So I am in the office working all day today since 10 AM or so and reading the 6 page internal reviews all of my employees fill out (Since Day 1 that I founded the firm I ask all employees to fill out anonymous reviews of the firm, their bosses and me). No one else in the firm reads these documents at all. I learn from that and implement necessary changes. I highly recommend accepting self-criticism from people who care about you in business to allow you to continue to grow professionally. I greatly look forward to reading the reviews each year.

In response to many questions – yes, we are open all of this week. Why? Do newspapers come out this week? Do TV stations continue to air stories? Since the answer to that is yes – Yes, we are open all this week… and I love the fact that nearly all of our competitors aren’t. They don’t want success as much as we do.

Thank you so much to all of our 5WPR Family – Employees, clients and partners – Thanks for a great year… I am very confident we will be found the fastest growing Public Relations firm in ’06 for the 3rd year in a row….

Happy Holidays to all

Ronn Torossian
5W PR

Adweek last week called consumers the “new brand managers” (http://www.adweek.com/aw/images/pdfs/ayir.pdf) and with Time Magazine naming “you” as person of the year, brands and the media have fully recognized the empowerment of the consumer like never before. The fact that the faceless American consumer played the largest role in shaping the past year shows the shift of influencers from the few to the infinite. The change in media (both traditional with 24 hour news networks abound, the Internet, blogs and the like) play a huge factor in this change.

Living in today’s information age, for every brand, celebrity and politician there is no line between public relations and media relations. That is part of the reason why 5W has been so successful as we have been one of the first agencies to think beyond the traditional media box that many of the larger more corporate agencies are still stuck in.

Time Magazine hit it right on the head as 2006 was the year that fully showed how consumers are in control— now brands must spend the coming years learning how to treat their new “master”.

Ronn Torossian

5W PR

5W News Segment Wins an Emmy for Outstanding Interpretation or Analysis of a Business News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast

It is the evening of our holiday gathering and I am particularly proud of the 2006 business year. The agency continues to grow, on both coasts, and we are winning new consumer and corporate accounts from larger agencies, based purely on word of mouth and our concrete results.
In this business, results are often considered a gray area that agencies consistently have a hard time defining. For this reason, our executive team puts tremendous pressure on our teams to deliver media for our clients on a daily and weekly basis, making sure our clients’ message make it into the right hands and that it resonates nationwide.

For one client that we have worked with for over a year, Wolfgang’s Vault, I am especially excited to announce that we just learned one of our segments won an Emmy for “Outstanding Interpretation or Analysis of a Business News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast”.
Wolfgang’s Vault is the premier online shop for legendary music impresario, Bill Graham’s rock memorabilia. The company launched “Vault Radio” which streams previously unreleased audio recordings of rock legends for the first time in history.

5W Public Relations strategically capitalized on this momentous occasion to secure the first-ever walking tour of the 20,000 square foot “Vault” located in San Francisco, with one of the highest rated programs in the nation, CBS News Sunday Morning.

The ten minute feature included the history of Bill Graham dating back to the 1960’s up to the evolution of Bill Sagan, CEO of Wolfgang’s Vault who acquired Graham’s archives in 2003. Interwoven was commentary from Sagan, about the history and business of creating the largest online collection of rock, a walking tour highlighting some of the rarest documents, posters, prints and apparel from the archive, combined with authentic and previously unreleased audio and video clips, from renowned rockers such as Peter Frampton, Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols and Red Hot Chili Peppers, to name a few.

The featured new broadcast produced not only millions of hits to our client’s Web site, www.wolfgangsvault.com, but we learned this past week the segment was awarded an Emmy, and I couldn’t be more honored for the reflection that plays on our work and our results as an agency.

Wolfgang’s Vault is just one of the many consumer lifestyle clients achieving marketable recognition under 5W Public Relations Consumer / Lifestyle division of New York and Los Angeles. I am proud because we are producing the type of results our clients can measure, and in both quality and quantity.

I am excited for what the year ahead will bring and I am grateful for the hard working PR professionals that choose to be a part of the 5W Team.

Ronn Torossian

5W PR

Last night I attended the 25th Anniversary party for Nike’s “Air Force” Sneakers and wow was it an impressive event. Aside from the fact that millions of dollars were spent on this party (Unbelievable decor and design) it was amazing for me as a young entrepreneur to see so many young people gathered in one room who have shaped this generation’s Nike cultural phenomenon in one place.

Young artists who sell art and sneakers for thousands of dollars were there – Truly people who had defined the last 25 years of sneaker culture in 1 room. Just an amazing site and cause for inspiration.

Nike had every Air Force One ever made displayed around the room, amazing combinations of sneakers. The Chairman of Nike was there and it just goes to show you how a few people with dreams and vision can change the world (Remember, Nike was started by 1 guy selling sneakers out of a car).

Ronn Torossian

5W PR