Portrait of Bonita Samuels in a black blazer, gold hoop earrings

Media Partnerships, Culture & Community

BonitaSamuels.

Helping brands reach their audiences effectively, and helping communities build businesses that last.

Bonita Samuels is an award-winning media marketer, Director at WPP Media and founder of Beyond Reach, helping brands grow through culture, inclusion and relevance. Recognised by Media Week, the IPA and the Black British Business Awards, she is committed to a more culturally intelligent industry, where investment creates real value for brands and communities alike.

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Brands I've Worked With

Reach gets you seen. Relevance gets you chosen.

Audiences now trust the communities they belong to more than the channels that try to reach them. Bonita works on both sides of that relationship: helping brands reach the right people in the right places, and helping communities turn the trust they've built into businesses that last.

  • For brands

    Effective reach means showing up where audiences already pay attention and trust what they see. Brands that plan with community in mind will win commercially.

  • For communities

    Community platforms create real value for brands. They deserve commercial models that let them grow, stay independent and stay profitable for the long term.

  • For the industry

    When investment flows to independent and community media, everyone gains: better results for brands and a fairer, more equitable industry.

Selected work

Campaigns that meet people where they are

This Girl Can x Amaliah campaign still: two women in wetsuits laughing together beside a lake, under the line The Way We Move
Featured · Media strategy & planning

This Girl Can: We Like the Way You Move

The newest phase of Sport England's This Girl Can widens what counts as getting active, from walking, cycling and park gyms to wheelchair rugby and boxing, led by women from under-represented backgrounds.

The strategy was built on one idea: belonging starts with inclusion. Only one in ten women feel they completely belong in physical activity, so the plan targets the women who feel furthest from it. Behavioural science shaped the media approach, using salience, trusted messengers and social norms to decide where and how the campaign shows up.

Bronze, Most Inclusive Media Strategy · Campaign Media Week Awards 2026

Read more on Creative Salon ↗
Aveeno x Recessland Weekend brand partnership artwork: festival photos layered over a crowd under bunting
Community partnership

Aveeno: Official Glow Partner of Recessland

Aveeno partnered with Recessland, the independent cultural festival in Margate, to bring its body oil spray to a community that lives for the summer.

The partnership ran in two phases. It opened with an exclusive rooftop day party for Recessland's most loyal festival-goers, then moved to the festival itself, with body glitter, product sampling and content capture at the entrance and a branded VIP tent offering massages.

About

From the shop floor to the planning table

Bonita Samuels seated on a yellow sofa in front of the Snap in Colour II stage backdrop

I came into media through community. Blogging, content creation and building online spaces outside my job in retail are what got me through the door nearly ten years ago, and that grassroots instinct still drives everything I do.

I studied Psychology with Marketing, and behavioural science shapes how I plan: understanding what moves people from noticing a brand, to trusting it, to acting. My work helps brands grow with the audiences they most want to reach, by building with the communities those audiences already trust.

I care about who gets to build this industry and who gets paid by it. That means opening doors for young people coming into media, and helping community platforms build commercial models that last.

Recognised by

Featured in

Take Notes

Substack

A TV remote pointed at a blurred streaming screen Our industry has a problem with culture. This Is Leadership podcast episode with Mia Mottley, from the Media Diet list #1 My Media Diet Hand-drawn chart of attention rising to a peak, then a question mark Visibility is not an asset.
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Beyond Reach · Services

Work with me

Get In Touch

Speaking

Keynotes, panels and fireside chats on culture, community media, how brands reach audiences that matter, and building a career in media.

Workshops

Practical sessions that give teams the tools to plan with culture and community, from the brief to the media plan.

Consultancy

Focused strategic support in two directions: helping brands reach their audiences effectively, and helping community platforms build commercial models that last.

Speaking · recent

  • RecentBlack Tech FestSpeaker
  • RecentSnapchatSpeaker
  • RecentThe IPAPanel: Rethinking media for culturally relevant brands