Mediaboss Marketing

Conversational marketing platform LivePerson has announced the launch of EmailConnect and SocialConnect. The solutions seek to allow brands and marketers to manage customer conversations and interactions across different channels from its centralized hub.

Emails, social mentions and direct messages will be accessible through the same conversational platform that LivePerson customers use to manage Apple Business Chat, WhatsApp, SMS and Facebook Messenger among other channels.

SocialConnect currently supports public and private Twitter and Facebook messages and plans to add more social channels in future releases.

The user interface of EmailConnect and SocialConnect allows users to switch between email threads to a messaging conversation, or from a Twitter mention to a direct message with one click. The ability to move a conversation to the consumers preferred platform delivers improved customer experiences and better results for brands, says LivePerson.

Bringing social and email into the same platform with other channels could significantly improve and streamline processes for marketers and their counterparts in service and sales.

SocialConnectand EmailConnect make it possible for any brand to easily bring social andemail into the cutting-edge world of conversational commerce, saidAlex Spinelli, CTO of LivePerson. Even better,they help brands lower costs and improve outcomes, all while cutting outadditional systems to deploy, learn, and manage.

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LivePerson adds social and email to its conversational platform - MarTech Today

Despite having one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa and often cited as one of the most impressive cases of post-conflict recovery, Rwanda is widely known for one horrific event, said Sunny Ntayombya, the marketing and communications manager for the Rwanda Development Board. That event, of course, is the 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were killed by the majority Hutus in 100 days.

Throw in the fact that theres only been one major Hollywood movie about Rwanda, which fuels the negative perception of this small African country thats kind of unknown already, so even if you know a little about Rwanda its probably in the prism of Hotel Rwanda, Mr. Ntayombya said.

The way weve tackled that is not by running away from our past, but rather by telling the world that Rwanda is not just one thing, not one event, not one series of events its a story of the depths of humanity, if people work together and are disciplined, Mr. Ntayombya said.

Although Colombias conflict was vastly different from Rwandas, the idea that drugs were everywhere and that a Communist insurgency also stoked violence have been fueled by popular shows like Netflixs Narcos and the Colombian telenovela Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord. Much like in Rwanda, those charged with promoting the country could not ignore the past.

We didnt want to hide away from the fact that, yes, there was violence in the country and a guy like Pablo Escobar is associated with the country, said Julian Guerrero, vice minister of tourism for Colombia. Until this summer, Mr. Guerrero was vice president of ProColombia, a government agency in charge of promoting Colombian exports, international tourism and foreign investment to Colombia.

Rwanda and Colombias success might be instructive for the Dominican Republic, where the deaths of at least nine Americans caught the attention of the international media and resulted in a decline in tourism earlier this year. Foreign arrivals fell 11 percent and 7 percent in July and August compared to those months the previous year.

Specialists in crisis management said that the country mishandled the news from the beginning, arguing that the deaths were not statistically unusual and there was no cause for alarm, rather than getting ahead of the narrative. From the onset Dominican officials have had a defensive response, said Beck Bamberger, chief executive of BAM Communications, a public relations firm that deals with crisis management. That response doesnt instill any trust for travelers.

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How to Rebrand a Country - The New York Times

They had yet to see the fruits of their investment, given what the opportunity was, and it was unclear for how long vaping was going to be lightly regulated, said Scott Dunlap, the chief operating officer at the time. They were excited and pushing hard.

Fidelity declined to comment.

The Juul, which looked unlike any other e-cigarette and delivered a far more powerful nicotine punch, was supposed to be the hit product for the company, then named Pax Labs, but a few months in, it appeared to be a bust. Convenience stores and vape shops were not getting their orders because of supply chain problems. Manufacturing defects left some customers with bad batteries, or worse, a condition nicknamed JIM juice in mouth with no one at the company quite sure how much of the toxic nicotine substance could be safely ingested.

In a meeting in San Francisco in the fall of 2015, the board of directors decided to remove Mr. Monsees as chief executive, dismiss other senior leaders and effectively take over the company. It would be 10 months before they named another C.E.O.

I was in that first meeting where you tell the board, We arent going to hit the numbers. There are issues; there are problems in the supply chain. Not a lot of good news, said Mr. Dunlap, who said he had advised the company to slow down and take the time needed to fix the problems. He was fired the next day.

The board meeting, which has not been previously reported, was a turning point for the company.

Over the next few years, the company which became Juul Labs after splitting from Pax in 2017 would reignite the stale e-cigarette business, grabbing more than 75 percent of the vaping market and tallying more than $1 billion in sales in 2018. At the end of last year, it was valued at $38 billion, more than the Ford Motor Company.

From 2016 to 2018, the years Juuls growth became astronomical, the number of adult nonsmokers who began using e-cigarettes doubled in the United States, according to an analysis of federal survey data by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. The study estimates that six million adults were introduced to nicotine via e-cigarettes.

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Juul Says Its Focus Was Smokers, but It Targeted Young Nonsmokers - The New York Times

Help wanted: artist needed to help design and execute a new mural in downtown Williamsburg. The job pays $5,000, which includes the cost of supplies.

This white wall at the corner of Main Street and Fourth Street in Williamsburg will be the site of a new mural.

The Whitley County Community Green Dot program is seeking a muralist to design and execute a mural to cover the white wall at the corner of Main Street and Fourth Street in Williamsburg.

The Green Dot program, which is a bystander intervention program in part,

was developed at the University of Kentucky in 2006. It was then expanded into high schools across the state of Kentucky in 2009.

In a five-year research project between the University of Kentucky, the Center for Disease Control, and the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, Green Dot was found to reduce the rates of perpetration of sexual violence by up to 50 percent.

The mural is part of a social marketing campaign that depicts components of the Community Green Dot program, according to the mural grant proposal.

The campaign will focus on the problem of power based personal violence. The rates of power based personal violence are high as evidenced by the following statistics. One in four women and one in ten men are the victims of sexual violence. One in three women and one in nine men are the victims of domestic violence. One in three children are bullied. Every ten seconds a child is abused, the grant proposal stated.

The mural must conceptually incorporate the 3 Ds of violence prevention: direct, delegate and distract.

It also must conceptually incorporate Williamsburg feels like home or the good things that happen in Williamsburg, such as empathy, respect, kindness, and inclusiveness of the entire Williamsburg community, according to the call for mural artists.

The mural must include at least one of the following hashtags: #greendotyall, #bekind, or #greendotneighbor.

The mural must also demonstrate an appreciation of the past and embrace the future, and preference will be given to interact murals.

The wall is about 17 feet wide and 20 feet tall.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 6 p.m. on Dec. 6.

A committee of five community members, who have an understanding of the subject matter and two of whom have training in mural development, will select the muralist.

The selection will be announced on Dec. 13, and the mural must be completed and installed by Jan. 17.

For more information about the application process, contact Cecelia White, victims services director for Cumberland River Behavioral Health, at cecelia.white@crccc.org.

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Community Green Dot mural coming soon to downtown Williamsburg The News Journal - The News Journal

Theres a certain kind of celebrity capable of making a middle-aged woman lugging a tote bag climb frantically over a couch for a chance at a photo to flaunt to her friends.

No, its not a $20 million-a-movie megastar or the Emmy-winning headliner of the latest prestige drama. The inspiration for this Olympian-level maneuver is Brittany Cartwright, a cast member of the Bravo reality series Vanderpump Rules. And she was hardly the only reality TV heavyweight to incite such fervor over the weekend.

Welcome to BravoCon.

Nearly 90 Bravolebrities a nickname introduced by the network to describe the stars of its reality TV properties and roughly 10,000 star-struck fans descended on New York City for the three-day convention, which had devoted Bravo fans running around like wind-up toys, frigid air be damned, for an opportunity to make a cameo in the life of their favorite reality stars.

This is our Super Bowl, Michele Cavoli, 46, of Darien, Conn., proclaimed at the start of the festivities.

In the age of Peak TV, few networks programs and the fandom they attract warrant their own convention. But Bravo has built an empire of addictive reality soaps with a legion of devoted viewers, including Jennifer Lawrence, Elisabeth Moss, Jimmy Fallon and Rihanna. It has given rise, among others, to the multi-city Real Housewives franchise; its offshoot, Vanderpump Rules, following a young group of waitstaff working at a West Hollywood restaurant owned by former Housewife Lisa Vanderpump; Southern Charm, featuring some of Charleston, S.C.'s single social elite; and Below Deck, which chronicles the adventures of crews working on luxury sailing yachts.

Frances Berwick, president of NBCUniversals lifestyle networks, including Bravo, considers BravoCon a significant moment in the networks evolution. Though it once spotlighted drama and independent film, Bravo rebranded itself in the early 2000s to focus on pop culture- and reality-centric programming like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Since then, the network has become synonymous with its popular unscripted franchises, much like AMC with The Walking Dead and HBO with Game of Thrones an advantage thats hard to overstate in a landscape cluttered with platforms and programs vying for viewers already stretched attention.

Were in a moment in time when its really hard to get attention for shows, Berwick said. One of the most important things is having a strong brand and having a consistent content filter where people know what theyre going to get when they come to the network. This is about really establishing a connection with the viewer, but also really cementing the brand.

A crowd of convention-goers at Summer House Party at Union West in New York City during BravoCon 2019.

(Rob Kim / Bravo)

Many compare the passion of Bravo enthusiasts to that of soap opera aficionados or rabid sports fans. But viewers say it goes deeper than that. Theyve followed the reality stars for years, in many cases, seeing them at both their best and their worst, all while hearing what they really think thanks to confessional interviews. Theyve gotten an inside look albeit an edited one at the feuds, divorces, jail sentences, hookups and messy departures. And theyve empathized with them, made fun of them and turned on them as if they were living inside the TV too. Its why the likes of Cartwright, Vicki Gunvalson (Real Housewives of Orange County), Shep Rose (Southern Charm) and Andy Cohen (Watch What Happens Live) are more important to BravoCon attendees than mainstream, A-list celebrities.

Ill be walking down the street and fans are like, Hows your daughter?! Glad you went to dinner with Mario! Hows Coco [her dog]? said Ramona Singer, a veteran cast member of The Real Housewives of New York City. They have a huge interest in our personal lives. Its a rush feeling all the energy here. I feel almost like Im a famous actress. But, look, reality stars have become pop icons. I have to embrace it.

We feel a kinship with them, is how Brigid Mitchell, 35, of Massachusetts describes it. Yes, they are celebrities, so to speak. But Ive met movie stars, and thats a little more of a detached experience. They dont let us into their private lives like these individuals do. So theres this intimacy you cant get any other way. That is the attraction: We all feel like we have these intimate relationships with these people. We text our friends about their lives as if we know them.

And for three days, BravoCon offered many that long-awaited introduction.

Inside the conventions three venues The Manhattan Center on 34th Street and, roughly half a mile away, Union West and Skylight Modern the puffer jackets and wool coats came off and it was clear who wore their Bravo love on their sleeve: Some donned dog-patterned caftans from Southern Charm cast member Patricia Altschuls line, while others had custom T-shirts with Bravo in-jokes like Its not about the pasta or Gone with the Wind Fabulous. One guy even sported a wig in the style of Lisa Rinnas signature shag cut. And there was an abundance of perfectly tousled hair and sequined dresses the ultimate BravoCon cosplay.

Attendees ran up to to friends and family members in a frenzy after snapping selfies with their favorite stars and excitedly FaceTimed news of their run-ins to those unlucky enough to be stuck at home.

For those unable to land a coveted selfie, panels boasting Bravo talent past and present yielded plenty of moments that only diehards would appreciate as when Caroline Manzo (Real Housewives of New Jersey) agreed to a fans request to hurl ham slices at his face or Cynthia Bailey (Real Housewives of Atlanta) twerked onstage. Visitors created their own versions of the Housewives instantly recognizable opening credits, heard cocktail-making tips from Vanderpump Rules stars Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval, and sweat it out in an aerobics class led by Dorinda Medley (Real Housewives of New York City). For the cognoscenti, there was even a Real Housewives Museum to explore, replete with artifacts from the franchise: gowns from the series live reunions; the blue bunny that Kim Richards returned to Lisa Rinna (Real Housewives of Beverly Hills); the implants that Tamra Judge (Real Housewives of Orange County) had taken out.

This thing [BravoCon] feels like a destination wedding where you dont know everybody but you all have a shared interest, said Cohen, a former Bravo programming executive who, as a ringleader of the networks reunion specials and host of its late-night talk show, may be the biggest Bravolebrity of them all.

Andy Cohen hosts his late-night gabfest Watch What Happens Live! at BravoCon 2019.

(Karolina Wojtasik / Bravo)

The cost of attending might have called to mind a destination wedding too: A one-day pass ranged from $125 to $700, while a three-day pass began at $300 and went up to $1,500 inspiring a number of memes lamenting the price tag. (By comparison, passes to Comic-Con, which attracts roughly 130,000 visitors each year, are $69 per day and up to $304 for four days plus preview night for 2020.) And thats before factoring in add-on experiences like a Vanderpump Rules after-party, a brunch with the cast of Southern Charm and dinners created by contestants from Top Chef.

But people were more than ready to pull out their credit cards three-day passes sold out in less than a minute after they went on sale in mid-August even without knowing what, exactly, they were paying for: Talent wasnt announced until a little more than a week before the extravaganza.

It could have been the Fyre Festival 2.0 but we didnt care, said Lauren Reyes, 30, of San Francisco. At all points in the process I wondered that. Like, there was barely any social media posts from the Bravo people. But I still would have paid twice as much. Im loving it.

BravoCons success illustrates the networks unrivaled success at tapping the rich vein that is reality TV.

Talks about hosting an event of this scale have been going on for years. But while network executives had noticed the demand after taking Cohens show, which typically has a dozen audience members, on the road to Los Angeles, it was last years Night of 31 Doorbells episode that finally convinced them.

Ill never forget the moment and the energy in that room at that time, said Maria Laino Deluca, senior vice president of consumer and social marketing for Bravo and Universal Kids. About three or four of us on the Bravo side looked at each other and it was like, we didnt even have to say the word. We were all thinking the same thing: We have to do BravoCon. Its time.

All of the anticipation came to a head with the conventions grand finale, Real Housewives of New York City star Luann de Lesseps cabaret show. It was not without its frustrations after the festivities began an hour behind schedule, attendees jeered De Lesseps during a Q&A in the middle of the show but in the end, the delay didnt matter. Those who stuck around charged the stage for the nights closing number, singing and dancing under a twirling disco ball as De Lesseps slinked across the stage in a sparkly gown.

The song? Money Cant Buy You Class.

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'Real Housewives' fans attend their 'Super Bowl' at BravoCon 2019 - Los Angeles Times