The Best Marketing Event Ever

Role: Creative Director, Organic Lead Strategist, Experience Architect

Location: York Hall, London

Ad Spend: £0

Result: Sold out. 1M+ organic impressions. Two book launches. One boxing ring.

The Brief

Sell out a legendary London boxing venue for a one-night business event.

The speaker lineup: Gary Vaynerchuk, Shaa Wasmund, Ryan Lee, Sean Whalen, Jamie Alderton.

The budget for paid ads: zero.

The expectation: make it feel like something that's never happened before.

No pressure.

https://youtu.be/8uxv-QGVgRE

What I Actually Did

Anna Thundergun, Sean Whalen, and Kolby Kay

I was Creative Director and Organic Lead Strategist, which is a fancy way of saying I did several jobs at once and hoped nobody noticed:

• Experience design. Built the full attendee journey—from first click to standing ovation—to match the emotional arc of two simultaneous book launches. The boxing ring wasn't a decoration. It was the metaphor.

• Organic content strategy. Ran the playbook across Meta and Twitter/X. No ads. Just behind-the-scenes storytelling, real-time content drops, and the kind of urgency you can't manufacture with a countdown timer.

• Livestream activation. Used live content to build momentum in the final push. Not "going live to say we're going live." Actual moments that made people feel like they were already missing something.

• Event direction. Helped run the night itself—speaker flow, pacing, audience energy. The part nobody sees unless it goes wrong.

  

  Gary Vaynerchuk & Anna Thundergun

What Worked

• Community over promotion. We didn't sell tickets. We invited people into something. The content felt like access, not advertising.
• The venue as story. York Hall is where British boxing legends fought. Putting business speakers in a boxing ring wasn't gimmick—it was message. Transformation happens in the ring.
• Urgency without desperation. Registrations jumped 30% in the final two weeks. Not because we screamed "LAST CHANCE." Because the content made people feel like they were already late.

Ketan Makwana, Kolby Kay, Shaa Wasmund, & Anna Thundergun

The Numbers

We didn’t rely on hype.

We built real momentum:

• Sold out — with zero paid media
• 30% registration spike — final two weeks, organic content only
• 1M+ impressions — launch week, earned media
• Two book launches — integrated into swag, stage, and storytelling

The Testimonial I Didn't Write

"I saw Gary Vee was speaking at something called The Best Marketing Event Ever. I bought a ticket, grabbed my camera, and left inspired. I skipped the afterparty, stayed up all night, and uploaded the event showreel at 4:30am. That's hustle."

— Mark Leruste, Attendee + Showreel Editor

https://theunconventionalists.com/tv-show/in-the-ring-with-gary-vaynerchuk

He had a point-and-shoot camera, iMovie, and PicMonkey. That's the energy we built. Not polish. Momentum.

What It Felt Like to Attend

"Around noon on April 20th, 2016 I received a text from my camera guy: he was volunteering at an event in London with Gary Vee. I immediately searched it up and there it was — The Best Marketing Event Ever. Despite the £99+ ticket price, I bought it. I mean, when else do you get to see Gary Vee and Shaa Wasmund speaking inside a boxing ring at York Hall?

That night, I forgot my notebook and pen — but I left with so much more. I skipped the afterparty, stayed up all night, and by 4:30AM, I had edited and uploaded a full recap of the event. I only had a point-and-shoot camera, iMovie, and PicMonkey. But that's what hustle means to me: using what you have to put something out into the world when it matters most." — Mark Leruste, Attendee

The Showreel

Proof that marketing can actually move people.

https://youtu.be/VvKuDWl8uj4?feature=shared

What I Bring

If you're building something that needs to feel alive—not just optimized—here's what I do: