Doek & Slay UK: Cultural Marketing & Audience Development

Case study 04Live now

Doek & Slay UK

United Kingdom · 2026 · 2026, ongoing

Context

Doek & Slay is a women-only cultural festival built around sisterhood, fashion, music and community. As Head of Cultural Marketing and Audience Development, I shape its UK cultural positioning, audience strategy and growth.

Women · Sisterhood · Fashion · Music · Freedom · Spectacle

My role

Cultural Strategy · Audience Development · Community Growth · Marketing

Cultural positioning for the festival and its UK audience.
Audience segmentation and Zimbabwean diaspora engagement.
Community outreach, group sales and friendship-group acquisition.
Campaign narrative, storytelling and cultural insight.
Partnerships, programming input and audience experience.

The work

Korrine Sky writing the Doek & Slay audience strategy on the whiteboard — At the board

Korrine Sky in a green suit working through the strategy on the whiteboard — Building the strategy

Korrine Sky mapping the 250 to 5,000 growth question on the whiteboard — 250 to 5,000

Korrine Sky leading the room during the Doek & Slay strategy session — Leading the room

Korrine Sky in a green suit directing the Doek & Slay strategy session from the head table — Facilitation

Korrine Sky and the room in front of the Doek & Slay strategy board at Nyaradzo House — Insight to strategy

Korrine Sky working through the audience strategy with the room at Nyaradzo House — Working the strategy

Strategy board reading Doek & Slay UK, artists equal entertainment, women equal product, 250 by 20 equals 5,000 — The strategy, on the board

Team members greeting each other at the start of the session — Team alignment

A participant raising her hand during the strategy session — Participation

The session being led at the front of the room at Nyaradzo House — Facilitation

Team members in discussion around the table during the session — Working the room

Participants seated together listening during the session — The room

A participant responding during the strategy session — Response

Wide view of the session room with the strategy board on screen — Insight to strategy

Team members talking across the table between exercises — Between exercises

Nyaradzo House, the venue for the Doek & Slay strategy session — Nyaradzo House

The strategy

Audience Segmentation
Community Networks
Group Behaviour
Cultural Storytelling
Partnerships
Programming
Experience Design
Audience Growth

/Who is the Doek & Slay woman?
/What motivates her?
/What could stop her buying a ticket?
/Who influences her decision to attend?
/How important are friendship groups?
/What role do price, location and transport play?
/How do we reach women outside the existing audience?
/How do we make the festival culturally desirable rather than simply advertised?

The thinking

The artists are the entertainment. The women are the product.

The festival is not defined by whoever performs. The product is the woman attending: how she feels, who she comes with, what she wears, who she meets, the pictures she takes and the community she becomes part of.

So the marketing question stops being who is performing, and becomes why this woman needs to be in this room.

The growth question How do we turn 250 connected women into a movement of 5,000?

Impact

5,000: Audience target for the UK festival
250: Connected women at the starting point
Ongoing: Cultural marketing and audience strategy

A defined cultural position, a segmented UK audience and a growth model built on community networks rather than paid reach alone.

I do not only speak about cultural strategy. I build it, then hand teams something they can execute.