In 2017, I was approached by the co-founder of Afrochella at my Bronx apartment. He wanted me to oversee brand sponsorship for an event series he was launching, leveraging our longtime friendship and my previous success with securing brands. Despite offering to teach him the basics of brand sponsorship and pitching, he insisted I take on the job.
Fast forward to Spring 2019, I received the Afrochella deck and immediately began strategizing. I aimed for a big brand with an EMEA team. The first person who came to mind was Tyler Phillips , who has always been supportive and willing to teach.
Timeline:
April 9, 2019: Sent my first email outreach to Tyler Phillips with the subject "Afrochella 2019 Proposal."
June 3, 2019: Followed up with a second email, "Afrochella 2019 Proposal + Updates."
June 4, 2019: Tyler responded, connecting me to the AMEA team to discuss potential support and scheduling a call.
June 25, 2019: Tyler and her team requested a follow-up.
June 28, 2019: Introduced Tyler to Afrochella’s co-founders via email to discuss the partnership in detail.
July 3, 2019: Tyler connected me with Sylvia Sulkes, who promptly processed the invoice.
August 19, 2019: Planning began with the local Bacardi team in Africa.
November 18, 2019: The Ghana team was ready to engage and start planning.
December 28, 2019: Afrochella X Bacardi 2019 took place in Accra, Ghana.
I'm grateful to my childhood friend for trusting me with his vision early in the planning phase. Tyler Phillips deserves the MVP award for her continuous support and encouragement. I first met Tyler in 2015 when she sponsored a successful LA daytime traveling brunch. Since then, I've consistently pitched events and activations to her.
Before securing monetary funds from the brand, I built up the relationship through in-kind product pitches valued at $5k - $10k, including staff, mobile bars, signage, product, and more.
Previous Pitch Timeline:
June 20, 2016: D’USE pitch for DJ Drama Listening Party – ZLK & Co Previous Client: EOne.
June 20, 2016: D’USSE X YG’s “Still Brazy” BBQ Pitch.
Reminder: Nothing happens overnight. Build genuine relationships, ask how you can assist, offer what you have, never stop pitching, creating events, or developing original experiential activation concepts and ideas. The sponsorship funds will come.
