Elizabeth Brochhausen, 37, is the director of partnerships and experiential marketing for SiriusXM Pandora. She’s based in New York.
My career journey:
I have always had a deep appreciation and love for music and its ability to unite people and bring joy. When I was a freshman at Wagner College, I was presented with an opportunity to work at Columbia Records as an intern to the head of promotions. I fell in love with the music business—working records for Jill Scott, John Legend, and others to radio. I loved the excitement of it and the creative environment of the record label. I dropped out of college after a year of juggling both the internship and my course load and decided to focus on building my future in the music industry.
After two years of working in the business full time, I decided to go back to school at Five Towns College (FTC), where I majored in business administration and music. During my time at FTC, I took an internship with Billboard magazine, working in their live events department, planning their conferences and special events. After college, I took a job as the editorial assistant and executive assistant for the editorial director, who quickly promoted me to an editor. I was overseeing the Backbeat section of the magazine, covering the industry's events. I used this position to grow my network and quickly added editorial programming for Billboard''s own events into my job description. That job brought me back over to the event side of the house, where I managed operations and the programming integrations.
During my time at Billboard, I produced a host of its conferences and award shows—The Billboard Latin Music Conference, The Billboard Touring Conference and Awards, Billboard's Women in Music Awards (which was later picked up by Lifetime and turned into a television special), and I helped to create the first-ever Billboard Power 100 event. After seven great years at Billboard, I moved over to Pandora where I began as a manager, building out its tentpole brand events and custom sales programs. I've spent the last eight years here growing an incredible team of producers who drive hundreds of millions of impressions and sponsorship dollars for our brand annually.
My greatest career accomplishment:
My greatest career accomplishment is my team. Discovering talent, bringing people together, and fostering a collaborative and kind work environment brings me so much joy. Watching my team succeed is the most rewarding part of this job for me.
What my day-to-day looks like:
Meetings, meetings, meetings!
Brochhausen's most memorable event—"our recent celebration of Beyonce's Renaissance (act i) in Times Square this summer." She called the event a "historic opportunity" and pulled off "a beautiful tribute to Queen Bey" in just five days.Photo: Courtesy of Sirius XM Pandora
I am pretty proud of our recent celebration of Beyoncé's Renaissance (act i) in Times Square this summer. I was presented with this historic opportunity, in partnership with Parkwood Entertainment, with only five days' lead time. Hardly enough time to permit space in Times Square, hire a DJ, book all of the equipment, hire staff, design and print event collateral, and create a companion billboard that ran overhead during the event. Despite all of the challenges and lack of runway, I was able to pull off a beautiful tribute to Queen Bey—who is one of my all-time favorite artists, and who created (in my opinion) the best album of 2022.
Some impressive stats I’m responsible for:
I increased one client’s yearly spend on media and experiential by 450% over four years.
I was a part of a small task force that crafted and implemented our virtual strategy during the pandemic, driving 2.5 million visitors into our experiences and more than 1 billion press impressions.
What inspires me:
I'm inspired by my team daily—their creativity, their heart, and their tenacity. I'm inspired by art, music, and culture. I'm inspired by the human spirit and our ability to overcome challenges and strive for greatness.
Impressively, Brochhausen was responsible for increasing a client's yearly spend on media and experiential by 450% over four years.Photo: Courtesy of Sirius XM Pandora
A couple things: The ability to make and sustain lasting relationships within the industry is one of the most important parts of the job.
Every person on a job has value and importance—from the bathroom attendants to the technical director—everyone should be treated with equal respect and appreciation.
Do what you say you're going to do. Show up when you say you're going to show up.
A time I averted a complete event disaster:
A few years back, we were in Nashville producing a high-profile CMA Fest-adjacent event with a superstar artist who had a family emergency 18 hours before doors and had to cancel. We'd been working on the event for more than six months, and it was a huge tentpole program for us—2,000 excited fans (some already waiting in line), a host of confirmed media, and multiple sponsors all stood to be incredibly disappointed.
We worked quickly and efficiently to find a replacement and luckily booked (the truly incredible) Brad Paisley, who was in town for the CMA Fest. We got his show advanced and set up, crafted guest communications, and reprinted many of the artist-centric branded elements just in time for doors. It was a brilliant save, and the team all hustled to turn lemons into lemonade in record time.
What’s next for me:
We're in an interesting time—there are looming macro-economic challenges worldwide that will impact the way we work. Budgets will be smaller, timelines will be shorter, and it will be a fun challenge to find new ways to meet our audiences where they are.
My ideal day OOO:
My ideal day off is spent with my husband and seven-year-old daughter—hanging out at home playing games and cooking together, or traveling and exploring new places and cultures.
BizBash's 2023 40 Under 40 list is sponsored by VDA, a Massachusetts-based experiential marketing and event design agency that specializes in custom live, hybrid, and virtual experiences designed to drive business growth through client collaboration and creative thinking.
