Rob Wile
Miami Herald
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) As Rob Wile reports, “For much of their existence, creator houses have been concentrated in Los Angeles. Now, a South Florida entrepreneur is hoping to open the first one in the region.”
Miami
Where do viral TikToks come from? It’s not just your teenager’s bedroom.
In fact, many are manufactured in so-called creator houses. These are residences that accommodate multiple social media stars whose interactions in the houses spark ideas that develop into TikTok narratives and branding.
For much of their existence, creator houses have been concentrated in Los Angeles. Now, a South Florida entrepreneur is hoping to open the first one in the region.
Ben Spoont founded Misfits Gaming as South Florida’s first professional e-sports video gaming outfit; the group is partially owned by the Miami Heat. The Misfits teams specialize in playing Overwatch, League of Legends and Call of Duty.
As some of Misfits’ high-profile players garnered bigger followings online, Spoont saw an opportunity to give corporate brands access to them, and to tap the players — and others — to create content via a creator house.
Late last month, Spoont gathered five TikTok and Misfits stars, each with millions of followers, and put them under one roof in Fort Lauderdale to create viral branding content for financial services group SoFi.
The result: 17 million impressions of the hashtag they created — #misfitsgghouse.
“The goal is to create super authentic viral content for brands,” Spoont said.
“And a cool way to do that is through the house. We need the influencers to want to do that. As an 18-year-old, it’s going to be cool to come to Florida, shoot
on the Intracoastal, have a fridge stocked. It’s awesome, it’s like a dream lifestyle.”
The exact location of the upcoming house remains undecided. While Misfits is mostly concentrated in Boca Raton, Spoont said he is conscious of the Miami moment.
“Miami is ridiculously hot,” he said. “Companies are moving here left and right…it’s a super attractive city that’s fun, and vibrant, with a great cross-section of people down here. That all adds up to be super attractive to brands.”
Spoont said Misfits’ marketing agency has already created viral content for the likes of Hasbro, and that Misfits properties and players had collectively garnered 1 billion impressions over the past year. In the next 18 months, Spoont said, he plans to get to 10 billion.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
