Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator (BBA) in partnership with Amazon Live recently held a special brunch edition of Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner series, and synergy surged.
Source: Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
Amid the excitement and magic of New Orleans’ ESSENCE Fest, Amazon’s “From Influence to Impact: Leveraging Influence to Amplify Black-Owned Products” brunch united a myriad of people.
Source: Alexys Feaster and Funmi Ford attend Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
Source: Aliscia Marie attends Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
The lively group included investors, influencers, advisors, finance experts, internal Amazon stakeholders, and visionary business owners from the Amazon Black Business Accelerator community, who enjoyed candid conversation and cajun-style food offerings from the world-famous Brennan’s on Royal Street.
Source: Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
Source: Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
Leadership from Amazon present at the brunch included Wayne Purboo, Vice President of Amazon Shopping Videos, who offered tips to influencers looking to succeed on the platform.
The executive encouraged business owners and content creators to collaborate to expand viewership, increase customer engagement, and ultimately, generate more revenue. In particular, the VP praised singer/reality star Kandi Burruss for succeeding with episodic programming on the Amazon Shopping platform.
“Think of it as a show,” said Purboo. “Too many influencers, go live, and they’re just like, ‘Here’s product A and here’s product B,’ those don’t work. It’s all about being more episodic and going on at a regular time. One of the influencers who does a great job [at this] is Kandi Burrus. She’s on at the exact same time, her audience knows her and she knows the products that her audience is interested in.”
Source: Wayne Purboo attends Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
“She has curated her own audience and we pay her to access that audience. It’s about owning your audience and understanding the value of the products.”
“It’s all about habit,” he added. “People turn on their TV the same time every day, they check their social at the same time everyday and if you’re there with something that your audience wants, then you’re going to do really well.”
Also spotted was Danyel Surrency Jones, Head of Amazon’s Undiscovered & Small Business Accelerator who was joined by Valeisha Butterfield and the event’s moderator, Jotaka Eaddy.
Each of the ladies shared inspiring words with attendees…
Source: Jotaka Eaddy, Danyel Surrency Jones, and Valeshia Butterfield attend Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
as did influencers Marty McDonald and Funmi Ford.
Source: Casey Ferrand McGee, Marty McDonald, and Funmi Ford attend Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
McDonald, the founder, and CEO of Boss Women Media and creator of the Elle Olivia lifestyle brand, shared how she used her knowledge of data and numbers from a Nielsen data report on Black women’s spending power to enter the entrepreneurship space and eventually garner a sponsorship deal with Amazon’s black business accelerator leveraging her to six-figure deals.
“It was the curiosity of the data that I had, and my arsenal on my community that led to people wanting to know and lean more,” said McDonald. “So I think the strategy is always to lead with the data first. Data and numbers are how to peak the curiosity of others.”
Source: Marty McDonald attends Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
Similarly, Ford encouraged fellow influencers to take their content creation seriously.
“Look it as a business, setting up that LLC, setting up that escrow; that’s one,” she said. “Two; setting your systems in place when it comes to a schedule for creating, a scheduling for reaching out to brands, a schedule for scaling up our business because after a while you can’t just keep creating for brands, what are you creating for yourself?”
Source: Enitan Bereola and Funmi Ford attend Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
Other attendees at Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner series, included Bevy Smith who reminded everyone that it indeed gets “greater later” while noting that while she’s not an influencer, as she’s a “person of influence,” she has great respect for the content creation craft.
“I love love, love, to see y’all influencers, I respect what y’all do,” said Smith.
Source: Bevy Smith attends Amazon’s BBA Equity Table Dinner Series/ Amazon
This event meticulously designed to foster collaboration and dialogue among influential stakeholders, was a refreshing respite amid ESSENCE Festival’s hustle and bustle for attendees to feast on not just food; but knowledge.
Check out more photos from Amazon’s “From Influence to Impact: Leveraging Influence to Amplify Black-Owned Products” brunch below.