth could easily create more complexity without creating more value.

Brandfelt approached Shades of Marketing as a scalable experience rather than a series of individual events. That meant designing the infrastructure around the experience alongside the experience itself. We developed a sponsorship model that could communicate the value of the audience and create meaningful opportunities for brand partners to participate.

Operationally, we created the agenda, run-of-show, vendor structure, and coordination processes needed to carry the experience from one stop to the next. And because the value of Shades of Marketing depended heavily on who was in the room, the attendee experience was intentionally designed to reduce the traditional barriers between career levels.

Executives, speakers, and emerging professionals weren’t separated into different experiences. They shared tables, conversations, and access.