She also noted that Coca-Cola, AT&T, L’Oréal, Disney, and McDonald’s have already locked in multi-year agreements, which she said was “historic,” citing that in the past Essence saw a lot of transactional relationships with partners that she referred to as “one-and-done.”  

“Each year we were at the table negotiating again—which doesn’t really bode well for this audience that we really super-serve every single day for the past 50 years.”

Investing dollars on an audience that makes sense

In the words of Jay Z, “Men lie. Women lie. Numbers don’t.”

While they are going into the festival weekend in good spirits and manifesting good fortunes, both Bennett and Malcom-Thornton are still feeling the burn of seeing Black media companies bearing the brunt of recent budget cuts brought on by the recession. Malcom-Thornton hopes companies who made pledges in 2020 that were since abandoned return to the fold to renew and follow-through on those promises to invest in EFOC and Black-owned media, and like any good CRO, came armed with compelling stats to make her final case.

“The average time spent in a booth at the Essence Festival is close to 30 minutes; whereas the average time spent on a digital ad, in general, is less than two seconds. So, the time spent with this audience is unparalleled, versus any other medium out there.”

She added, “My message to our future marketers is to tap into the $2 trillion buying power that the Black consumer has, and [do it] in a very meaningful way.”