Billionaires, Hip-Hop, and Human Connection: Aja’s Journey as a Moment Maker

In this special solo episode of Making the Moment, host Aja Bradley-Kemp flips the mic and formally introduces herself—sharing her incredible career journey from MAC Cosmetics to founding the award-winning experiential agency, Conversate Collective.

Aja opens up about the iconic moments that shaped her path, like working on the legendary MAC Viva Glam campaign featuring Mary J. Blige and Lil Kim, launching iconic celebrity sneaker collaborations for Reebok, and why a single, heartfelt interaction at Beautycon reignited her passion for creating experiences that bring people together and leave them feeling seen and filled with joy. 

It’s a journey filled with intention, reinvention. 

Whether you’re an event producer, a marketing leader, or a curious creative looking to launch your own event, this episode offers a personal, inspiring, and practical guide to creating brand experiences that deliver true results.

#MakingTheMoment #ExperientialMarketing #BrandStrategy #EmotionalROI #CXLeadership #InclusiveMarketing  #CulturalImpact #BrandLoyalty #ImmersiveExperiences #MarketingPodcast #HighProfileClients #EventPlanningSecrets #BusinessPodcast #MarketingPodcast #Events #ExperientialMarketing  #BrandMarketing #BrandEvents

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

We've all seen them, those experiences that stop us in our tracks, the moments that flood our feeds, shift culture, and bring people together. I'm Asia Bradley Kemp, and I've helped generate millions in revenue and billions of impressions by creating scroll-stopping moments for some of your favorite brands and celebrities. This is Making the Moment, the podcast that brings you the untold stories, unfiltered insights, and big ideas from the architects behind the moments that matter. In each episode, I'll show you how to design experiences that not only captivate audiences, but also drive tangible value for your organization. Whether you're looking to build buzz, boost loyalty, or drive revenue, I want to help you design customer experiences that truly make an impact. This is for the moment makers and the culture creators. Welcome to Making the Moment. Hey, Moment Makers. Welcome back to another episode of Making the Moment. I am your host, Asia Bradley-Kemp, and it is Solo Dolo Day today. I'm coming to you from Atlanta on my own, no guests, just you and me, and thought I'd just take some time to formally introduce myself because we just got into this podcast interviewing some amazing guests, and I haven't had a chance to tell you guys all about who I am. So, you know, who is this lady talking to all these people? So you all know my name is Asia Bradley-Kemp, and I am the founder and chief experience officer at Conversate Collective. Conversate Collective is an award-winning experiential marketing agency, and it's one that I started Almost 10 years ago, I can't believe the time has gone so fast, but I started the agency and originally it was supposed to be an integrated marketing agency and it was an integrated marketing agency. But I started doing integrated marketing work and then had the opportunity to work with another agency on their business. And they were helping clients with digital marketing and influencer marketing. And part of the pitches that they created for their clients called for brand activations. And so they asked us to help them bring these ideas that they had to life and bring these environments that they wanted to create for influencers to life. And it is during that process, I... fell in love with doing events again. And so events weren't new to me. It's something that I had done throughout my career. And when I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time doing that, it just reignited the spark for me in creating experience and the joy that comes from creating moments with consumers. So I'll take you guys back a little bit further and where that joy originally began. So my background is in marketing communications. And I spent many years working in the beauty industry. In fact, I worked for a little known makeup brand called MAC Cosmetics for about eight years between the US and Australia. And I was the head of communications in Australia. But through that job and working with MAC, I got to work on some iconic moments in beauty and culture. So some of you will remember remember the Viva Glam campaigns. And the first Viva Glam campaign that I got to work on was with Mary J. Blige and Lil' Kim. And talk about iconic. That was an iconic moment. In the early 2000s in New York City, we did this amazing event. And everybody who was anybody in the music industry was there from Jay-Z and Dame Dash. And it was the coolest night. And it was one of the very first events I got to work on with Mac. I'd done other events before that in my other roles. And I'll talk about those in a little bit too. But. For me, that was one that will always stand out because it was such a pivotal moment in hip hop culture, in culture period with these two black women fronting a international campaign where all of the proceeds from the product went to support people affected by HIV and AIDS. So that is something that is always going to be a highlight of my career. And it was one of those opportunities where you you saw the power of what marketing does. So we were not only doing an event, but it was all of the marketing around that, all of the PR that was created, the press, and really building this moment to get consumers inspired and excited about a product to then go out and purchase it. During my time at Mac in the US, we went on to raise over$15 million for the Mac AIDS Fund. And to know that that the work that I was doing was contributing to that is something that I'm always going to be so proud of in my career. So after my time at MAC in the U.S., I went on to work with other brands and be a part of some other iconic moments, including working with the Reebok brand and the launch of their celebrity sneaker lines. So they partnered with celebrities like 50 Cent and Jay-Z, Allen Iverson, Daddy Yankee, to do a whole slew of signature campaigns and signature release collections that I was able to be a part of. And that included, you know, doing events around Jay-Z's Black Tour and working on Pharrell's ice cream line. That's what it was called at the time. So those are always some great memories as well. And again, it just was exercising that event muscle in creating activations, whether they were for consumers or for just for media to just help get that buzz going so that we could have successful product launches. One of my most favorite activations during that time and launches during that time was for Virgin Mobile. And some of you might've heard me tell this story before, but it's another one that as a young 20 something in New York, it's a pinch me moment, the things that I got to work on. And so for Virgin Mobile, they had a holiday mobile phone campaign or holiday plan campaign, and we needed to build some buzz around that. And so the idea that we came up with collectively as a team was to create this fictional holiday that blended all of the holidays and got people really excited around the holiday season to go out and purchase a new phone plan. And to make a moment, I decided to put Richard Branson in the harness and have him flying through the rafters of his Times Square store to create a moment around this fictional holiday. And that was a lot of fun and it got a ton of press. There were tons of people that crowded into the store in Times Square and tons of media from Entertainment Tonight to the local news covered this. And again, it just fed my soul. And this is the reason why I'm in this industry and do what I do. So that just gives you a little bit of a snapshot on the early days of my career. I could go on and tell stories for hours. And if you guys want to hear more stories, let me know. And, you know, we can always do another episode with some of the fun moments that I've had over the years. But I just wanted to kind of give you guys a little bit of background on, you know, why I am in this industry and, you know, what makes me an expert, so to speak, to talk about activations and creating branding experiences. But fast forward back to how Conversate Collective got started, you know, during that time when we were out on the road and working with the other agency and helping their clients create these moments for consumers, there was a pivotal, a really pivotal interaction that I had at one event. And it was the second year in a row of this client being at BeautyCon. And this was pre-pandemic. And this woman, she was a consumer, she came up to me, she saw me in line at our brand activation, and she came up to me and she remembered my name. And she said, Hey, Asia, remember me? And I knew her face. I didn't remember her name, but I knew her face. And she said, I saw you guys are going to be here again this year. And I had to come and see what you created and what you guys were doing. And that just For some reason, just touched my soul again. And it's just like, you know, the fact that this woman took time out of her day and her experience at this event where there were always long lines that you had to stand in to get whatever the freebie was or the discounted product. And she stood in line. She didn't, you know, come to the front of the line and say, Hey girl, can you, can you get me in? She stood in line, did the experience. Cause I was like, I think at the end of the line, um, And yeah, and she came up to me and just express, you know, how much she appreciated what we had done. And it was there again, that it was another light bulb moment that said, Asia, this is what you need to be doing, you know, and I love being able to. bring people joy and bring people together. And so it was at that moment when I was thinking about, okay, where do I take my business? It was in that moment I realized that my strength and what really fuels me is experiential and is creating these moments where brands can really connect with consumers and build a relationship with them and help these brands stay top of mind with their consumers. So that is, you know, how Conversate Collective began. And, you know, the reason why I decided to do this podcast is because I am a production nerd. I am a marketing nerd. And there's so many talented people in this industry that are doing amazing things on a daily basis. And, you know, when I got started back in the early 2000s with MAC Cosmetics, we didn't have social media and we didn't have influencers. Our influencers were the socialites. It was like the Paris Hiltons and it was is the celebrities. Those are the influencers. And now it's a totally different time. But the premise, I guess, is the same. It's, you know, connecting the right people with brands to generate that awareness, get that attention, have that moment that'll get people talking. And so there's so many things that I see on a daily basis, whether I'm scrolling on social media or talking to friends or watching TV, watching a film that inspire me or watching a live event that inspire me from, you know, attending a concert to attending a conference. And so I wanted to I want to learn from these people. And so I thought creating a podcast is a great forum to have. have those conversations to learn from others so that I can better service our clients, but also to, you know, give homage to the talent that we have in this industry that are often behind the scenes that you don't know what they do. They'll often tell you their family doesn't understand what they do. My mom did not understand what I do for a long time. So, you know, it's give a chance to put the spotlight on the great work that people are doing. Um, And then also to inspire you, the audience, who are trying to every day come up with new ideas to support your clients and to help them reach their goals. So that is why I created Making the Moment. And I hope you guys will stick around for the second half of season one because we have a lot of great guests that are soon to come that you're going to learn from. And we're diving into all kinds of industries from sports to business conferences to beauty events and more. So I definitely hope you guys stick around and hear from some more of our guests. If there are any guests that you want to hear from, drop me a line. Would love to get them in here too. And if, you know, you have any questions about, you know, how you can create experiences, whether you're a small brand just starting out or you're, you know, from a Fortune 500 company, feel free to reach out. My DMs are always open on LinkedIn. Just tell me that you, you know, listen here to making the moment. So I have a point of reference and I would be happy to chat and give, you know, any advice that I can. So before I get out of here, I just thought I would share a couple of tips that really helped me when I sit down with the client and we start thinking about how do we create an experience that is going to achieve a result. And I thought this would be helpful whether you are a solo D2C brand owner that doesn't have millions of dollars to spend in marketing, or if you're in-house at a brand and you're an experiential marketer, new in your career, later in your career, or if you are a small business owner that does weddings for clients. So I think these tips are universal, and I just thought I'd share some of my thinking and hopefully it'll help you. So number one, when creating an experience that is going to generate a result is you got to start with a strategy. A lot of times clients will come to you with an idea or a feeling that they want to create and you can find yourself going off and running just with that. But really sitting down and understanding, what is your why for doing this? Why is this brand spending X amount of dollars to do this? What are they needing to get out of it? What is the goals? Are there some specific goals or KPIs that need to be achieved? And what is the business mandate? And if you can start with those things at the top, and work your way back, that will help ensure that whatever you're coming up with, you always have that North Star that you're referring to, and whatever you're coming up with will ladder up to achieving that ultimate goal. So that's number one. Another thing that needs to be a part of your strategy is understanding who the customer is that you're trying to connect with. And one of the things that I always like to ask about trying to understand that customer is who where are they now in their life, in the funnel with this brand, and where is it that they wanna go? And this is a question that you can ask that applies to both business events and consumer events. And so really understanding who the customer is where they might be in their experience with the brand, and then what action you want them to take either during the event or at the end of the event. Knowing that, I think, is also key to then creating a strategy that will deliver some positive results. So after you have laid the groundwork for your strategy and you've gotten into, you know, what this experience could look like and the themes and the creative and all of that fun stuff, there's a couple of other things that I think are essential to really being intentional about when it comes to designing an experience that is going to achieve results. So think about your engagement and the engagement that the attendee is going to have with your brand or with your experience in the environment. And one of the things I always like to ask when it comes to engagement is what's in it for the attendee? You know, what is it that we are going to create in this space that is going to provide them value either while they're here or after they leave? So thinking about it from the attendees lens is really important. I also like to ask, what's the attendee journey at the experience or in the activation? And is there something that we can co-create with the attendee or with the participants? And I'm being very top line in general because you guys that are watching and listening come from all different backgrounds. So I don't want to give too many specifics, but these are things, some key questions that can be applied to any industry. And then lastly, I think another thing to think about and ask yourself is what does the experience communicate about my brand? So are there any key messages that we really need to get across that we really want the attendee to walk away with? And does this experience communicate it? So engagement is really important. And I think if you think about those questions or ask those questions, that will help you develop a really engaging environment. Another key element for a successful experience design is thinking about your swag strategy. There's no way to get around it. Everybody wants a freebie. Have you gone somewhere and spent time giving a brand your details and walked away with absolutely nothing? No, it's not happening. So let's spend time thinking really strategically about our swag. And so to slay your swag, there are a couple of key things that I like to do. Number one, think about, can we make this item practical, useful, wearable, so that when they leave this moment, that they will continue to use it? Another thing you can do is tap into trends. So if you recall the episode with Karen Rabinowitz from Slumoo, she had mentioned how she had a Slumoo charm, bag charm on her, and she was out at a gallery and a young girl came running over and grabbed her charm. And so it's things like that that can catch attention that have tapped into a trend that can make your experience live on after the moment is done. So tap into trends. Another thing that you can do is look at, can we give away a high ticket item? And that can be mean many different things to many people. We've given away designer handbags at events. I've seen electronic Bluetooth speakers given away. That's something that costs a bit of money. It's not a need to have. It's not a must have. It's a like to have. And if it's a like to have, then it's got some dollars put behind it. People will remember it and they'll use it. And every time they'll use it, they'll think of you. Another thing that you can think about to slay your swag is, Again, the whole theme of co-creating, you know, what is something that you can, what's a experience that you can design that allows your attendee to co-create their takeaway with you? So you can do something where you have a personalization area, where you can have a piece of clothing embroidered, or you can add a personalized saying to a t-shirt. All of those things, it allows people to have a little bit more buy-in and agency into the gift that they're getting. A few don'ts when it comes to slaying your swag. You don't want to overly brand it. Now, we know our brands, they love their logos as they should, and things need to be branded because we are paying for this item, this experience, but we don't want to overly brand it unless it's a brand that people love and they want to be a billboard for. So be conscious of how you're branding it. We don't want to just give away branded stationery unless, again, you're tapping into some kind of trend or it is personalized in some way, but nobody needs another notepad that has your logo on it. That's not a fun gift. And then the last thing I'll say is to not slay your something that you don't want to do is you don't want to leave it to the last minute. So don't make it an afterthought. Really think about this at the beginning when you're putting your strategy together. Think about it all the way from the engagement to what you're going to do for swag. Okay, so now we're at the last element of creating a high-performing experience. You want to think about measurement and what it is that you want to measure. This is something that you want to think about ahead of time, whether internally with your team or with your client, so that your efforts are not in vain. So some of the things that you can measure, and there's a whole another episode, probably two, three, five episodes that we can do on measurement and return on investment and all that good stuff. Some things that you can think about and maybe get some quick wins depending on the deliverables and the requirements from the brand and the client are Thinking about what are the number of touch points in your experience that you can measure engagement with. And that can be via QR codes. That can be a number of people that actually took action in the different environments that you've set up. So think about the number of touch points in the experience. So another thing that you can measure is emotion. What is the satisfaction that the attendee had in the experience? What kind of sentiment do they now have about your brand? Those are great emotions that you can measure by a survey or even an exit poll. NPS is another great measurement tool that I like to use. And NPS really helps you understand how does that attendee feel about your brand and what is the likelihood that they are going to recommend it to a friend. Word of mouth is a very strong driver of brand sales and brand support. And so having that NPS score can really help you understand the effectiveness of the activation you designed. Another metric that you can use in understanding the effectiveness of your event is measuring the impact of the content that you're creating. So if you think about events as a content vehicle that really helps bring your brand to life, why not measure it? And that could be anything from social impressions to the engagement to the views. And the last thing that you can measure, while the weight of that measurement may not be as great as some of the other metrics that we mentioned, is sales or uptake on any offers that you provided at your event. You should always measure the results of, we had this product that we offered, we got X X amount of people to purchase it or sign up or X amount of people use the coupon that we provided. That is a great metric to be able to report back to your team. So there you have it. Those are just a few of my tips on designing high-performing experiences that can generate results. Thank you so much for being here today on this solo episode of Making the Moment. If you enjoyed what you heard, if you have some tips of your own, if you had some feedback on the tips that I shared, Put it in the comments. We definitely read them. And if you ever want to chat about experiential, give me a shout. You can hit me up in the DMs on LinkedIn. That's the best place to find me. Let me know that you're a listener of Making the Moment and I'd love to chat. Great seeing you guys. And I hope you join us for the second half of season one of Making the Moment. We've got some great guests coming up. And until next time, don't be afraid to make your mark and make the moment.