Bulldog Reporter Awards RockOrange Bronze for Miami Zoological Wildlife Foundation Digital Campaign

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We’re thrilled to announce that RockOrange has been awarded Bronze in the category of ‘Best Use of Digital/Social for Cause/Advocacy/Corporate Social Responsibility’ for the digital work we executed on behalf of Miami’s Zoological Wildlife Foundation (ZWF) in this year’s Bulldog Reporter Digital/Social PR Awards.

RockOrange was hired as the Agency of Record by ZWF in 2015 to help the brand find its voice, increase brand awareness and drive visits to the property. Through a series of content-driven digital strategies, we helped ZWF increase its online presence increased by 343 percent. Website traffic increased by 63 percent and the brand’s social media following shot up 67 percent.

The increased digital presence and media coverage resulted in their ranking on TripAdvisor as the #5 Best Thing to Do in Miami, #9 Best Zoo in the World, and #4 Best Zoo in the U.S. Brand sentiment increased from 92 percent positive to 98 percent positive and brand negativity decreased 67 percent.

RockOrange’s bronze is one of 48 honors awarded to companies who have made amazing strides in the world of digital and social media public relations and communications. Bulldog’s Digital/Social awards were by working and award-winning journalists from a number of different media outlets including The Washington Post, USA Today and The Oregonian. Scoring for agencies is based on the following criteria: creativity and originality, strategic and tactical brilliance, breakthrough communications approaches and of course the results of all efforts.

RockOrange Makes Trash Trend with Anti-Litter Campaign

Keep Us Fit, Pick Up Your…

Trash.

That was the call-to-action for the City of Miami Beach’s “Keep Miami Beach Clean,” the city’s first-ever anti-litter campaign, that RockOrange conceptualized and launched earlier this year.

Targeting the younger, millennial generation and regional day-trippers, the campaign was aimed at getting people to make a connection between keeping the city fit by exercising common sense and tossing trash and recyclables in the right place.

The Fresh Ideas

Using real people who live in, work on and love Miami Beach, as the models for a series of visuals showing people how to trash their trash and recycle their recyclables while keeping fit, RockOrange created shareable content with made-you-look-twice taglines including “Keep Us Fit, Pick Up Your…” and “Keep Miami Beach Clean AF (and fit).”

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The content was pushed out across multiple channels, online and offline, including: billboard style posters throughout Miami Beach, including buildings, bus shelters and on the back of buses; online via the City’s social media channels, and; in print and broadcast advertising spots.

Recognizing Miami’s diverse demographics, the content was produced in both English and Spanish language to make sure that the message was received loud and clear by everyone and that language wasn’t cited as a barrier to keeping the beach clean.
To amplify the campaign message further, RockOrange designed a character – Mr. MB Clean – that would personify and act as a visual spokesperson for the campaign. We took the character to a series of Miami Beach community events including Commissioner Michael Grieco’s Spring Break Cleanup, Winter Music Conference, Spring Break, Flotopia, Ciclovia and the Fire on the Fourth Festival and had him interact with the public for photo opportunities and to promote the campaign message.

The Solid Results

The campaign continues to be a huge success.

The ‘Clean AF’ semi-viral launch ads drove awareness, shares and heated discussions with over 200 thousand interactions in social communities. Overall sentiment was positive, with an article in Curbed Miami running a poll that gave the ads an 80 percent approval rating.

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And Mr. Clean proved even more popular. Photos from the character’s appearances, combined with snaps of the ad spots have driven over 780 mentions online and 8.2 million impressions to date using the campaign hashtag, #KeepMBClean. Additionally, through the event activations over 10,000 people have been exposed to the campaign.

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As Mr. MB Clean continues to attend events and the broadcast commercial rolls out on local and regional networks and during previews at South Beach’s Lincoln Road Mall movie theater, those numbers are only set to increase.

RockOrange Takes It’s RockStars Back-to-School

class is in session

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
– Benjamin Franklin

Ever hear of “labeling theory”? In social psychology, it’s associated with concepts like self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping—and while these may have mostly negative applications in real-world conversations around social deviance, labeling theory has a simple premise that leads our strategic approach to employee enrichment:

If Sara sees Johnny and thinks, “Johnny’s such a great leader”, then when Sara interacts with Johnny, she’s going to treat him as such—likely admiring his accountability, decisiveness, inspiration and confidence (you know, the stuff of great leaders). Then, when Johnny picks up on how Sara treats him, he will likely react in ways that align with Sara’s expectations. And the two go back and forth, reinforcing Sara’s assumptions and Johnny’s behavior.

So, we asked ourselves, what kinds of traits do we want to label our team members with here at RockOrange so they grow to embody those characteristics and build an organic, FRESH work culture? The answer came right to us over enchiladas and Coronas at SXSW in Austin, TX earlier this year:

• We want them to be leaders and innovators.
• We want them to feel and act like owners.
• We want them to create fresh ideas and feel they are in a safe environment to share and grow those ideas.
• We want to create a system that keeps them up to speed on the latest trends, tools and resources, and updates in agency processes and capabilities.
• We want to equip them with the information they need to be the badass marketers we want them to be.

But how do we do this? We decided to take ‘em back to good ol’ university. That is, we chose to figuratively relive the classroom setting: hosting captivating public presentations built collectively using the “team project” approach (except everyone participates; if you were that person in college that ducked out of your group project and did jack, you can’t sit with us), listening and learning, asking questions, participating in meaningful conversations, and sure… enjoying the occasional (ahem, daily) celebratory libation after class.

Welcome to “RockU” — a 20-week program filled with “snackable” 30-minute and in-depth one-to-two hour courses and sessions every couple of weeks. “RockU” focuses on further developing our RockStars to help them reach their highest potential as communications professionals by tapping expert team members in multiple focus areas to educate the team. Basically, we encourage them to “share the knowledge” with the rest of us, because well… duh.

With complex project timelines, demanding clients, and varying RockStar schedules, getting everyone in a room for an hour is definitely a challenge, but where there’s a will, there’s a Grace! (Damn, I miss that show.)

We’re approaching week seven in our program and, as Dean of “RockU”, I’m happy to report overwhelming participation and positive reviews for each of the sessions so far. While there is room for improvement (there always is), I know the program is working because the guts and glory of the agency, our RockStars, lead it. From leadership members to FOOCs (fresh out of college), these guys are creating meaningful, interactive sessions around topics like Research and Data, Project Planning, and Productive Brainstorming that are setting and raising the bar for what the “RockOrange Way” is.

We collect anonymous feedback after each session and here are some of my fave:

What was your favorite part of the session?

“Understanding that our clients are constantly evolving.”
“Learning about new communications trends that affect the way we interact with our clients.”
“I enjoyed the Kim Kardashian analogies.”
“The successful, real world examples of how the proposed research method worked.”
“Learning the workflow for the department and how it affects my role here.”
“Free smores.”

Check out our “RockU” course schedule below and share your thoughts with us on session and program suggestions! Get at me here so we can challenge the team with new topics and continue to raise the bar (and have post-class cocktails). And let us know if you’re interested in becoming our next RockStar… we’re always looking for great talent.

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Until then, happy learning!

Stefanie Arufe
Business Development Manager and “RockU” Dean

A Creative Force Joins The Fold

Innovation drives Sam Rodriguez, RockOrange’s new head of creative. The latest RockStar, Sam is a visual artist who has crafted nationally recognized campaigns through design, still images and motion pictures. A Miami native and a graduate of Miami’s Institute of Art and Design, Sam’s mastery of visual storytelling will help expand RockOrange as a creative force in marketing and communication. He joins us after more than a decade as creative director at kabookaboo in Coral Gables.

A self-taught photographer, composer and animator, Sam works rigorously to refine his craft every day. His meticulous attention to detail and desire to grow helped him turn his love for photography into marketing campaigns for large firms in the wine and sprits industry.

As a nationally recognized designer, Sam’s work has been the cornerstone of iconic projects here in South Florida and around the world. Throughout his career, he says he’s found it essential to understand every aspect of a project’s lifecycle – from idea, to creation, to execution.

Sam’s hire was noted in several South Florida media outlets, including the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, AgencySpy and South Florida City Biz List.

As the leader of RockOrange’s burgeoning creative team, Sam will guide a group of talented, promising young designers as they continue to deliver the kind of beautiful, game-changing work that our clients have come to expect.

Along with his talent, Sam also brings a deep understanding of the agency world from both the employee and leadership points of view. Early in his career, he ran a successful creative business before ultimately selling. Fresh out of high school, Sam considered becoming an architect until he realized he could turn his love of art into a business unto itself. He found his passion in creating marketing campaigns that, as he describes it, “affect people’s psyches.” He loves to call out the differences in the brands he represents from the countless other choices consumers have.

And most of all, he’s not afraid of adversity—an important trait for a creative director.

“Challenges help you get out of your comfort zone and think differently about a particular project,” he said. “It can bring out the best and the worst in people. I always strive to bring out the best.”

RockOrange and Our Partners at Cotton, Inc. Win PR News’ Agency Elite Award

We are excited to announce that RockOrange and our partners at Cotton Inc. have won PR News’ Agency Elite Awards for our SOLID and FRESH work for Cotton’s 24-Hour Runway Show, where we set a Guinness World Record for the World’s Longest Fashion Show.

From the pitch to the runway, we worked with Cotton Inc. to elevate their signature program, Cotton’s 24-Hour Runway Show on Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive. We created a multi-pronged strategy for the fashion show that increased live-stream viewership and generated 636 media hits, representing a 479% increase in coverage from the previous year and reaching an audience of 579 million viewers. Cotton’s 24-Hour Runway Show was featured on national outlets including Good Morning America, E! News, Extra, and many more.

The PR News’ Agency Elite Awards salute the year’s most outstanding communicators, initiatives and organizations that set benchmarks of excellence in client PR efforts. We are honored to be among the list of recipients that were recognized at the Platinum PR Awards & Agency Elite Awards luncheon on October 26 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. Please see the complete list of this year’s winners here.

Billboard Shines a Spotlight on Miguel Piedra & David Naranjo

Our very own “Rock” and “Orange” — agency principals and managing partners Miguel Piedra and David Naranjo — spoke to Billboard about some of the work we do best: connecting celebrities to brands (and brands to celebrities) through multi-channel marketing campaigns, tailor-made digital strategies, and by taking traditional and non-traditional public relations initiatives to a new level.

Miguel and David shared some of the wisdom they’ve acquired over their careers with Billboard’s Angie Romero, chatting about everything from their journey to launch the agency, to some of the mistakes major brands make when talking to consumers. The article highlights some of our major and most successful projects, including the launch of Macy’s Thalia Sodi collection, Cotton’s 24 Hour Runway Show and the launch of Gloria Estefan’s 27th album, The Standards.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE!

RockOrange Named Finalist for SABRE Awards

After being honored with the New Agency of the Year award last year, we are thrilled to be named as a finalist once again in the 2015 Americas SABRE Awards, this time for the agency’s FRESH work for Cotton’s 24 Hour Runway Show, in the Fashion & Beauty category.

SABRE Awards finalists include around 300 campaigns — selected from more than 2,000 entries — in this year’s competition, which recognizes superior achievement in branding, reputation and engagement. It awards campaigns that demonstrate the highest levels of strategic planning, creativity and business results.

For Cotton’s 24 Hour Runway Show, we developed an integrated communications plan, elevating the show by leveraging top celebrity talent and creating continuous conversations with influencers and fashion trendsetters.

Not to mention, we help set a Guinness World Record as the longest fashion show in the world. The show in Miami Beach demonstrated what happens when fashion and our favorite fiber unite on the catwalk, and did it in an exceptional way.

Winners will be announced the night of the SABRE Awards event on May 5, 2015 at Cipriani 42nd Street, and we can’t wait. Wish us good luck!

 

RockOrange Gives Back on Global Day of Service

On Friday, April 17th, RockOrange participated in a day of service alongside one of our clients refurbishing Miami Edison Senior High School.

Ahead of the annual event, RockOrange provided the client with support, both on an internal and external front. The team was proud and excited not just to collaborate to make this happen, but to join hundreds of volunteers to help make the historic high school shine, applying fresh coats of paint and improving the landscaping.

While the whole campus got love, the RockOrange team focused our attention on the school’s theater. We painted the mezzanine level walls a fresh shade of Raider Red, and only made a minor mess doing it. Check out the pics:

While we had a lot fun, RockOrange also takes corporate social responsibility seriously. Giving back to the community is one of our value pillars; it’s something we do every year. It’s a moment we take to make a difference in our home city, to get closer to the people we share so much time with, and a moment that can make us better as a team and as people.

Most of all, we hope service days like this will inspire others to get involved in their neighborhoods and work to improve the communities they live in. Being of service to others is something that begins at home, in your own backyard, but it doesn’t have to end there.

ROCKORANGE BOLSTERS LEADERSHIP WITH DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, EDITORIAL VP, BIZ DEV DIRECTOR

Senior Staff Gets a Boost to Continue Flow of Solid, Fresh Ideas For Clients

MIAMI, Nov. 15, 2014 – Public relations, marketing and digital firm RockOrange is proud to announce three key additions to its senior leadership team geared toward delivering top-tier client service.

• Ray Muñoz, previously a senior manager at Coral Gables-based marketing firm kabookaboo, has been added as senior director, agency operations with RockOrange. His role will focus on shoring up the organizational and structural aspects of the growing agency.
• Joining Muñoz is award-winning reporter and editor David Quiñones, the former managing editor of PODER Hispanic Magazine and recently the digital news editor at Fusion, who takes the reins as vice president, editorial and content.
• Mahogani Jones, a renowned client relations guru whose stops include Burger King and ADT, will be RockOrange’s director of new business development and marketing activations, rounding out the trio of high-profile additions.

“Each of these talented additions represents a coup for the agency,” said Miguel Piedra, principal and managing partner of RockOrange. “I’m confident these new RockStars will propel our team to the next level.”

The new hires join Piedra, fellow principal David Naranjo and senior vice president Alix Salyers as agency leaders for a shop that has quickly grown from six employees to 30 in less than 2 years.

On the heels of winning the Bulldog Stars of PR Award and the Holmes Report’s 2014 New Agency of the Year, RockOrange is expanding its client roster and its various scopes of work with existing clients. These new hires fill roles that will help deliver consistently solid, fresh ideas and strategies that RockOrange clients have come to expect.

About RockOrange
RockOrange is an award-winning, full-service communications firm that was founded in January 2013, specializing in traditional PR, digital and social media, corporate communications, brand building and talent management, targeting both general market and Hispanic audiences. Experience includes work with some of the world’s most iconic brands in a variety of industries, including franchising businesses, music and entertainment, cruise lines, hotels/resorts, resort destinations, culinary, automotive, pharmaceuticals, banking/financial institutions and not-for-profit organizations. RockOrange was awarded 2014 New Agency of the Year by The Holmes Report; 2014 New Agency of the Year (Gold) by Bulldog Reporter’s Star of PR Awards; and received 2014 Small PR Firm of the Year (honorable mention) by PR News’ PR Platinum Awards. The agency also won the 2014 PR Crossover Award for Gloria Estefan’s “The Standards” by the Billboard Latin Music Marketing Awards. RockOrange was also included in the 2014 Top 250 PR Agencies in the world in the Holmes World PR Report and was included in the PR Week Agency Business Report 2014.

ROCKORANGE NAMED 2014 NEW AGENCY OF THE YEAR IN BULLDOG REPORTER’S STARS OF PR AWARDS

Award Follows 2014 New Agency of the Year Award From The Holmes Report

MIAMI, Oct. 1, 2014 – Public relations, marketing and digital firm RockOrange is honored and proud to have been selected as 2014 New Agency of the Year (Gold) in Bulldog Reporter’s Stars of PR Awards.

RockOrange principal and managing partner Miguel Piedra spoke on behalf of the agency and fellow principal and managing partner David Naranjo.

“It is an honor to be recognized by such a respected organization as Bulldog Reporter. For both David and me this prestigious award is a reflection of the great work being done on a daily basis by our talented team of Rockstars,” Piedra said. “This recognition comes at time of rapid growth for our agency. Over the past year, we have added a broad range of blue chip and global clients to our roster, while expanding relationships with many of our existing partners. We are grateful for this distinction and are excited to continue delivering solid, fresh ideas for our client partners.”

The Bulldog Stars of PR Awards recognize the most outstanding achievements in PR, corporate and digital communications, celebrating public relations strategic and tactical prowess at the highest level. They are awarded by a team of journalists who select the winners from hundreds of entries in 33 categories.

This has been a great year for the agency, which has been recognized by some of the top names in the industry. This includes The Holmes Report, which named RockOrange 2014 New Agency of the Year earlier this year, and PR News, which gave the agency an honorable mention as 2014 Small PR Firm of the Year in their PR Platinum Awards.

In addition, RockOrange has garnered nominations for PR Daily’s Digital Awards and PR News’ PR Agency Elite Awards.

About RockOrange
RockOrange is an award-winning, full-service communications firm that was founded in January 2013, specializing in traditional PR, digital and social media, corporate communications, brand building and talent management, targeting both general market and Hispanic audiences. Experience includes work with some of the world’s most iconic brands in a variety of industries, including franchising businesses, music and entertainment, cruise lines, hotels/resorts, resort destinations, culinary, automotive, pharmaceuticals, banking/financial institutions and not-for-profit organizations. RockOrange was awarded 2014 New Agency of the Year by The Holmes Report; 2014 New Agency of the Year (Gold) by Bulldog Reporter’s Star of PR Awards; and received 2014 Small PR Firm of the Year (honorable mention) by PR News’ PR Platinum Awards. The agency also won the 2014 PR Crossover Award for Gloria Estefan’s “The Standards” by the Billboard Latin Music Marketing Awards. RockOrange was also included in the 2014 Top 250 PR Agencies in the world in the Holmes World PR Report and was included in the PR Week Agency Business Report 2014.

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