Thoroughly enjoyed Julia Hood’s recent post in PR Week, “Content and the convening power of PR”, where Hood rightfully argues that “This is the perfect environment for PR, the organization’s natural conveners, to influence outcomes. Even as other organizational areas might take the lead on certain areas of content strategy, PR has the perfect opportunity to be the convener, to bring disparate functions together to maximize the value and assess the risk, of new content campaigns. With their journalistic DNA, communicators get not just the what and the who, but the why and the how.”

I agree with many of my peers who own PR firms that content is big business, and will grow:

• “PR is about creating content and managing communications – in whatever format it is, whether digital, online or off.” Lord Chadlington (Peter Gummer),  Huntsworth

• “So much of our business has become content creation,” Harris Diamond, Interpublic

Digital media and self-created content give everyone a voice. For good and for bad –and success in the PR world is increasingly about controlling the content and message – as the social Web has had a democratizing effect.  From op-eds to blogs, videos to surveys, content creation allows publics to be reached in manners that accomplish everything PR Agencies are hired for, including increasing awareness and shaping perceptions.

Its why we are a PR firm that manages online reputation management (ORM) and SEO.

In August 2010, the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt said: “We create as much information in two days now as we did from the dawn of man through 2003.”  That’s an amazing quote– and a tremendous opportunity for our industry.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

This is a book excerpt from “For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations” by Ronn Torossian, and is available at:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/for-immediate-release-ronn-torossian/1102047620

The 24/7 Rolling Press Conference

Times have changed drastically. When people ask me what my next few days will look like, I often ask them if they know what the top headline in the newspapers or the most popular Google search result will be tomorrow or next week. Since they can’t predict

either, I can’t tell them what I’ll be doing. The digital age has created a 24/7 rolling press conference that has changed the face of PR forever (marketing and advertising, too). Around-the-clock cable news stations, social networks, newswires, bloggers, tweeters, and “Diggers”—everyone is in PR these days.

Whether they realize it or not, anyone commenting on the Internet or participating in social media is doing PR. They’re creating trends if they are commenting on stories, tweeting, and making videos that are spread quickly and able to reach millions within hours. Pros are competing with or reacting to mommy bloggers, self-styled political pundits writing from their basements, and anyone in the street with a smartphone sending live messages and uploading videos.

Want proof? The world’s most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, was killed in a top-secret mission. Who broke the news of his death first? It wasn’t CNN or Fox News. An individual on Twitter got the news out before any of the major networks. Keith Urbahn, chief of staff to former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, tweeted the following: “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama bin Laden. Hot damn.”

Businesspeople with brands to protect or build can never leave the “podium” (those who know me know that my BlackBerry and cell phone rarely leave my hand). In fact, for many years I kept my BlackBerry by my side all night. In an ADD world, everyone expects instant responses and immediate satisfaction. Try not calling back or e-mailing your best friend for 24 hours; he’ll probably think you died. Getting a “couldn’t be reached for comment” mention in a newswire story that runs on 80 websites, simply because a reporter didn’t get a call back within the hour, is not a result you want. Businesses are required to continuously keep on top of what’s going on and to have the ability to give quick but thoughtful responses. This has made the world of professional PR even more complicated to navigate.

Owning a PR Agency, I realize that times have changed forever – and it’s not just because of the relatively recent rise of social media.

Ronn Torossian is the CEO of 5WPR.

The following is a book excerpt from
“For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations “ by Ronn Torossian and can be purchased at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/for-immediate-release-ronn-torossian/1102047620

As a watch collector, I’m tuned into the world of watches. The languages of two different exclusive watch retailers, Tourneau and Wempe, are especially interesting. Both retailers sell more or less the same product, but one embraces a variety of customers— whether they intentionally go after them with PR or not—and the other doesn’t.

Walk into the stores and you’ll “hear” two different voices; both voices convey a public relations message that customers take with them and spread when they leave the shop. The salespeople at Tourneau will show you any watch in the place; they’ll let you try on as many as you want, chat with you, and answer every question you have. The company speaks to the

watch enthusiast. Whether you walk out wearing a watch or not, Tourneau always treats you well.

Since it is such a major retailer, it has a lot of pull with big brands and as a result is known for getting exclusive watches available only at its shops. Tourneau gets excited about that, too. One such watch, a limited edition (they reportedly made just 50) black-and-white, three-hand version of Franck Muller’s Conquistador Grand Prix timepiece, was available at the New York store to anyone who wanted to see it.

However, walk into Wempe, an international retailer with one store in New York City and others across Europe and the United Kingdom, and it’s a very different story. If you don’t pass Wempe’s snob test, you’ll get an attitude that’s far from friendly. One weekend day, I strolled into Wempe without a watch on and wearing a sweat suit. The place was empty, but still, I had to wait for a salesperson to come over to see what I wanted. I asked to see an expensive watch, and the clerk asked me, with a straight face, if I was a construction worker before he took the piece out of the case.

That “language” certainly sent me a message: dress to our specifications and show you belong if you want to receive good customer service. It also sent me away, thank you very much. Different language for different folks. Maybe Wempe doesn’t need my business and feels comfortable losing a sale because of the way I dress on rainy weekends.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

Two interesting tidbits in the media which I wanted to share:

• Born and bred in NYC, real estate and space has always been of interest, and the media’s portrayal of NYC apartments is always “interesting.” An interesting quote from the Sunday NYT in the story “Not So Mad About Taxes” when talking about the character Don Draper from Mad Men: “More significant, the thinking ignores the profound titillation of an era in which it was possible to live spectacularly well — in Manhattan — without the benefit of annual earnings in the tens of millions of dollars.”
  • Raising a family in the heart of NYC, everything is expensive – especially real estate and it’s always interesting reading and reflecting upon the interpretations of pop culture in media.
• A problem hounding Rick Santorum throughout the election has been his online reputation – and more specifically the numerous negatives which appear on page 1 when searching his name.  For some reason, the campaign recently announced that they had solved their “Google problem”.  For years, searches for “Santorum” on Google and other search engines offered an off-color redefinition for the candidates last name, as part of a campaign by an opponent to the Republican who wanted to malign his name online.
  • Increasingly, our crisis PR Agencyis involved with online reputation management for people who need to clean up their name for whatever reason online.
    • Santorum tried to have Google change search results – but they won’t – and it’s not a “political agenda.” Google has mechanisms for determining web rankings, and PR firms are the ideal folks to help change search results.  It’s about original content, traditional search engine optimization, eyeballs and a slew of other factors… and simply amazing that in today’s day and age a leading Presidential candidate can have such negative Google results – pure laziness. A digital strategy is a necessity for anyone at any level – including those running for President.

Ronn Torossian is the President of 5WPR, a top 25 PR agency, and author of “For Immediate Release.”

One’s 40^th birthday is a big deal – but could one imagine an International expensive blow-out for a watch? Well, leave it to Audemars Piguet to throw a blow-out bash to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak – simply the worlds’ most amazing watch brand.

Was interesting for a uber-luxury brand to host an event which is open to the public – and was held at a very unique building – the Park Avenue Armory (which spans an entire city block and even this lifelong NY’er had never before been inside).

Once inside the simply amazing space, one felt they were transported to a mansion from hundreds of years ago, and as the designer said the space felt he wanted to “immerse every visitor deep in the Vallée de Joux, the birth place of Haute Horlogerie in Switzerland.”  He succeeded – and I think the event was a major success from a marketing standpoint. Many of the watches were displayed, and as the opening line in their exhibition booklet said about Audemars Piguet “Some stories are akin to legends.” This event in NYC was the continuation of that legend.

The event will travel now to stops in key worldwide cities, including Milan, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and Dubai.

I discuss Audemars Piguet at length in my book, in a section called: The Secret Language of Luxury:

Established in 1875, the upscale watch brand Audemars Piguet (nickname: AP) has been around for quite some time. Throughout its first hundred years, the company traditionally marketed its wares primarily to European aristocrats. In 1972 it introduced the Royal Oak, its first high-end sports watch, which was daring at the time. Timepieces now start in the low- to mid-five figures and go into the six figures for limited-edition styles. This brand’s success requires downplaying overt marketing and instead strategically placing products or services within specific communities and subcultures that make for an organic fit. Audemars Piguet has perfected this strategy. In the HBO series Entourage, character Ari Gold receives an Audemars Piguet watch as a gift from John Ellis, the fictional chairman of his company’s parent company. Ellis describes it as “perhaps the finest timepiece in the world.”

The brand makes only 26,000 pieces per year, and each one is made by hand. The brand, like many other luxury brands, uses ambassadors to spread the word about the product. These are normally high-profile people who are already established fans and customers. In 1993 the company introduced the Royal Oak Offshore line, stretching the boundaries of how large a watch could be—some versions are 48 millimeters, or nearly two inches across. The brand took off and the company continues to innovate in terms of size and design.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Ronn Torossian

5WPR