Afro Nation Festival
Afro Nation is a global music festival celebrating the African diaspora through music, dance, fashion, and food, showcasing artists across Afrobeats, Amapiano, R&B, Hip Hop, Dancehall, and more. With editions in Portugal, Ghana, Puerto Rico, Miami, and Detroit, the festival has become a platform amplifying African artists on the world stage, attracting over 50,000 attendees. Past headliners include Burna Boy, Wizkid, Tyla, Davido, Megan Thee Stallion, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige and Nicki Minaj. As Marketing Lead for the 2026 launch, I spearheaded integrated, multi-channel campaigns to drive ticket sales and elevate the festival’s global presence. I directed strategy across brand, content, press, partnerships, and sales channels, ensuring maximum reach and engagement. This involved crafting cohesive campaigns that aligned with Afro Nation’s cultural vision while delivering measurable results across audience acquisition and awareness.
Services
Marketing Communications Strategy, Audience Development, Branding, PR, Digital Marketing, Campaign Mangaement
Year
2025
Project Overview
Objective
I was tasked with developing and executing the marketing strategy to promote the festival’s global music and cultural programme. This includes maximisng ticket sales, audience engagement, and strengthening Afro Nation’s position as a leading platform for African music worldwide. The lineup includes Tyla, Wizkid, Gunna, Mariah the Scientist, Asake, Khelani, and more.
Insights
Data from previous editions showed strong audience loyalty, with over 10,000 tickets already sold by the end of the 2024 festival in pre-sales for 2025. To capitalise on this, we launched a priority access sign-up campaign targeting 10,000 fans, offering exclusive early access to tickets. The campaign surpassed its goal, generating a highly engaged audience ahead of the main ticket release.
Strategy
I led a multi-channel marketing campaign across e-newsletters, SMS, social media, digital ads, website, press, CRM, and strategic partnerships, overseeing integrated brand, content, and sales campaigns. The approach ensured cohesive messaging, maximised audience reach, and drove ticket sales, while engaging fans with priority access and exclusive experiences.
Branding
For the 2026 campaign, we took a bold approach with the Afro Nation branding, pushing the identity further than in previous editions. The goal was to refresh and upgrade the brand while keeping it instantly recognisable. We introduced an upgraded Afro Nation logo mark, explored updated typography for the main logo, and iterated on the body and header copy to create a cleaner, more contemporary look.
The visual language drew inspiration from African cultural references, craft, and textile patterns, incorporating shapes, gradients, and a brighter, bolder colour palette. We moved away from relying on illustrations or images of people, which had been used in previous campaigns, creating an identity strong enough to stand on its own.A key focus was on gradient-led design, abandoning the usual solid colours to create a visually fresh aesthetic. Each gradient was designed to evoke warmth, energy, and positivity, paired with clean, modern, and slightly futuristic typography. This approach gave Afro Nation a striking, contemporary edge across print and digital media, helping the campaign feel forward-thinking, creative, and youthful, and appealing to a wider, global audience. Overall, the 2026 branding aimed to feel bold, modern, and elevated, signalling Afro Nation’s evolution while remaining faithful to its roots and cultural heritage.
Website & Digital
I led both the functional development and design direction of the Afro Nation website, working closely with our web platform and providers Easol to coordinate site functionality, including page structures, booking journeys, and ticketing e-commerce. Easol also served as our central analytics and data platform, housing insights on revenue, traffic, and audience engagement, which required day-to-day performance tracking, particularly during high-pressure on-sale periods. During major ticket launches, the website experienced extremely high demand, with pages often oversubscribed and traffic surging to the point where the site effectively became a waiting room due to volume. Managing this required close collaboration, testing, and optimisation to maintain performance and user experience. For the first time in Afro Nation’s history, we also launched Afro Nation all-inclusive hotel packages, which became a key focus of the website. This involved close coordination with our website agency, travel partners, and internal teams, alongside extensive testing. I oversaw the design, functionality, copy, and end-to-end user journey, ensuring the experience was clear, intuitive, and conversion-focused. Across the site, I ensured the brand identity was applied consistently and confidently, using gradients, patterns, shapes, imagery, and motion to deliver a bold, engaging digital experience that supported both storytelling and sales.
Talent & Line-Up
Afro Nation 2026 presented a chart-dominating, culturally defining line-up, showcasing some of the biggest artists in the world right now. The programme featured Tyla, Wizkid, Gunna, Mariah the Scientist, Asake, Kehlani, Olamide, Niska, and more, spanning Afrobeats, Amapiano, R&B, Afro-rap, and global Black music. For the first time in Afro Nation’s history, the festival also debuted a new Afro-House and electronic stage, expanding the programme and reflecting the evolution of African and diaspora-led dance music on a global scale. Talent announcements were strategically rolled out through Phase 1 and Phase 2 line-up drops, fully integrated into the wider marketing campaign. Each release was designed to build momentum, drive spikes in ticket sales, and sustain global conversation across social, email, press, and digital channels. The approach positioned Afro Nation 2026 as both culturally relevant and commercially powerful, led by artists shaping the charts and defining the sound of now.
Ticketing & Packages
The ticketing strategy featured three tiers, General Admission, VIP, and Golden Circle, alongside flexible payment plans to improve accessibility and conversion. Building on strong loyalty from previous years, over 10,000 tickets had already been sold by the end of the 2024 festival in pre-sales for 2025. To capitalise on this, we launched a priority access sign-up campaign targeting 10,000 fans, offering exclusive early access to tickets. The campaign surpassed its goal, generating a highly engaged audience ahead of the main ticket release, and during pre-sale periods, over 80% of General Admission tickets sold.
For the first time in Afro Nation’s history, we introduced all-inclusive hotel packages, expanding the festival experience beyond the site itself. Packages were tiered as Bronze, Silver, and Gold, each designed for distinct audience needs and offering curated experiences such as private parties and DJ sets, wellness and fitness amenities, beachfront accommodation close to the festival, gift bags, and surprise guest appearances. I developed the naming conventions and positioning for each package, aligning their benefits to specific audience segments. I also worked closely with hotel partners to capture content and build a library of assets, and collaborated with the operations team to ensure packages were seamlessly platformed, effectively promoted, and fully integrated across the campaigns.
Social Media
The social media campaign for Afro Nation 2026 was central to driving ticket sales, promoting hotel packages, and launching the refreshed brand identity, while maintaining ongoing engagement with the festival’s global audience. Campaign content included teasers, line-up announcements, phased line-up drops, on-sale and sold-out messaging, ticket tier promotions, hotel packages, and artist cards, supported by professionally designed graphics and video reels. Video content included promo trailers, artist-focused videos, and compilation reels, providing dynamic storytelling across channels. Campaigns were executed across Instagram (our largest platform with 1.1 million followers), TikTok, and Facebook, maximising reach and engagement. Strategic artist collaborations ensured resharing of graphics and line-up posters, amplifying reach and creating authentic engagement through their audiences.
Paid social media advertising was heavily utilised to target existing fans, new audiences, and those already in the ticketing funnel, leveraging urgency messaging, creative assets, and immersive festival storytelling to drive leads and conversions. The social strategy was designed around key moments, particularly ticket on-sale periods, where traffic and engagement peaked. Content, timing, and messaging were carefully planned to ensure high performance during these critical periods, while building hype and maintaining momentum across the campaign lifecycle.
Email Newsletters
The email marketing strategy was a core part of the campaign, designed to target multiple audience segments, including the Afro Nation mailing list, previous attendees, and pre-sale sign-ups. Email campaigns mirrored social media activity, covering date announcements, line-up drops, pre-sale notifications, ticket tier information, and hotel packages.
A mix of targeted, conversion-focused mailers and broader narrative-driven campaigns was deployed to balance immediate action with audience storytelling. This approach created a cohesive, immersive experience for subscribers, reinforcing brand identity, building anticipation, and driving both pre-sales and full ticket sales. Email performance was tracked continuously, with content and timing optimised to maximise engagement and conversion rates.
Content
Content development focused on bringing the full Afro Nation experience to life. I commissioned video editors to produce a main promotional trailer, capturing the festival’s energy and diversity, from location, food, fashion, and pop-ups to music stages. Additional content included artist-specific videos, compilation reels, and post-festival highlights, providing audiences with a comprehensive view of the festival experience.
We also leveraged existing content from previous editions, including audience testimonials and behind-the-scenes footage, to give new audiences insight into the festival’s scale and culture. All content was designed to work cohesively with marketing campaigns across social media, email, and website platforms, enhancing storytelling and reinforcing Afro Nation’s position as a leading global festival.
Photography
High-quality photography was central to communicating the human and cultural experience of Afro Nation. We drew from existing photography libraries and new shoots to showcase festival moments, crowd energy, and artist performances. Images were paired with the refreshed brand identity, incorporating gradients, patterns, shapes, and design elements to ensure visual consistency. Diversity and inclusivity were key priorities, with photography highlighting attendees from across the globe, reflecting the festival’s international audience and ethos. This approach reinforced Afro Nation’s cultural relevance and helped communicate a sense of community and celebration that resonates worldwide.
Press & Media
Press activity was coordinated in collaboration with our PR agency to support major campaign milestones, including line-up announcements, ticket launches, hotel packages, and festival highlights. Coverage spanned mainstream, lifestyle, and international outlets, ensuring broad reach and visibility with global audiences. Press campaigns were integrated with social, email, and website strategies to create a unified storytelling approach, building momentum and reinforcing Afro Nation’s credibility and cultural significance. This multi-layered approach ensured the festival maintained top-of-mind awareness, drove ticket sales, and positioned Afro Nation as a global leader in African and diaspora music culture.
