Sip ‘N Stroke: Celebrating Five Years of London Paint Parties

You’ve heard of painting by numbers, well Sip ‘N Stroke — the flagship brand under founder Marlon ‘Merch Million’ Spence’s VibeLDN banner — is attracting huge numbers of attendees to its legendary London paint party. How? By making every guest feel like a VIP. 

We catch up with Marlon, host Paul Allimadi (aka Bwoy-Wonder) and content creator Monique Duchen to talk about how consistently delivering excellent customer service has enabled Sip ‘N Stroke to amass more than 11k Eventbrite followers while regularly welcoming repeat attendees and taking the corporate entertainment scene by storm. 

Celebrating its five-year anniversary in January 2024, Sip ‘N Stroke started when Marlon — having spent almost two decades in Miami — decided to bring a little of the city’s party atmosphere to the UK. 

“Paint parties were already popular in the US,” explains Monique. ”And from the outset, Marlon wanted to prioritise the guest experience and ensure attendees are entertained at all times. From the live DJs to our host, he invests heavily in the people around him to make the event a success.”

Super-charged event listing pages

At the heart of Sip ‘N Stroke’s success is its love of celebrations, with events catering to various milestones such as birthdays, hen parties, graduations, and even divorce parties. “And so every celebration is as special as possible, Eventbrite makes it easy to include add-ons like Prosecco and cake during the booking process,” says Monique.  

In the six months between April and October 2023, 32% of sales came from Eventbrite channels, and of these, 43% came from the organiser profile page. This is helped immensely by Sip ‘N Stroke’s incredibly informative event listings, complete with logistical details, agenda, images and video — in fact, Eventbrite data shows traffic to listing pages for events with a video is 74% higher.

In addition, there are plenty of opportunities to contact the team. Paul says: “Many people still prefer that human element — it makes them feel a lot more comfortable — and the fact we include a phone number and email address on each of our event listings shows we’re ready to help. Plus, people can DM us on our social channels and we respond promptly.”

“Eventbrite makes it easy to include add-ons like Prosecco and cake during the booking process.”

Monique Duchen, content creator

Ensuring potential attendees feel comfortable continues throughout the checkout process, as Monique explains: “We want to alleviate the pressure because the smoother something is to organise, the more likely someone book with us. What’s great about our collaboration with Eventbrite is that it’s so easy — people can buy tickets for their group or for themselves.

“And even though it’s not our platform, we can carry our branding and visuals through to our event listings so people immediately recognise us.” 

Picture-perfect promotional tactics

All this special treatment means Sip ‘N Stroke has built a strong community of repeat customers with some attending multiple events each year.

“They see a birthday celebration where someone is involved in this activity and or invited to do that little segment, and they want that for themselves when it’s their birthday,” says Paul. “They know there’s a safe space they can go with their friends where they will have fun and be celebrated. It’s a knock-on effect.” Not only that, satisfied customers often share their experiences on social, further fuelling awareness of the recurring event. 

“The [Eventbrite] platform is now a one-stop shop for anyone who’s doing events and promotions.”

Marlon Spence, VibeLdn founder

Demonstrating attendees’ familiarity with the event, of all the sales generated by Eventbrite channels in the six months between April and October 2023, 22% of were direct traffic and 21% were from the Eventbrite app. In addition, the platform has proven to be a powerful discovery tool with 6% of sales from Eventbrite channels coming via Search & Browse. 

“I’ve used Eventbrite from the beginning,” says Marlon. “We’ve seen a lot of features be added throughout the years, such as the integration of marketing tools like Mailchimp for email campaigns and the introduction of Eventbrite’s Marketing Tools [formerly known as Boost], which we’ve just started to explore. By putting all these apps in one place, the platform is now a one-stop shop for anyone who’s doing events and promotions.”

Making things simple is key, with the team setting up duplicate events to save time and effort and curating events through the Collections feature. The team regularly check ticket sale information through Eventbrite and their own channels to refine promotional strategies. 

Since the launch of their paint party, VibeLDN has grown to over 10 active brands, from club nights and brunches to festivals and classes. “Marlon wants to hit every culture point, so everyone has somewhere where they can find joy, laughter and escapism — he wants to provide a range of experiences,” says Monique. 

Events such as Diaspora Nights — which plays Afrobeats and Amapiano — and a BADU Brunch are finding their audience, but it helps that they are under the VibeLDN banner.  “A lot of our brands are benefiting from the success of Sip ‘N Stroke,” says Paul. “We have a lot of enthusiastic followers, so we’re able to cross-promote events.”

Catering to corporates: a stroke of brilliance

Sip ‘N Stroke has also resonated with corporate clients, leading to collaborations with global brands including Snapchat, Meta, Google, YouTube and Coca-Cola. But instead of having to pitch their event to attract new business, the transition was primarily driven by attendees who realised it offered a great social opportunity for their company. 

Tailoring their offer to deliver a unique blend of ‘EduPaintment’ — a word they’ve coined that encompasses art therapy, team-building activities and leadership development — Paul says that, alongside word-of-mouth recommendations, organic LinkedIn posts have proven to be a powerful tool. 

“I’ll post saying ‘Thank you to this corporate for allowing us to get involved in their Black History Month’ and another corporate will see it and email us to ask if we can motivate and inspire their corporate team.” 

The key to their continued success? An unwavering dedication to delivering exceptional guest experiences that leave a lasting impact on attendees, says Paul. “In this way, we’re growing into a powerhouse of a brand.”