HBO’s Insecure
I had the distinct pleasure of working on HBO’s Insecure campaigns. Personally, it was a long-awaited series; I had led the multicultural marketing campaign strategies for Boardwalk Empire, The Knick, Ballers and even a couple seasons of Game of Thrones. But until Insecure, at HBO there had never been any episodic comedy series that was written, produced, directed and starring Black talent. It was actually unprecedented in any streaming network. I couldn’t have been more excited and proud to work on developing a campaign that leaned into the series’ resonant themes, highlighted storytelling arcs and celebrated the culture.
In terms of strategy, music as a campaign tenet was the most organic approach. The series’ creators were champions in seamlessly leveraging music as a storytelling device but also breaking new artists. Developing an experiential activation that combined music and the series created Insecure Block Party in NY for season one. It was a litmus test to see what the experience could yield IRL for tying in a tall wishlist: celebrating culture, highlighting community partners, series’ storytelling and music performances. And it worked.
The following season we brought Insecure Block Party to LA, wherein Market Street in the city of Inglewood was closed off and graciously hosted our outdoor activation. For this iteration a movie theater repeatedly screened the first episode of the season through the day, caterers were replaced with Black-owned small business restaurant and bar vendors outside and live music performances included Kamaiyah, Yung Baby Tate, Ty Dolla $ign, SiR, and SZA. A partnership with Genius helped amplify the day’s events with custom digital content leveraging influencers.
For season 3, my thinking was “go big or go home.” The series was generating its biggest viewership in season 2 and the resonance it had culturally needed something grander. InsecureFest was born. A day-long music festival and premiere screening in the recently opened home of the Los Angeles Football Club, BMO Stadium, in downtown LA was the kinda big I was looking for. My activation agency partner, Team Epiphany, helped bring this vision to life. We decided to partition the field to better accommodate a central screening moment and rein in the scale of production elements. Aside from hosting the season premiere for over 2,500 guests, InsecureFest was a kaleidoscope of activities: games, prizes, slides, bouncey houses, themed food and drinks, and music performances fro Sweetie, Aminé and 2 Chainz. To amplify, partnerships were struck with Spotify, Teen Vogue and Hypebeast. The single event garnered 490 million organic social media impressions. It was a thrill.
Throughout my work on Insecure I collaborated closely with Issa Rae and her team at Hoorae and an incomparable agency partner, Team Epiphany, to bring the series to life via experiential activations, custom content capture and partnerships with FYF Fest in LA, Essence Fest in New Orleans, OneMusic Fest in Atlanta, Afropunk in NYC and American Black Film Festival (ABFF) in Miami, Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF) in Martha’s Vineyard and Sundance Film Festival in Park City.
Here’s an overview of my purview on this series:
Spearheaded strategy and execution for HBO Insecure seasons 1-4 multicultural marketing campaigns
Developed partnership strategy for campaigns to focus on highlighting historically Black colleges and universities, Black artists, musicians, content creators and small owned businesses
Lead partnership negotiations with activation partners including, Sundance Film Festival teams, Essence, ABFF, MVAAFF among others
Developed Webby Award winning after-show recap podcast, Insecuritea.
Managed a growing team of direct reports and scaled responsibilities to include evergreen marketing strategy development and annual long-lead operational strategy.
Season 1:
Season 2: Insecure Block Party (LA)
Season 3: Insecurefest
Season 4: Insecure Virtual Campaign