The Olympics is clearly a brand that needs to play close attention to its public relations and take a few major steps in order to counter the current negative protests thriving in the media.

Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5WPR Thoughts:
· The Olympic Committee leadership should immediately come out front and center, separating itself from the tainted “China” brand. This needs to be seen as the worldwide Olympics, not the China Olympics.

· Despite politicized calls to the contrary, the Olympics won’t be moved, and I for one don’t believe countries will boycott the Olympics. The bottom line is that there are always contentious issues which exist. These protesters have just been very creative and are doing a good job of making their issues heard and noticed.

· Sponsors don’t spend millions of dollars for additional headaches (human rights in China, Free Tibet, etc.). They all have their own problems. Do you think Visa, or one of the other high profile sponsors, would have wanted their logo on the torch which had police surrounding it?

Quick action needs to be taken to protect the Olympics brand. The longer its leadership waits to address the issue, the more difficult it will become to uphold its reputation.

There’s been a lot of debate recently about the difference between bloggers and reporters. I, for one, firmly don’t believe that bloggers and reporters are synonymous. Bloggers are biased. (Although, reporters are also. Let’s remember that while both FOX News & CNN claim to be unbiased, one needs only to watch a political report for all of 5 minutes to see that they both clearly “skew.” Right or wrong…)

This morning I read an article where the VP of student affairs at Duke University was quoted as saying, “It’s a world where someone with half a brain, a computer, and an Internet connection can be a publisher.”

Now, clearly this isn’t true for all bloggers, and there are many different types with different levels of objectivity. However, social media or digital PR, Web 2.0 and today’s blogosphere plays by a whole different set of rules, and public relations professionals who want to be relevant need to be prepared and equipped to handle client communications in this era of new media.

As an aside, yesterday’s New York Times included an article about the pressures bloggers face from a 24/7 news cycle, but failed to mention that many reporters now face these same pressures. The news cycle in every outlet – from broadcast to print to online – has become global and continuous, with every outlet competing to break each story the moment it happens.

That’s one of the reasons consistent public relations and communication with the media has become so pivotal. I tell my employees that a good PR professional never shuts off – with an endless stream of changing news coverage, there are countless opportunities to create relevancy.

Ronn Torossian
5W PR

For many reasons 5WPR has been very focused on trying to establish a stronger foothold with Russian and Ukranian companies entering the U.S.. Personally for many years I have been very socially active with this community and of late have become more professionally involved with Russians and Ukranians, from this region, from Israel and from elsewhere.

I am thrilled that as of today, we have formed a strategic partnership to focus on the communications needs of prominent Russian & Ukrainian companies, and individuals, with Tri-Global Strategic Ventures (TGSV), a boutique, full-service strategic networking firm.

Our initial clients include some of the largest industrial groups and influential political and business leaders, including a number of members of the Forbes 500 list. We have already worked with including individuals referred to by the media as oligarchs, and publicly traded entities.

Both Vitaly Pruss (TGSV’s principal) and I believe that Russian and Ukrainian companies are looking west for their business opportunities more than ever. Having spent tremendous time personally and professionally with people from this region, I find them to be very direct, aggressive, focused and driven – Similar attributes to 5WPR, and cause for tremendous opportunity. Wealth is also rapidly growing there.

I look forward to visiting Moscow and Kiev in the near future, and believe that with the global economy changing this is an area of tremendous focus for 5WPR.

Ronn Torossian
5W PR