Owning a Public Relations firm, a fundamental concept often ignored in our industry is the old concept of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

Reading the papers this morning, we learn that for the first time ever, in anticipation of the Super Bowl, the National Football League (NFL) opened up media day to fans.  For only $25 fans could attend media day, sit in seats close to the field, eavesdrop via headsets they were provided and observe the interaction between players, coaches and media on a 1^st hand basis.

Big kudos to the NFL for this easy and great idea – It allows fans to feel more connected to the players (at an affordable price rather than the staggering ticket prices for the big game), and there’s very little downside for the NFL.  It’s a great simple idea, and in a world so open because of all the media outlets which exist, this is a great sports PR move by the NFL. It’s a win for all involved.

As an attendee, Mike Galford was quoted in countless newswires saying: “We’re the social media generation. We’re not going to wait for the media to tell us what happened on media day. We’re going to see it for ourselves. This is awesome.”

I agree – Kudos to the NFL.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

Everyone talks about a defining moment in their lives – I vividly remember in my 9^th grade Junior High school public school class in the Bronx a teacher calmly, and clearly explaining to me – in front of the whole class how I’d never be anything in life and should recognize it now.  When I cursed her repeatedly with 4 letter words, I was sent to the Principal’s office.  When the school called my mom to tell her I’d been kicked out of class, she asked me why, and when I explained, she let the school know I was right.  And I was.

Words matter – and last night when I spoke at New York University in front of a Masters class, where “For Immediate Release” by Ronn Torossian is required reading, I thought of that teacher.

If you can’t fly then run.

If you can’t run then walk.

If you can’t walk then crawl.

But whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.

Onwards and upwards – To see some of the video footage of Ronn Torossian speaking at NYU please go to the 5WPR Youtube Channel.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

Interesting article (http://article.wn.com/view/2012/01/13/What_Did_You_Expect_It_Makes_a_Difference/) I came across this weekend on the importance of setting expectations – and how important it is when it comes to managing a relationship.  The answer to this question is something which we at 5WPR, and any PR Agency comes across on a regular basis when pitching new clients.

For better or worse, we tell prospective clients the truth – and don’t overpromise, even if it means we don’t win a clients business. As I have told prospective unrealistic clients, we’d rather you hire us after you have hired another PR firm who overpromises you – and undelivers – and then when you hire us you will know that we are the hardest working agency and overdeliver.

As Business Insider said 5WPR is “one of the U.S.’s busiest, most effective PR shops” and as our founder Ronn Torossian says we aren’t afraid to get our hands dirty “in the media sausage factory”, and are “enormously successful at doing so.”  As Business Insider said “Everything else takes a back seat when clients call 5W.” Its simply about working hard and delivering.

Concur with this great story on PR Daily about PR Agencies to avoid: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/BEST_OF_2011_5_types_of_PR_agencies_to_avoid_10425.aspx

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

Received a pitch from Harris Interactive this week and wanted to share some of the information received:

A feature story regarding how stressed Americans are which ran in USA Today at:

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/medical/mentalhealth/story/2012-01-11/Americans-are-stressed-but-were-getting-used-to-it/52485486/1

They utilized social media to distribute the findings and provided substantial content by twitter, Facebook and other means – this allowed for results to be shared in several ways – national results, gender, region, age and also 8 specific markets (NY, LA, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Denver, Seattle and DC).   What also adds to the credibility of the survey is the packaging – they share the details from this survey along with the previous 4 years of surveys conducted as well.

This survey was interesting as was their press release – http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/index.aspx

For me, Ronn Torossian, every day at 5WPR is stressful – and reading about it may be interesting but doesn’t make it any easier. (Expect a story in a major men’s magazine this week on how Ronn Torossian copes with stress.)

Public Relations is an industry from which it is not easy to determine an exact ROI from – and there’s nary a PR Agency in 2012 that works strictly in media relations (which can be measured) -  many, like my firm 5WPR provide full service marketing and PR services. So what are some byproducts of PR that aren’t easy to provide an exact dollar figure to ?

INFLUENCER RELATIONS:  Malcolm Gladwell in his legendary book “The Tipping Point” called it “The Law of the Few” where he said:”The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.” Economists call it the “80/20 Principle” – where 80 percent of the ‘work’ will be done by 20 percent of the participants.” Influencers move sales often times, and a good PR firm can connect clients to influencers – whether it’s the cool and connected moms (like we do for client brands like Bornfree), nightclub/entertainment mavens who can influence celebrities (i.e. Mark Birnbaum of EMM Group), or in politics rather than connecting to politicians, you reach their lobbyists or uber-influential attorneys like Jay Sekulow.

INTRODUCTIONS:  A Good PR Company introduces clients to one another and connects people together. I learned last week that a client whom we had represented for 3+years until the midst of the economic downturn forced the company to pare budgets had recently completed a major deal with another former client of ours. It took time – as many big deals do, but it’s not something which is directly measureable when one looks at the “ROI” of PR.

INFLUENCE – We have a client who we have represented exactly 1 year – their annual budget with us is around $125,000 and we have done absolutely amazing work as the client regularly tells me – but on off days he’s complained to me that the company web sales from PR aren’t exactly where he wants them to be (and he cited it when giving us a minor raise for Year 2 of our program). And he says PR should move the mark more. Low and behold at his industry’s largest annual trade show one of America’s largest wholesalers sought the company out at the show and bought a huge amount of product – and cited the outstanding publicity program and a specific placement we had secured.  Was thrilled to hear it – and yet another proof of PR’s tremendous ROI.

Of course, traditional and digital PR programs, media relations and all the rest are obvious ROI’s on top of the above bullet points. With Public Relations recently being named for the 2^nd year in a row as one of the most stressful jobs in America, all of us in PR have to do more to educate clients on the tremendous ROI which an effective Public Relations program has.

Ronn Torossian is the CEO of 5WPR, a Top 25 PR Agency and author of Amazon best-selling PR book “For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations.”