rockorange, Author at RockOrange

23 Jun 2016

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Brand Cleveland Rising

Sticky Post By rockorange On June 23, 2016

So, this space was supposed to be reserved for an exultation of the Golden State Warriors’ second consecutive NBA title and an exploration of their innovative fan outreach. The Warriors, for the past 24 months, have been the NBA’s flagship brand, led family values, kid-friendly Stephen Curry, a player who is every marketers dream. They have no less than six bona fide stars on their team, and consistently lead the league in jersey sales.

However, that storyline went out the window Sunday night when Kyrie Irving hit a late three-pointer and LeBron James sealed the win with a free throw, earning the Cleveland Cavaliers the franchise’s first NBA championship and Cleveland’s first championship in more than 50 years.

There might be no bigger brand turnaround story than the Cleveland Cavaliers. Owner Dan Gilbert’s franchise has pulled a 360 during the past decade. In 2007, a much younger James led Cleveland to the NBA finals, where the San Antonio Spurs summarily crushed them. In 2010, James—the hometown hero who made the Cavs relevant nearly single-handedly—signed with the Miami Heat as a free agent, leading that team to four finals trips and two titles. Meanwhile, the talent bereft Cavaliers began a putrid four-year stretch as the worst team in the league.

Then The King came back. When James announced he would return to Cleveland in 2014, it portended better times, and they were immediately improved as they played their way to the championship round despite a hobbled supporting cast. However, the Cavs lost to the Warriors in 2015. Still, James’ return immediately made the team twice as valuable, rocketing up the list of NBA valuations.

And that was before Sunday’s win. After a historic comeback against grim odds, the Cavs have completed their comeback as a brand refreshed. Some 31 million viewers watched the final game, making it the most-watched NBA Finals game since Michael Jordan’s heyday. Returns are early, but bandwaggoneers are already clearing shelves and online inventory of team apparel. Kids across the country are wearing Cleveland’s number 23. Season ticket sales for NBA champs are invariably higher than the previous seasons, assuming no loss of star power. On that topic, James, who reasserted his claim as the best player alive, is expected to re-sign with the Cavaliers during his impending free agency. Six years ago under similar circumstances, Cleveland fans were left disappointed when LeBron took his “talents to South Beach.” Such a move is highly unlikely this year.

Everything is coming up Cleveland. It’s a great story about an underdog made good. James and Cavaliers have proven that the NBA is a rare brand ecosystem where one talented person, properly focused and channeled, can literally reverse a brand’s destiny.

21 Jun 2016

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How Do You Selfie?

Sticky Post By rockorange On June 21, 2016

Apparently the average Millennial may take up to around 25,700 selfies during their lifetime spending more than an hour each week taking and posting the images to social media sites.

So today, in honor of #NationalSelfieDay, we asked – how do you Selfie?

16 Jun 2016

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Do You Live TV?

Sticky Post By rockorange On June 16, 2016

Apple TV is going live. Deals have been done with, among others, Dish Network for its Sling TV platform and Fox for its Live Fox Sports Go service, bringing dozens of live channels to Apple TV users. But is Apple too late? Does anyone care about, or watch Live TV anymore?

We asked our RockStars – do you Live TV?

10 Jun 2016

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RockOrange Welcomes Rafael Aguirre

Sticky Post By rockorange On June 10, 2016

In communications, digital is the way of the future. Agencies that hope to remain viable in the future need team members who can tell an array of stories across all of those platforms.

So it is with this in mind that we proudly welcome our agency’s new digital strategist, Rafael Aguirre, into the fold. Our latest RockStar sports an expertise in digital marketing and an in-depth knowledge of the realm of social networking. Rafael has a proven track record of organically increasing brand awareness online while developing a lasting correlation with consumers—skills heavily sought after by our brand partners.

Recently, Rafael has crafted impactful campaigns for numerous large brands, including Volkswagen, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Royal Caribbean and Marriott.

Rafael says he approaches jobs by trying to understand a brand’s core needs, then by working to identify trends and opportunities that are authentic to the brand. He has extensive expertise in dealing with the U.S. Hispanic market, the largest growing demographic in the country.

A graduate of Full Sail University in Orlando, Rafael got his start in the industry as a digital product production coordinator for Sony Music. Most recently, Rafael was at Miami-based Nobox where he was a social media strategist.

“Social media is the untamed, wild west of the web,” he says. “It’s powerful because it’s instant. You reach millions of people directly.”

At RockOrange, Rafael will tailor client content to best reach end users using search engine optimization tools that help brands navigate the internet wilds. In short, he’ll help our clients brands shine online.

09 Jun 2016

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Why Snapchat?

Sticky Post By rockorange On June 9, 2016

It’s official. There are more people snapping every day than they are tweeting. 150 million daily users in fact compared to Twitter’s 140 million. And it’s not just Twitter. Snapchat now sits second only to Facebook in the amount of time users spend in social apps beating out Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger among others.

So we asked our RockStars – Why Snapchat?

Here’s what they had to say.

07 Jun 2016

Sticky Post By rockorange Posted in Blog, Featured Permalink

RockOrange Wins PR News Social Media Award with History-Making Facebook Campaign

Sticky Post By rockorange On June 7, 2016

RockOrange has added another award to its growing list of accolades by taking top spot in the ‘Facebook PR Campaign’ category at this year’s PR News Social Media Awards.

Why did we win? Quite simply because, with Macy’s and Thalia, we made Facebook and Fashion history.

In early 2015, RockOrange incepted and managed the first-ever Facebook Fashion show to promote the launch of Macy’s first-ever Hispanic-backed exclusive clothing line Thalia Sodi for Macy’s. The show aired live on Thalia’s Facebook page to millions of fans around the world and RockOrange reached across social media platforms and promoted the hashtag #thaliaformacys, which became a top trending term during the event and in the hours that followed.

The activation was a drop-dead success on all levels. As the first-ever Hispanic-backed exclusive clothing line to span several internal departments at the quintessential department store, the Facebook runway reveal also became the first of its kind in the history of the ubiquitous social network. The launch was one of the largest in Macy’s history.

More than 5,987 people viewed the show live and 410,134 more engaged with the event live. In its first 15 minutes of broadcast, some 34,000 people viewed the video of the fashion show. Over the next two hours, that figure ballooned to over 300,000. Today, more than three million people have seen the show.

Beyond the immediate success of the show, our Facebook Live Streaming was a trendsetter for numerous other brands that would execute similar campaigns in the following year. The trend has been followed most recently by Versace, Kate Spade, IDENTITIES, organizers of London and New York Fashion Weeks, and, ahem, Crochet Empire’s jock strap fashion show, just to name a few.

The full list of winners from this year’s PR News Social Media Awards can be found here.

03 Jun 2016

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Raising dough for Red Nose Day

Sticky Post By rockorange On June 3, 2016

What’s red and sweet and delicious all over? You guessed it, RockOrange’s Red Nose Day bake sale!

To give a little background, Red Nose Day was started by a UK non-profit organization, Comic Relief, in 1988. The fun and silly day devoted to raising money for children in poverty around the world has collected more than $1 billion in the last 25 years.

RockOrange joined the Red Nose Day bandwagon last year and continued to #RockTheRedNose last Thursday, May 26. We raised major dough (pun intended!) with a FUN-raising bake sale. Normally, orange is our color, but on this day each of our RockStars brought 12 red baked goods and we decked out our office kitchen in matching red.

We had delicious red treats like: red velvet cupcakes, chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry shortcake cookies, cookies with red M&M’s… We’re getting hungry again just thinking about it. Some of our teammates donned their creative cooking hats and brought dark chocolate bites with goji berries sprinkled on top or cookies filled with guava. (Yes, they were just as delicious as they sound.)

RockOrange raised a grand total of $245 to benefit children worldwide! We want to thank everyone who contributed to this great cause.

10 Feb 2016

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Nostalgia, Celebrities, Easy Cultural References and Dumb Laughs: What Grinds My Gears About Super Bowl 50

Sticky Post By rockorange On February 10, 2016

By David Quinones

Last week, our RockStars ranked their favorite Super Bowl commercials of all-time. Now, on the heels of one of the least exciting games in recent Super Bowl memory, during which the world’s attention drifted from the subpar play on the field to the 30 and 60-second spots, we thought we’d take stock of this year’s crop.

Frankly, the slew of offerings was about as underwhelming as Cam Newton’s postgame press conference. Mildly entertaining? Sure. Memorable? Maybe a couple. But where were the game-changing, imaginative and innovative campaigns we’ve become accustomed to?

The creative process for conceiving a Super Bowl commercial, which this year cost some $5 million per 30-second spot, seems to have been reduced to a paint-by-numbers template approach: find a celebrity people know, surround them with a few widely shared cultural references, and pepper in a few easy sight gags.

Comparing this year with years past, we see some trends:

• Absurdist humor: Whether its aliens dryly joking about Scott Baio and murder or a gaggle of Ryan Reynoldses hawking Hyundais, the humor has gotten decidedly more random and scattershot. This is likely an outgrowth of the general trend in comedy, which has been led by the likes of Upright Citizens Brigade alumni, Louis CK, Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow. A lot of today’s commercials echo sketches from The State 20 years ago.

• Remember when?: Nostalgia and a yearning for a time-gone-by drive a lot of creative choices in the modern Super Bowl ad.

• Multi-celebs: One famous person will help your brand get noticed. So it stands to reason a bunch of famous people will really help your brand get noticed. Ensemble casts are in.

• Cars are more than cars: Almost every car commercial—the leading industry among Super Bowl advertisers—is focused less on function and more on lifestyle. Car commercials on this stage have become exclusively “what the car says about you,” not what the company has to say about its car.

• Cinematic look’n’feel: It’s becoming increasingly common to see brands make 30 or 60 second commercials that rival big budget Hollywood blockbusters in production value and tone.

• Animals work: Dogs, Clydesdales, bears and #puppymonkeybaby. Anthropomorphism is so hot right now. So is dressing up animals. Even though they probably hate it.

Not all of these elements are required, but they are almost universally adopted.

Sometimes, it comes together quite well. Case in point…

Here, the right celebrity (Janelle Monae) is paired with an inventive throwback through-the-years soundtrack concept and visuals that hit all the right notes.

Sometimes, it doesn’t work:

And sometimes, it just feels like they’re trying too hard.

These celebrity ensemble casts in commercials always seem to come across as a group of people thirsty for attention with their own products to shill. In this case, they came right out and said as much. We couldn’t remember what the commercial was for after it was over (Amazon Echo).

A few more celebrity-driven low fruit entries…

Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen get all mumblecore in this Bud Light spot that seems more like a parody of a Bud Light spot in a Judd Apatow movie.

Liam Neeson for LG because… ?

T-Mobile convinced Steve Harvey to poke some fun at himself in this spot:

Another celebrity smorgasbord, this time a bit more pretentious, from Mini USA:

Plus Helen Mirren sweating drunk drivers on behalf of Budweiser:

And Kevin Hart starring in a commercial trope as old as time, except this time Kevin Hart is in it:

From “people we know” to “things we know”, Coca-Cola used an odd couple of Avengers (without actually using the actors’ faces):

Apartments.com traded on the recognition of the Jeffersons theme song:

Audi using David Bowie’s Starman:

And Acura using David Lee Roth’s vocals:

Maybe it’s best to understand rather than lament the lowering of the brow and bar. As a brand, if your budget is already hamstrung by a $5 million buy-in, the deep, difficult creative work of devising a truly nuanced, compelling ad campaign might not be worth the investment. Better to just dress up some wiener dogs like… wieners?

Unless you are Avocados from Mexico, that is. Their commercial, #Avosinspace, was legit funny. Moreover, it was a truly original commercial that did not take the easy way out by relying on nostalgia, celebrities, easy cultural references or dumb laughs.

(Ok, we hear you, but one second of Scott Baio doesn’t technically count as nostalgia, and the commercial didn’t hinge on it.)

A few others are worthy of credit for originality and not pandering to the easiest common denominator of celebrity/call-backs/cute animals.

Colgate devoted their time to a message more powerful than dental hygiene:

A group of character actors who once upon a time played the Sobotka clan in season two of The Wire got back together on screen as a group of goofball bank robbers for Prius:

And then there was this, which we’ll just leave right here…

05 Feb 2016

Sticky Post By rockorange Posted in Blog, Featured Permalink

Top 10 Most Memorable Super Bowl Ads

Sticky Post By rockorange On February 5, 2016

Millions are getting ready for the biggest sports event of the year, those of us in the PR and advertising industry are paying close attention to the highly anticipated commercials that Super Bowl 50 will bring this weekend.

Each year, brands pay millions of dollars for a 30-second spot during the game in hopes of connecting with consumers, and this year is no different — the base price for a spot in 2016 is estimated at $4.5 million.

As we prepare for the Big Game this Sunday, our RockStars looked back at some of their favorite ads, and put together a list of their top 10 most memorable Super Bowl ads:

The Force: Volkswagen Commercial

Budweiser Super Bowl XLVIII Commercial Puppy Love

Doritos Superbowl Commercial Contest 2015

Budweiser “Lost Dog” Superbowl 2015 Commercial THE FEELS

Betty White Snickers Super Bowl Commercial 2010

Bud Light: Satin Sheets

GM Robot Super Bowl Commercial

BMW i3 – “Newfangled Idea”

Newcastle Brown Ale Commercial 2015 – Aubrey Plaza Prepares You for Band of Brands

Taco Bell: ‘Viva Young’

ENJOY!

21 Dec 2015

Sticky Post By rockorange Posted in Blog, Featured Permalink

Happy Holidays featuring Adelf

Sticky Post By rockorange On December 21, 2015

While we’re always working to deliver solid, fresh ideas for our clients, one of the best parts of the holiday season is that we get to have a little bit of fun thinking out of the box for our more festive projects.

This year, once again, we wanted to share some humor and holiday joy with you, our friends and clients that have made 2015 such an incredible year for us. In our first year, our Elf on the Shelf came to life. Last year, our Elf showed you how to take an Elfie. And this year, we’re excited to bring you… ADELF.

We had a lot of fun producing this parody — but we went the extra mile and held a Fresh Ideas Challenge among our RockStars, too. Everyone took key scenes from the video and created some pretty funny memes. It was a true roller coaster of emotion — from the awkward, to the heartbreaking, to the hilarious. Take a look below!