WHILE MOST BRANDS WOULD JUST "SPONSOR" A HOSPITALITY SUITE FOR VIP FESTIVAL GOERS, WE PARTNERED WITH ARTIST AND FILMMAKER BRANDAN "BMIKE" ODUMS TO CREATE A MURAL TO COMMEMORATE THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN BLACK FILM FESTIVAL, CELEBRATING THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN STORYTELLING.

Overview

Cadillac is a longtime sponsor of the American Black Film Festival (ABFF), an annual event dedicated to showcasing entertainment content made by and about people of African descent to a worldwide audience. ABFF is recognized as the nation’s largest gathering of African American film and TV enthusiasts.

For the 20th anniversary of the festival, Cadillac and ABFF saw an opportunity to create an impactful cultural moment for festival attendees. Cadillac created a participatory work of art during the festival in partnership with artist Brandan Odum. Over the course of the three-day festival, attendees were encouraged to contribute to the mural by identifying characters and stories of the African-American experience that have yet to be told in film and TV. In real-time, Odum painted and drew based on the participants’ input. Participants were also allowed to take a digital photo of themselves at the display and encouraged to share it on their social channels.

Outcomes

• The result was a truly unique mural featuring hundreds of images and stories the audience hoped to see in entertainment. The festival concluded with Cadillac giving a $25,000 grant to the winner of the Best Director Award.

• The mural received more than 60K social impressions due to 1,500 attendees interacting with the art.

• Following the festival, the mural was invited to live permanently in the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, as a piece of art, not as a commercial work.