Suya Bros

Step 1: Micro-Creator Blitz

This first stage focuses on building awareness and community credibility by connecting directly with West African micro-creators; voices most trusted by their peers and audiences. We spark organic awareness of Suya Bros as a nostalgic taste of home and a practical way to keep West African flavor alive in American kitchens and cookouts!

Execution Strategy

We begin by reaching out to a variety of West African micro-creators across TikTok and Instagram Reels. Each creator receives a complimentary pack of the Suya Bros spice blend with a simple brief: show us how you use it. They can make recipe videos, cooking skits, ASMR seasoning clips, or lifestyle-style moments around grilling, street food nostalgia, or “first taste” reactions. We make it clear that while this is an unpaid seeding round, creators who deliver high-performing or creatively standout content will be considered for future compensated collaborations. The best videos will be compiled into short montage edits for in order to produce original content for the Suya Bros own social pages, giving them an opportunity to further increase their digital presence

Why it works?

Micro-creators with small followings are generally excited to work with brands for little in exchange, as it adds a certificate of credibility that can bring them collaborations with other companies in the future. Informing them that they will be considered for future compensated collaborations provides even more incentive for them to participate.

Being a smaller brand, this method of advertising allows Suya Bros to do a wide promotional campaign without needing an exorbitant budget. Using a variety of content creators also allows the brand to discover what kind of content is most useful for selling their product; perhaps lifestyle content brings more attention and sales than comedic content, and Suya Bros can use this information to guide future promotional campaigns.

Additionally, this strategy allows Suya Bros to build a library of content to use for its own social media posts at no additional cost, making it easier for the brand to remain active on social media.

Step 2: Content to Kitchen

We scale up the campaign in the next stage by collaborating with larger, established cooking creators who already command significant trust and visibility. This is more direct and focused collection of creators than in the last stage; introducing the spice to large audiences directly interested in making flavorful foods.

Execution Strategy

We now reach out to mid-tier and macro-level cooking creators who specialize in African or diaspora fusion food. Each creator receives a paid brief inviting them to make content that shows how Suya Bros transforms their favorite dishes, whether that’s grilled meats, roasted veggies, seafood boils, or preferably, original recipes incorporating the spice blend. The goal is to highlight versatility while keeping a distinctly West African flavor identity at the center.

Creators are encouraged to film short-form videos that tell a story with moments of memory and migration, e.g. “tastes just like the suya my mom makes back in Lagos.” We’ll focus on creators audiences concentrated in metro areas like New York, Houston, and Atlanta, with large African populations.

Why it works?

While influencer marketing is new for many African brands, other food companies have been using it for several years now. Cooking videos are also one of the most viewed forms of influencer content, making it a very powerful potential tool for Suya Bros.

Partnerships with larger creators give the campaign professional polish and scale while maintaining cultural credibility. They will not only expand reach within the diaspora but also validate the brand in the eyes of smaller ones who participated in Step 1.

Additionally, food is commonly cited as one of the most significant ways people maintain their culture in diaspora. By encouraging creators to weave cultural storytelling into their content, this collection of videos becomes a display of acts of cultural preservation, showing how West Africans in the U.S. keep both their flavor and identity alive abroad. We use this more specific and culturally tailored approach on the larger creators in order to maximize the value of the campaign, reserving the experimental approaches for the micro creators in the earlier stage.

Step 3: Suya Brothers and Sisters (Affiliate Program)

After establishing cultural credibility and emotional resonance in the earlier stages, this phase focuses on refining and optimizing through data. We take the best creators from the previous stages and invite them to join an Affiliate program that allows them to receive a percentage of the revenue from every Suya Bros sale they generate. We continually track metrics in order to create scalable and efficient long-term brand partnerships.

Execution Strategy

We review metrics for the video assets across engagement, reach, and overall performance compared to other creators. The top-performing creators are invited to join a 60-day affiliate program. During this period, each creator earns a commission on every sale they generate using a unique link provided to them.

Using the insights obtained from this program, we launch a second 60-day affiliate round, optimized for ROI and creative alignment. Each wave becomes more efficient, balancing cultural authenticity with performance precision. The broader learning then informs all future influencer marketing activity, providing Suya Bros with a data-driven, tested, and scalable creator model.

Why it works?

The affiliate program creates a self-motivating ecosystem where authentic promotion aligns directly with a tangible reward. At the same time, it gives Suya Bros a wealth of performance data; revealing the most efficient cost per sale, the types of content that convert best (e.g. recipe, ASMR, storytelling), and which audiences are most responsive.

This hybrid model of "culture first, data next" represents the essence of what we strive to do at Third Culture Solutions. We ensure the brand stays rooted in identity, but scales with objective insights and careful precision.