The brpr Group Named Host Agency for Social Media Week Miami

We at The brpr Group could not be more excited to be the host agency for 2012 Social Media Week. We harbor a tremendous amount of faith in this city and its forward movement as a real player in art & culture and now conversational media. We are always reminded that we have to serve as an agent for the change that we would like to see and no better a case can be made for Social Media Week. Our agency was just on the verge of a relocation to NYC last year when we decided that Miami is our home and anchored roots here in the burgeoning Design District. Miami is a city ripe for innovation and filled with endless opportunity for evolution as a major contributor to the world of technology communication. Demonstrative of this years theme for Social Media Week “Empowering Change Through Collaboration” we look forward to sharing the stage with some of the best and brightest in social media, from agencies like Republica, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Alma DDB, to name a few. Networks that range from CNN, NBC, Telemundo, MTV and Fox are among a list of prestigious organizations that have so generously lent their time and resources to ensure the first showing of Miami’s Social Media Week is a huge success and accurately reflects the strength in commitment this city has to the new world of new media. We would also like to send a special thank you to the Adriane Arsht Center.

See you at Social Media Week!

New York Times: Are you a VIP? Check your Klout Score

As seen in the New York Times

In September, during a Fashion’s Night Out event in the upscale Miami neighborhood of Bal Harbour, guests decked out in Marc Jacobs and Herve Leger could not help but notice a separate velvet-roped V.I.P. area. There, a privileged few shared one denominator: each guest had accumulated a Klout score above 40.

 “You had all these fashionistas who felt very highly about themselves,” observed Gerard Bush, creative director of The brpr Group, the event’s orchestrator. “They were well-heeled and well-connected, and quite annoyed at being excluded; but they wield little influence in the social media space.”

The Bal Harbour organizers were not alone in using Klout, a Web site that rates social media influence on a scale of 1 to 100, as a means of determining V.I.P. status.

When the Gansevoort Park Avenue in Manhattan held a series of Sunday rooftop parties this summer, some of the hotel’s attendees were culled from Klout’s highest rankers; the entrepreneur Peter Shankman turned to Klout for a party he held at the Hudson Hotel with JetBlue; and the fashion stylist Lauren Rae Levy demanded a score of 50 or above for bloggers on her invitation list to the Malan Breton show at Lincoln Center.

And as Miami gears up for Art Basel, which kicks off the city’s social season next month, the philanthropist Tracy Wilson Mourning is using Klout as a basis for selecting guests at the Champagne reception for her charity, Honey Shine.

Status has long been based on appearance, accomplishment and notoriety, but social media reach is becoming a new criterion, and Klout is trying to measure it in a clear, quantitative way. “We analyze data from 13 different online networks and take into account reactions to a person’s content,” said Joe Fernandez, the company’s founder and chief executive.

Public relations companies are also beginning to consult the site. “Just because people throw up blogs in their spare time to express how they feel about neon colors this season does not mean they deserve to sit at a show that costs a hundred thousand dollars to produce,” said Alison Brod, whose firm represents fashion and beauty clients. “Klout helps us sift through the hordes of bloggers.”

Invitations based on influence come with a burden. “I attend a lot of parties, but many times people ask me to tweet about them while I’m there,” noted Jason Binn, founder of Niche Media and chief adviser to Gilt Groupe, whose Klout score hovers around a soaring 70.

In addition to numbers, Klout indicates areas of expertise, some of which may seem a bit banal. Maggie Coughlan, a senior editor at Gilt City, has a high score, but one of her strengths is listed as “eyebrows,” a subject she once tweeted about. “Needless to say, I was soon invited to beauty events,” she laughed. One of her friends was listed as an authority on “anxiety”; not too many fun invitations came her way from that.

High scores may be a foot in the door, but that may be it. Richie Notar, a partner at Nobu, said he was more inclined to give a table to a person with a high score. “I would make him my new best friend and make an effort to please him,” he said. “But if the person was rude or didn’t behave in a way we appreciated — game over.”

To view article in the New York Times, click here

Whack In America

To preface, this post is a rant designed for personal cathartic venting, all but compulsory at this point, after viewing the underwhelming Black in America - Silicon Valley on CNN, a one-hour documentary series hosted by Soledad O’brien.

The premise of the documentary is quite interesting. It is based on eight black tech entrepreneurs, chosen to participate in the “NewMe” incubator for a two-month audition of sorts in the tech mecca of San Francisco’s Silicon Valley. The co-founder of the NewMe incubator is a thirty-year-old mother of three who has dreams of winning funding for her own start-up idea.  After finding it an extremely arduous process to gain funding, she created the NewMe incubator to foster minority lead entrepreneurs through the rigors of a start-up launch with a crash course sixteen-week mentoring program. Sounds great so far, right?  What is presented is implied to be a group of the most gifted of thousands of African American engineers, programmers, managers and idea gurus in the U.S. — This is not what was witnessed upon the airing of the program

This foundation, on the base of it, is just the beginning of a myriad of flaws that, however unintentional, that made for bad television. First of all, let me provide you a bit of background given the fact you cannot see my face in this post. I am an African American, raised in the affluent suburbs of Houston, Texas. The difference being that although my backyard was on the 9th hole of a championship golf course, my grandparents had a gravel driveway in rural east Texas that always firmly planted my feet on the orange Texas soil. I was never too far removed from abject poverty and all that it meant as a black person in terms of limited opportunity. And although it was certainly not my experience, given that I was afforded the best education money could buy and parents who worked extremely hard to ensure that outcome, I lived between two worlds simultaneously.

One tenet I still live by today I learned from my Granddad; “you are going to have to work twice as hard to get half as much as your white counterpart”. You can imagine as a kid that didn’t see the difference in my race and that of my white friends, that statement was hurtful and jarring. Nevertheless, my papa never offered me tainted advice in the past and I decided these should be words to both take seriously and eventual live by. That’s why I take particular offense to the abysmal display that was the Black In America portrayal of the digital divide in the one-hour docudrama. I can’t help but believe that we were offered two equally depressing choices in observation of this program. The first being that we are led to believe that this was the best that Black America has to offer in the world of tech. Okay so if you don’t believe that, then it was a deliberate gross mischaracterization with mildly talented people placed ahead of the line to pitch their start up ideas to a panel of supposed potential investors. The entire show had a “woe-is-me” feel to it, as if in some way life owes you something. Let’s take it a step further and examine that none of the show’s participants, with the exception of a couple, could speak effectively enough to communicate their ideas to the panel and more importantly the CNN audience. In fact, one entrepreneur sounded like an imitation 1920’s Al Jolson Minstrel. If you are going to initiate a countrywide search for those black people most capable in tech why not look to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford (Tristan Walker of Foursquare’s alma mater) from a pool of folks that actually grew up learning and utilizing these tools? That seems logical to me, the first NewMe batch of eight were mostly middle aged; with the exception of a 25-year-old gaming blogger, with no formal education; currently boasting a job at Kmart. However, he was among the more interesting and entertaining of the group. At least you actually rooted for him and could feel his passion for gaming was palpable through the screen. What he may have lacked in training he more than made up for it actual skill and deep understating of the gaming community and how the platforms work. 

Simply put, I was appalled. So appalled in fact that I was immediately moved to comment on my social network of choice, Twitter. However as each moment passed one scene became more frustrating than the one prior and I finally gave up and thought better of it. Probably a wise choice as a tweet is never really deleted.

I say all of the above to say this. I am African American, Black, or whatever political term deemed most appropriate, more importantly however, I am Gerard Bush, the son of Winston and Janet Bush and I was taught that excellence is the repellent to racism and discrimination. Eventually your skill becomes undeniable and you earn your rightful place among the best and the brightest in your given field. The idea that in 2011 going into 2012 that we can’t enter into an honest dialogue with one another as Americans on sensitive subject matters such as race vs. opportunity is a bit trite and naïve.

The most cutting gaffe of the program was its insult to the intelligence of the audience. That what they were watching was in someway authentic and really did include the best of the best that African Americans in tech had to offer.

This is not a question of discrimination resulting from race but more accurately a question of education and/or skill specifically in tech and the relationships garnered from participating in that process. The back story is not an effective selling point to gain investment but rather the end result in the viability of your product, the introduction to relationships that may offer potential investment, and of equal importance, the presentation weapons to argue your case. Perhaps as African Americans we should look more closely at the causation of inequality, in a tech community that prides itself on being a meritocracy, and begin a constructive conversation to close that divide. Let’s begin with educating our children for a new world in tech and create programs for our underprivileged youth to bridge the digital segregation that is prevalent in the black community.  I would like to thank CNN for the broadcast; as a result I am motivated to substantive action, starting today, to move the needle forward in the positive for not only the black community in tech but for the greater good that is the human collective. 

Love, @GerardBush

Mobile Miami

Right now 4 in 5 people reading this article have a mobile phone in their pocket. The fifth called in sick and wearing their favorite shorts at home. You know the ones without the pockets that have been around since high school?  Shorts aside, your phone may live in one of the five pockets of your favorite pair of jeans. I say five as Derek Zoolander may be reading this and he just might store his mini-mobile in the coin pocket. Others may store their digital friend in the comforting pocket of a hoody, or maybe the receiver receives regal treatment secured snugly in a tasteful two-button blazer. Wherever you holster your electronic friend, Miami still has you beat when it comes to mobile.

In a recent study by Neilsen’s NM Incite, Miami’s mobile usage has been buzzing, having the highest mobile phone penetration in the entire United States. Or as Neilsen states it: “Miamians are most likely to have a mobile phone in their pockets.” Not too bad for a city that seldom sports pocket friendly attire.

What does this mean for “The Magic City”? Mainly, Miami will have a direct effect on how social media and mobile marketers approach the medium’s evolution. Miami has been extensively utilized as the testing ground for traditional advertising campaigns; our cultural potpourri lends itself quite well for these scenarios. The discovery of Miami’s connectivity dominance now leverages Miami as a global incubator for the latest in cutting edge mobile application and user experience.

With Social Media Week Miami on the horizon mobile offers just one juicy topic for our panelists to devour during our week-long celebration of all things social. All we ask from you; embrace your inner Miamian and be mobile. Oh, and lose the shorts, high school was years ago.

Love, @Snake_Watt

The Sweet Smell Of Creativity.

In this post I hope to explain once and for all the elusive creature that is creativity. I won’t even charge you the low, low price of $19.99 for it. All that I humbly ask is that you read this in its entirety; I’ll even include your second read through, if you so choose, completely free. Or maybe I’ll ask you send in a self-addressed tweet for a Slap Chop, which cuts, dices, and minces bacon bits into tinier bacon bits.

Creativity is a noun. Yes, you did not require any help with that but in the context of this article creativity is a person, place, or thing that sparks an idea. The chase for inspiration and genius, that is the driving force each and every single day to create something wonderful. It is one’s combined experiences, their direct interaction, and even the avoidance of, people, places, and things that make the magic happen.

People are an inspiration. All kinds of people — the good, the bad, the ugly and yes even Sergio Leone.

Places are inspirational. My ultimate location? Restaurants. Restaurants with a rich mahogany element in particular. Oh: and no WiFi. A bar napkin and a pen is all. Don’t have a pen? Carry one. Don’t have a bar napkin? Go to a bar and get one.

Things, thingies, and stuff = inspiration. Have you ever walked a city block and looked down at the cracks and pits in the sidewalk? Have you ever linked these physical separations to the conceptual disconnect between a brand and their fans? Me either, but at any rate you noticed your untied shoelace before you tripped over it.

Therein lies the essence of creativity; a deep search within one’s self for the discovery of a solution then finding quite the opposite.

People: you converse with those around you about the articles and initiatives of others, inspiring you to create your own. Places: you go to that restaurant on 6th street. You know the one with that flamenco Pandora station you’ve never heard of? Only to leave with an idea as big as the bar tab. Things: All of the words above and below this sentence.

So yeah, at this point, you’re probably asking; “Jake, that’s all well and good but what’s that secret you started on about?”

The secret of creativity is now and will always be the same. There is no secret.

But for the sake of answering your question… 

Bacon.

Love, Jake

The Next Web speaks with The brpr Group

The Next Web speaks with The brpr Group regarding Klout.

Social media truly is taking over. From communicating with friends, staying updated with family members, and even to networking opportunities with potential employers or business contacts — if you haven’t gone social, you’re living in the past. Even the world of fashion seems to be caught up in the trend. Popular fashion retailer Saks 5th Avenue just launched their massive interactive Apple storefront that sources tweets hashtagged with #StylelistatSaks, streaming them over several displays.

Yesterday, Bal Harbour Shops took the social leap as well with an innovative and social-score centric VIP lounge for its Fashion’s Night Out party in Florida. What made the lounge so special? You needed to have a Klout score of 40 or higher to get in. What makes Klout so special? Klout defines itself as “The Standard for Online and Internet Influence,” a metrics system that rates your social influence score based on reach, user engagement, and how large your following is.

Typically, Klout is used as an analytics tool designed to help you better engage and grow your following by discovering where you succeed, and where there is opportunity for improvement. Which is why when I first received a tweet from Bal Harbour Shops saying, “You have Klout! We would love to invite you to our exclusive Klout Lounge during Fashion’s Night Out!”, I was a bit stunned (and a bit sad that I was too far to attend). My first thoughts were, is Klout really so huge that it is now affecting events that don’t otherwise have to do with this sort of technology? I, of course, immediately retweeted the invitation and began discussing the craziness of it with my equally social media-obsessed following. Little did I know, this is exactly what The brpr group (the social media agency behind Bal Harbour Shops) wanted.

The “Klout Lounge,” located on the second floor in the center of the mall in Bal Harbour, Florida, could only be accessed by those with high enough Klout scores. Christopher Renz, Agency Director at The brpr Group, has this to say on the matter: “A Klout score of at least 40 ensures that only the most socially engaged will be in attendance and as a direct result will tweet, check in on Foursquare and post photos on Facebook to their friends and followers, creating a real‐time digital echo for FNO at Bal Harbour Shops” I also reached out to Renz with a few questions of my own.

The brpr Group speaks with The Next Web:

Sherilynn Macale: What gave you the idea to incorporate Klout as a strategy for Fashion’s Night Out?

Christopher Renz: We wanted a place where the most influential on Twitter/Facebook/Etc would have a place to meet each other. Secondly, by getting these folks together, we could inspire more sharing to create a social echo for the event. We created a Foursquare special for the night to let those who checked in know of the lounge.

SM: Why specifically Klout scores of +40 — was there some reason behind that?

CR: We originally thought 50, but we contacted Klout to ask their opinion and then mentioned that the average score is well below 40, so beginning it there would give a good mix of those who are just building their networks and the long-time enthusiasts.

SM: Were the Klout score invites a success (why), and did you get any interesting attendees out of it?

CR: We got a great response from the invite. Bal Harbour Shops is thought of as older and stuffier and so people were very surprised (and sometimes upset) about the Lounge. A competing Fashion’s Night Out venue tweeted to us offended that they wouldn’t be able to get into the lounge if they attended. We had a Miami Dolphins player, Alonzo & Tracy Mourning (ex Heat player) Deborah Cox RSVP’d, Brooke Hogan RSVP’d and then went to LA at the last minute. DJ Irie and some Telemundo/Univision talent (it is Miami after all).

SM: How did your client and guests feel about using Klout for the event?

CR: They were very happy with the turnout and the number of people who tweeted and buzzed about the lounge even before Fashion’s Night Out. They also loved that their own Klout score went from a 38 a week before the event to a 54 on the night of FNO.

How Bal Harbour prepared for their social media elite Fashion’s Night Out event: Bal Harbour Shops first began several months ago by releasing what it refers to as the “must have Bal Harbour accessory” — a smartphone app that alluded to what all could be purchased during FNO 2011 and beyond. Then, on September 1st, Bal Harbour Shops recognized over 100 of its foursquare mayors with a private cocktail event similarly called “The Mayors Lounge”. During this event, the store mayors were given exclusive FNO previews to reward customer loyalty.

These tactics were both used, of course, as appetizers to promote the coming FNO 2011 Klout Lounge, demonstrating an effective social media strategy that caused quite the buzz across both the Twitter-verse and foursquare world.

With social media now affecting general lifestyle, it will be interesting to see how other agencies and brands move to adopt social influence scoring as a valuable tool in their marketing strategies.

Social Media Natural Disasters

Upfront, this post is rather serious in nature. In reference of “disasters” in social media you won’f find mention of the driving prowess of the populace of Detroit mentioned other than in this sentence.

How do you communicate effectively before, during, and after natural disasters? The short answer is Twitter. This amazing tool allows users to follow disasters themselves, @Irene, the new outlets dedicated to covering them, @twc_hurricane, and the organizations tasked with aiding recovery efforts, @fema. Utilization of social media cannot be overstated in this scenario as it acts as the “one-stop-shop” as it were for information

Twitter’s amazing connect-ability shatters “six degrees of separation” as pertinent information about New York City evacuation notices has spread across the platform effectively reaching the five Burroughs as well as a worldwide audience. This proved to be extremely effective as New York City’s official website, nyc.gov, was inaccessible for a period during the crucial days before Irene made landfall.

It is in inaccessibility where the greatest challenge of communication lie. While social media users could not consume information concerning Hurricane Irene rapidly enough, a national mobile carrier, @ATT, 3G service completely failed in South Florida. While this may seem harmless for South Floridians now, Irene’s initial projected path put this area directly in danger. Had such a storm hit in conjunction with the cellular carrier’s technical difficulties how then could any information had made it’s way through?

This string of events should by no means be taken as a coincidence. The only way to ensure safety during these times is a potent mixture of pre-planning with digital and traditional methods. Follow the necessary Twitter accounts, these should be easy to find if not listed via a local source, but also make yourself prepared with a physical action plan in case of emergency.

Planning for and educating one’s self during this season is a must for any traveler. Seek the proper sources and collect the digital and physical information you will need to ensure your well-being.

Be safe out there!

Love, Jake

The Digital VIP

Front row of Dolce & Gabbana (September 2009): Now infamous photo of Bloggers “BryanBoy” and “Tommy Ton” of Jak and Jil, seated beside editors of Vogue.

Thanks to the advent of social media, everybody and their grandmother has access to what was once the “members only” world of high fashion. Men and women are now able to follow their favorite designers on Twitter as they tweet live from fashion shows clear across the globe in Milan, London, and Paris. (I particularly enjoyed Nina Garcia’s tweet about Givenchy’s Albino Angels presentation, twitpic included!) Some fashion houses are quite aware of this, and have quickly taken advantage of the instant feedback from consumers that social media facilitates.

However, there are others who believe that social will render the mystique of companies such as Hermès and Versace obsolete. Not true. While Dolce & Gabbana is an example of a luxury brand that has readily embraced new media, there are many others who are not prepared to take the giant leap into the realm of digital transparency. This doesn’t mean that these companies will be forced to continue engaging with their elite clientele through antiquated forms of communication. Au contraire, they can easily create private, digitally enhanced communities through the use of QR codes, mobile apps, and many other tools available, granting access to individuals who have been vetted and confirmed as VIPs of their brand.

Now all I have to do is wait for the exclusive invitations to come pouring in — please, please, not all at once.

Love, Maika (@Simply_Maika)

You Are Where You’re At.

By now, it’s common knowledge among social media nerds that Klout, the online influence-scoring platform, now takes your Foursquare check-ins into account when determining your mighty K-Number (if you opt in). While the legitimacy of this number is still being debated, it is currently the most ubiquitous grading system in the space. It has been determined that Foursquare’s 10 million users qualify the platform as one of the deciding factors alongside Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn in a system hailed as the “credit score of social.” The obvious next addition will be Google+, but nothing has been determined there yet.
 
So how does all of this affect users’ day-to-day activity? If you were terrified to tweet, should you now be careful with the check-in? Maybe users will now think twice before that late-night strip club check-in — or maybe not. While it may have turned off potential romantic partners, it may have much more of an impact now. That impact could be damaging, but that’s the thing about Klout; the algorithm is shrouded in secrecy. Who knows? They may not take the actual location into account and may initially be more concerned with users’ tips or friend connections on the platform. Are you more influential if you have Foursquare friends all across the globe or only in your small hometown? Not a question for us to answer; let’s leave it to the experts who spend their entire day determining influential social factors.
 
This is probably a smart addition for Klout. As more information becomes available, it should create a more accurate score. On the other hand, it could leave some users deciding to check-in to the museum next door rather than the dive bar they enjoy oh so much.

Love, Christopher

Christopher Renz is Agency Director at The brpr Group and a regular contributor to Digital Pivot.  This post first appeared in Digital Pivot.

I’m A Square.

 - May 18th: I jump in my car, I am moving to Miami.

 - May 19th: I drive I-95 Southbound, wind at my back, bugs at my front, I am driving to Miami.

 - Ever since: I have called my credit card companies, I cannot purchase anything in Miami.

Such is life when you move or travel. Back and forth calls huddled over a cash register, whispering your card number in an attempt to lift the Visa, Mastercard, or AMEX (Discovery not accepted) hold on your account. A line grows behind you, foots are tapped, and you’re not really sure how much you want those collectable plates anymore. And for one brief moment you seriously consider raising your voice to an automated system, ultimately doing so.

Which brings us to Square, the wireless payment option living in our phones, The Wallet Killer, The Costanza Concluder, etc. As Square’s popularity grows, tablet registers popping up at more and more coffee shops, does it not seem that Square could truly revolutionize how we pay while travelling?

I can imagine a world where account security checks are entirely front-loaded through my phone while I wait in line, bypassing frantic register calls altogether. Thumbing through a few security questions: mom’s maiden name (Did I spell that right?), first pet (Not really the first, but I suppose she was the most memorable pet), last four social (Do they want all the relatives I can trace back to the Mayflower’s social as well?).

If Square can make it so that I am able to pick up brunch, once I find out what brunch is, without having to call Dante’s seven levels of hell credit security line, then I for one am ready to embrace our Squarian overlords.

Love,  Jake