How Can Brands Prevent Sharing #TMI?

Social media has created a share-society. And, with the rise of real-time social sharing apps like Facebook Live and storytelling features and apps like Snapchat and Instagram Stories, social media users can quite literally share their every single move, all day, every day. And by users we’re not just talking about the everyday consumer snapping photos of every meal they sit down to eat, or celebs posting endless selfies, but also brands, who are leveraging the channels to build deeper relationships with their customers through authentic, behind-the-scenes, how-the-sauce-is-made glimpses into their day-to-day operations.

However, there’s a line of appropriateness that shouldn’t be forgotten. You can share too much on social media and if you cross the line you’re at risk of alienating, and potentially losing, customers and fans. So as we watch DJ Khaled snapchat his wife giving birth, we’re left asking… How can brands prevent sharing #TMI?

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.

A Wild Tale of Helping a Foundation Brand Find Its Voice

Miami has a not-so-well-kept secret that, for those who visit, is a unique, memorable and totally Instagrammable experience.

The Zoological Wildlife Foundation (ZWF Miami) is home to nearly 200 exotic animals including lions, leopards, camels, otters, baboons, monkeys, anteaters and more. The mission of the foundation is to provide a safe haven and better quality of life for these animals that come from all parts of the world and even at time have been rescued from at-risk situations, such as canned hunting.

ZWF raises funds to continue to provide a better way of life for the animals by offering tours and one-of-a-kind personal animal encounters for members of the public with a focus on educating visitors on wildlife conservation.

The Job

 RockOrange was hired as the Agency of Record by the foundation in 2015 to help the brand find its voice, increase brand awareness and drive visits to the property.

RockOrange set out to launch a content driven omni-marketing campaign showcasing ZWF’s exceptional, upscale experience as well as their commitment to their animals.

The Fresh Ideas

We started by honing the brand’s voice. Focusing on the animals and their experience in the zoo, the goal was to showcase the commitment and respect ZWF has for their animals. This also provided the opportunity to keep the tone light and imbued with the animals’ fun personalities.

All digital properties, including the website, social channels, and user-review sites, such as Trip Advisor, were updated with the new voice, and an SEO campaign was launched that helped raise the client’s Google page ranking from one to three.

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Snackable, shareable content in the form of photos, videos and blog posts was produced demonstrating the relationship between the animals and ZWF’s team and shared via a social media strategy with a focus on consistency.
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Private tours and animal encounters were arranged with local and national influencers who were encouraged to amplify awareness of the foundation by sharing images and videos of their visits with their established social communities.

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ZWF, its founders and brand ambassadors were weaved into the conversation by keeping a close eye on trends in wildlife conversation and a relationship was built with key media through media tours, FAMS and sharing of newsworthy content.

The Solid Results

ZWF’s online presence increased by 343 percent. Website traffic increased by 63 percent, the brand’s social media following shot up 67 percent and a 13.41 percent engagement with ZWF’s Facebook community was maintained.

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.

ZWF was mentioned on Good Morning America, Today Show, Inside Edition, Associated Press, Reuters News Service, CBS Miami, USA Today, Yahoo!, The Miami Herald, NBC 6 in and thousands of other broadcast and internet publications.

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Influencers including Kate Upton, Kourtney Kardashian, Jonathan Cheban, Adrienne and Chris Bosh, Adriana Lima, Lele Pons, and Dan Le Batard all visited the property and shared content on their social media channels.

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Relationships were forged on behalf of ZWF with Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Gilt Groupe, St. Jude Research Hospital, South Florida Concierge Association, Amigos for Kids, HBO, and New York University.

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Additionally, RockOrange secured the filming of HBO’s hit series Ballers, which stars celebrity Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Overall, the content driven approach proved successful in increasing revenue for the foundation by 217 percent in the first year of the campaign.

How Can Brands Turn A #Fail Into a Win?

Last week marked the kick off of the 2016 NFL season and with it, the much anticipated start of fantasy football. However, on Sunday the ESPN Fantasy Football app, which everyone and their mother uses to track their stats, went down and consumers took to Twitter to vent their rage… or post hilariously mocking memes.

For today’s constantly connected consumers who are checking their phones around 46 times a day, the internet, and more specifically, Twitter, has become a ‘social telephone’ to call in complaints about brands and customer service in real time. And those customers expect a response. Fast. However, while 78 percent of people who complain to a brand via Twitter expect a response within an hour a 2015 brandwatch study discovered that only 46.6 percent of brands engaged with any tagged @mentions (which were categorized as neutral, questions or complaints) with 64.6 percent responding to questions within five days and only 11.2 percent responding within one hour.

Nevertheless the opportunities for brands to turn their social media #fails into wins is possible. Which is why this week we’re turning to our RockStars to get their advice as we ask – How Can Brands Turn A #Fail Into A Win?

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.

Does She Really Like It?

Ever wondered if your favorite celebrity really likes that product they posted a picture with or if they’re being paid to promote it? Well the FTC wants to clear up any confusion and is cracking down on brands and influencers that are not transparent about paid promotional activity. And hashtags like #spon or #ad might not be enough. That’s why this week we’re asking our RockStars how brands can still run successful influencer marketing campaigns while playing by the rules so the consumer isn’t left asking – Does She Really Like It?

What Does it Take to Turn Gold into $$$?

Winning gold at the Olympics can change an athletes’ life in an instant. Global broadcast, print and social coverage can make an athlete a household name…. overnight.

But with fame doesn’t always come fortune. If an athlete wants to be the next Ussain Bolt (who has an estimated net worth of around $60 billion,) they need to understand that however hard it was to achieve, winning a gold medal isn’t the end game… it’s just step one in building what can potentially be a highly profitable personal brand.

So what do this year’s gold medal winners need to do to avoid the fleeting 15-minutes-of-fame syndrome? We asked our RockStars for their thoughts and posed the question – What does it take to turn gold into $$$?

How Can Non-Sponsoring Brands Leverage the Olympics Using Social?

The 2016 Olympics are going to be consumed digitally with 64% of people planning to watch the Games on a mobile device, two-thirds likely to look for news on Facebook and Instagram and around 80 percent expected to check out relevant news feeds on Twitter.

 Clearly the online audience generated by the Olympics is going to be huge. And brands are going to want to leverage the Games to reach that audience. But, according to a stern warning sent out by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), if you’re not an official sponsor you’re not allowed to use the official hashtags like #Rio2016 or #TeamUSA and you’re not allowed to post video of photos of the Games.

 Now while that is going to be hard to police, non-sponsoring brands wanting to stay on the good side of the IOC need to find different ways to reach those consumers.

 That’s why this week we’ve tapping our RockStars for their best backdoor marketing ideas as we ask – How can non-sponsoring brands leverage the Olympics using social?

 

 

How to Make the Most of Limited Back-to-School Marketing Budgets

Believe it or not, it’s not too late to start your Back-to-School (BTS) marketing. By August 13 last year, more than half (63 percent) of consumers had yet to complete their shopping, while in 2014 MasterCard research told us that August 29 was the heaviest shopping day of the BTS season. And you don’t need a huge budget to make your campaign a success. As long as you think digital-first, that is.

That’s what we did with online retail giant Zappos in 2015.

With a limited project budget, Zappos challenged RockOrange to build a compelling, memorable, effective back-to-school campaign that could be rolled out via digital and social media channels, showcasing the retailer’s collection of kids and young adult apparel and shoes.

The objectives of the campaign were to:

  1. Increase existing customer visits to Zappos.com while increasing engagement and purchases for kids products.
  2. Attract new customers by connecting the Zappos brand with key stakeholders and influencers.
  3. Generate positive media coverage for the brand.

 

To achieve these objectives, we identified a number of influential bloggers in the spaces of fashion, parenting and shopping including The Fashion Poet, Mom Trends, Mom Blog Society and Shopping Mama among others who would be appropriate and receptive targets to be evangelists for the Zappos brand.

Once we’d analyzed the reach and influence of each blogger, we facilitated the publishing of a series of posts, including the PS Beauty Blog titled “Top 5 Fashion Trends For Kids,” that positioned Zappos as a destination for kids apparel and back-to-school shopping. Our top influencer blog post came in the form of an apparel unboxing video, garnering some 87,671 views.

Overall, we engaged with 20 influential bloggers and experts, forging brand-to-blog relationships and gaining placement or coverage throughout the blogosphere. And it worked. We owned back-to-school in 2015, earning a robust 8,189 mentions, representing a 2.6% share of voice out of the total 2015 Zappos brand mentions of 314,016. During this timeframe, we had activated content and outreach that catered to moms looking for back-to-school trends for their kids.

August was far and away the most active month with significant blogger participation around BTS. The Mama Maven contest for BTS accounted for 58% of total mentions around “Zappos” and “Back-to-School” in a two-day period. With active blogger outreach, we were able to feature Zappos products in a relatable way that provided product recommendations and suggestions.

The top performing Facebook posts and Pinterest pins were focused around shoes, specifically trendy sneakers and fall boots. These posts featured products that spoke to those who had an intent to purchase. The three top performing Facebook posts earned approximately 500 likes. The total potential impressions in 2015 (as of October 31) were almost one million impressions higher than those in 2014. The Back to School campaign made a significant impact with 14.8% of the overall Zappos conversation.

And beyond the number, social listening tools showed that the Zappos audience had a positive sentiment towards the brand and all BTS conversation with drivers such as love, great, thank, cool, etc thanks to the relatable, relevant content mix featuring real people, inspirational type photos and product shots.

So if you’ve not yet started, or launched your BTS campaigns remember these three things:

  • You don’t need a big budget to make a big impact,
  • Make sure your content is relevant to your target audience, and
  • Leverage digital as the quickest way to get your message to your target audience.

How Can You Have Fun With Your Brand?

Did you see the Michelle Obama episode of Carpool Karaoke? If you didn’t stop what you’re doing immediately and click on this link.

So did you get it? Her message that is. Nestled in between her flawless rendition of Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé inspired dance moves and surprise appearance of Missy Elliott, FLOTUS took full advantage of the opportunity promote her initiative to support the education of girls around the world – Let Girls Learn. And with over 32 million views on YouTube to date, not to mention all those who tuned in to watch it on The Late Late Show, the reach of that message has been amplified far beyond traditional marketing methods could have taken it.

Now, we might not all have the influence of Michelle Obama, but it was an important lesson for brand marketers in that you’ve got to give yourself permission to have fun. And that’s why it inspired this week’s ‘Question-of-the-Week’ – How can you have fun with your brand?

 

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