The Strategic Solution

Secured the historic Sugar Mill and Mississippi Heritage Park adjacent to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center where the annual ESSENCE Festival of Culture was taking place. The inaugural ESSENCE Eats™ Food and Wine Festival featured Mark Stephen's strategic festival layouts and applied complete climate-conscious infrastructure that drew guests toward memorable activations and guest experiences developed by the agency. For the three days of festival programming, guest traffic flowed among cooking demonstrations with celebrity chefs, panel discussions with chefs and influencers, and fireside chats. Over three dozen guest hosts, celebrities, and entrepreneurs presented content that explored identity, food, and culture, including Marcus Samuelsson, Patti LaBelle, Kevin Hart, Chef Nikki Steward, and Big Moe Casson. In addition, our design and production teams accommodated 19 local food vendors, including food trucks, multiple bars, and Coca-Cola's demo stage, kitchen, and sampling. Facilitated by our agency's on-site managers, the expanded footprint allowed guests to interact with one another and increased guest exposure to brands as they ate, drank, mingled, played games, and engaged in this high-visibility locale for the festival's numerous vendors and primary sponsors Coca-Cola, Disney, Smirnoff, Ford, and Target.