Born in Brooklyn and bred in the Bronx, I’ve watched the New York City “brand” evolve tremendously over the years.  As someone educated through high school solely by the NYC public school system, I experienced first hand – and not from the movies – through boom boxes, subway buskers, graffiti, ice cream trucks, pizzerias and arcades; the sights, smells and personalities of the City.  A short while back, I had the chance to spend time with Rudy Giuliani for a 5W client project.  We sat in his Times Square office, and he pointed down to the streets below, where prostitutes once haunted the corners and drug dealers used to kill.  I listened to his comments on his Disney-fication of the city: MTV and Toys R Us, clean streets and a Naked Cowboy.  Giuliani changed the face and brand of NYC for the better for business, children, residents and many other publics.  The city will never be the same.

I write this as a marketer and a lifelong New Yorker, saddened at the closing of Coney Island’s Astroland.  Until this past weekend, I visited the landmark (along with Brighton Beach, the boardwalk and aquarium) every 6 weeks or so with family and/or friends.   It was a relic to the old days of NYC, which I fondly remember, and it offered something that didn’t exist anywhere else in the city. Astroland was fun, but it had grown outdated.  I understand why it’s no longer wanted.  It’s the reality of business.  But I won’t forget the last time a few weeks ago when a family member had visited for the first time and said, “Wow.  It feels like we’re in a time machine to 20 years ago.”

The brand of NYC will continue to evolve and embrace change.  Onward and upward, but change nevertheless.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

When I graduated from college in 1995, wearing a tie to work every day topped my list of things I wasn’t looking forward to.  Even though it was the norm at the time, I always felt constrained in a tie.  During my first agency job, I was constantly scolded by my supervisor for not wearing a tie every day and to every single client meeting. 

Then, slowly during the dot-com era, no ties became the norm.  For many, and certainly for me, the defining moment was the AOL-Time Warner merger, when the CEO of Time Warner didn’t wear a tie during the press conference.

Watching the presidential “non debates” the other day, I instantly noticed that neither candidates, nor the host, wore a tie.  I was struck by how the world has changed forever in this manner. The Wall Street Journal in an article dissected the phenomenon and doled at advice on how to pull off the no necktie look to a tee. 

I may even venture to say that today I encounter more jeans in serious meetings among big and small company CEOs than I do neckties.  While our office dress code is still business casual (no jeans except on Fridays), and while I have a closet full of neckties, if I wear a tie a few times a year, it’s a lot.

In many ways, this can be viewed as the continuous break down of not only formality in communications, but also society in general.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

While watching the primary results from New Hampshire, and all of this talk about “change”, I believe that this election, more than ever before will be decided by the “young.” We are in the midst of primary season and already we have seen participation, at all levels, of mythic proportions. What is particularly exciting is the sheer number of young people paying attention. They don’t like the way America has been run, and they are speaking out. 1 in every 5 caucus goers in Iowa was under the age of 30. Young people, en masse, are rejecting politics as we know it.

I have always believed in the power and promise of young people; like Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google; like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, like Jay-Z and Ivanka Trump; the list goes on…. And as there’s a New America in place in all arenas of life, so too do I believe there will be and should be a New America in politics and in the White House.

Not only will the 2008 presidential election be determined by young people, but so will the rest of the world. All over, young people are at the helm of corporations, big and small, of innovation and entrepreneurship.

I am excited to see what else 2008 will bring, and this post yet again reinforces why we continue to grow - 5W Public Relations is the only top 50 independent PR company with a CEO under the age of 45. The world has changed – let’s see what this Presidential election brings us.

Ronn Torossian

5W PR

An excerpt I wanted to share:

Issue Date: Daily Dog - January 3, 2008

Trends to Watch in 2008: Growth Guru Torossian Projects PR Changes, Challenges

Brian Pittman’s spotlight this week: Ronn Torossian, President & CEO, 5W Public Relations

“One of the things that has fueled our faster growth rate compared to other agencies is our emphasis on media relations,” says Ronn Torossian, founder of New York City-based 5W Public Relations, a 2007 Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Company that recently expanded to Los Angeles. “It’s also a huge part of why we’re going to be on that Inc. list in 2008 again, why we’ll be a top ten independent agency in the next 24 months, and why we’re projecting $13+ million for 2008 after an $11.5 million 2007.”

Despite all the exciting things going on in new media these days, “We’re not running away from traditional media relations as a staple of the practice,” Torossian continues. “Media relations is a major reason why firms hire agencies. Everybody here pitches the press. That goes from account executives to me,” he assures. “Once people hit the VP level in PR, they think they’re immune from speaking to reporters. That’s garbage. If you that’s your mindset, then I’ll grow and you won’t. Clients like to see senior level PR executives rolling up their sleeves and doing the grunt work of PR. That’s not ‘consulting’ or whatever you want to call it.”

Torossian also attributes 5W’s impressive growth to the agency’s demographics. “We’re a company with a lot of people under 50,” he says. “Related to that is the reality that we all get new media and are willing to get our hands dirty in this area—in addition to our traditional media relations work. Clients now want agencies to get in the trenches with them when it comes to figuring out this new media mix. That was the biggest change I saw in the industry last year, and it’s only going to grow in importance in 2008. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it ‘new media’ anymore. It’s ‘2008 media’—it’s here and now. We’re living in the day where blogs, MySpace and Facebook are part of the PR lexicon. Not getting that will kill any chances you might have at serious growth this year,” he warns.

Torossian’s additional take on growth opportunities for 2008:

• Marketing and PR will increasingly morph together. “I think the biggest area of growth for PR lies in the way traditional advertising has changed. While I don’t think traditional advertising is dead, the 30 second spot certainly has shifted. Everybody from magazines to TV is now insisting on ad-ons, co-op opportunities and things loyalty events. For PR, that means you’re going to see more of a morphing together of marketing and PR to capture more of a consumer mindshare. PR firms who have a better understanding of marketing in general and where they fit into a marketing mix that is in flux will be well positioned to have more influence and a bigger piece of the budget.”

• Mid-sized agencies will increasingly challenge the bigs. “Mid-sized agencies are also going to see a lot of growth this year, since corporations are going away from AOR relationships and more toward projects across agencies. That offers hardworking agencies real chances to grow. Related to this is that PR is tremendously undervalued at corporations. They’re spending millions in advertising and that’s not translating to PR as much as it should, in part because, we believe, PRSA and others could be doing a better job of promoting PR and its value to businesses. The point is smaller and mid-sized agencies who can get out there, brand themselves and hustle to show they deliver that kind of a return are going to get a piece of the [traditional AOR business].”

• The fall of the dollar may open markets for PR. People talk a lot about the fall of the dollar, but the rise of the euro actually creates great opportunities for PR. European countries are looking to the U.S. for PR. They’ll spend $15,000 a month to retain stateside PR to make inroads here without batting an eyelash. So, we’re looking to more European companies looking to enter the U.S. We’re seeing sizeable growth in that—both for us and the agency business as a whole.”

• PR’s talent shortage and shifting talent pool will inform growth. “This is going to be a big transition year for our firm, which has been viewed as a renegade, entrepreneurial shop in the past. Sure, we’re expecting growth in our consumer marketing and public affairs practice, and we’re also looking at the acquisition landscape. But this will likely be a year of ‘stabilization.’ We’ll be aggressive—but our growth probably won’t come at 100 percent.”

Here’s why: “We can’t find staff quickly enough to sustain that—and I think this is the case across the entire industry. Everybody is having a harder time finding good staff than good clients. Expect increased competition for talent, and expect to see a generational shift in the talent pool. There are smart people out there. But for better or worse, there really are no mentors or visionaries. Burson and Father Edelman built their agencies thirty to forty years ago. Where are those types of leaders now? I’m a huge fan of Michael Kempner. He’s a genius. But there aren’t many others like him. So I think the industry is undergoing a change of generations. Any real growth is likely going to be driven by hiring smart, young people and enabling the ones you already have.”

Ronn Torossian

5W PR

I read this feature article in The Wall Street Journal last week (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119317864699068959-email.html) regarding Nike cultivating its relationship with lesser known influencers like tattoo artist Mister Cartoon and Brazilian graffiti artists Os Gemeos. As usual, brilliant…

For a brand that utilizes celebrity endorsers better than almost any other leveraging such talents as Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Tiger Woods to devote an entire article to a brand’s association with lesser known influencers might seem strange. However, Nike wins and continues to win because of their ability to reach the mass market but also stay a step ahead of their competition by minding the niches and keeping the brand ahead of the curve.

The Nike brand ties into two previous blogs that I posted several months back—The first one is regarding the “faceless influencers”, individuals who might not be known to mainstream American society but help drive today (and tomorrow’s) pop culture trends (http://ronntorossian.blogspot.com/2007/03/faceless-influencers.html). Nike understands not only the value of celebrity association but reaching those individuals who celebrities watch. Nike has constantly managed to turn a mass market brand into something trendy and hip that individuals “in the know” want to be a part of. Their limited edition runs and collector’s editions allow the influencers to buy into the brand but do it with their own sense of style. I remember a few years back before Nike had broadly introduced their ID line to the mass marketplace. Around the city of New York, the brand reached key influencers: everyone from fashion editors at major lifestyle publications to fashionistas and hipsters. Giving them special invite only passes to have their custom sneakers designed gave Nike a relevancy to these faceless influencers that the brand otherwise would struggle to find.

The second post which I found relevant to this article http://ronntorossian.blogspot.com/2007/07/know-thy-market.html was a piece I had written regarding reaching and understanding the value of niche marketing. For a brand like Nike, tattoo artists and graffiti artists would appear to have little to no value to a brand’s bottom line. But Nike sees the broader appeal to these markets and how reaching today’s niche could turn out to be the next mass market hit. Take the skateboarding culture—twenty years ago this was a segment that was seen as slackers and certainly not a desirable demographic for marketers. While they weren’t the first to see the tide turning, ESPN and Activision saw the sport growing from niche to having serious mass market implications and have been amongst the best at monetizing what was once a niche market. ESPN created the X-Games as a way of giving major brands a central engine to reach this demographic and many brands are opting to throw sponsorship dollars behind reaching the “extreme” audience via the X-Games as opposed to the Olympics (and note how many of the “extreme” sports are quickly becoming events in the Olympics). Activision on the other hand saw skating personalities becoming mainstream sports figures and created the Tony Hawk video game franchise, one of the most successful video game series’ of the past decade. Mixed Martial Arts fighting (MMA) is becoming today’s skateboarding and thus another sporting niche is permeating the mass market.

Nike’s ability to constant assess and reassess not only where the brand stands today but where it can continue to grow is why it continues to win. While tastes change, brands that constantly reassess their value and relevancy to all consumer audiences is how today’s most successful brands remain tomorrow’s. The fact that Nike puts “influencer relations” as such a key brand initiative shows me their genius and why I have always admired standing as a mass market brand that speaks to consumers of such diverse tastes and styles.

Ronn Torossian

5W PR

After much planning, travel and seemingly endless internal strategy sessions, we finally launched Capazoo this morning. As most of you know, I’m not a fan of buzzwords and catch phrases, but I believe that Capazoo really is the next generation in social networking. So many of us maintain Facebook and MySpace accounts, providing free content for Mark Zuckerberg and Rupert Murdoch while never realizing a return on our investment in time and effort.

Its amazing to me this Myspace and Facebook phenomenon…. And this is a way people can actually make money online… Capazoo enables members to achieve personal recognition and generate real revenue based on their content, relationships and participation in site features and services. It’s an amazing model and from Day One, the 5W team knew that they wanted to be a part of it. Just about everyone at 5W are members.

My Capazoo site is still a work in progress and can be found here. I’ll be migrating my MySpace friends over to Capazoo in the coming weeks. I invite you to visit my site and click the “Join Me” link in the upper right corner.

Ronn Torossian

5W PR

Had a Fortune 1000 executive in town last night who is negotiating with 5W to see if he will do business with us. In any case, the individual asked me and my staff to take him out in NYC to see trendsetters as the brand is consistently examining outlets to be relevant. I think there aren’t enough companies who understand the need to be on site and examine these things and these people first hand.

Last night was 5 hours with 5W (and I won’t name specifics so competitors get any ideas)…

We started dinner at 9 PM and as we walked in, Jay-Z walked out of dinner… Literally brushed on the shoulder of my visiting executive. (Won’t name specifics so competitors get ideas… but in every city know what time dinner is relevant, know where to go, where to sit at the restaurant - which sometimes requires over-tipping)… and as important as the food is, see what the ambiance is, what the dress is, etc…

The restaurant owner of this establishment told me they don’t like food reviewers, because the week this place opened every famous food reviewer (mostly older people) came in and loved the food, the service and décor… but couldn’t believe all these people who came in dressed in jeans and sneakers. As I say often, the world has changed… and many don’t get that…. Be relevant for the age and demographic you are trying to reach…. Dinner is a social occasion with people jumping between tables and trading business cards if done right…

Then went to a hotel bar where literally the first person sitting in front of us with his feet on a couch was Russell Simmons. The venue was filled with high level managers, models and 2 club owners.  The manner in which people interact of course depends on where they are – Bars in every single city are different. (and pool will never go out of style, although I don’t play…)… Again it’s a case of knowing where to go and watching behavior…

Late nite, attended a DJ’s birthday party (DJ’s are increasingly relevant – They attract celebrities and the like). They create trends as they are pseudo-psychologists - a good DJ needs to understand crowd moods and behavior (If a song doesn’t get people excited, people leave…. And venues won’t pay them to stay)…

I have increasingly been spending time simply watching people – Still try and go once a month for a half day to NYC’s outer boroughs to watch people shop, I spend at least 3 hours a month in apparel stores – H & M, Old Navy, the Ipod Store… and whenever I travel internationally or domestically I want to speak with cab drivers (who always bring a unique perspective), and see shoppers – every city is different and trends start in many places.

Recently heard a speech from one of the world’s leading fashion designers who said he still spends a day a week in a mall in America watching people shop – How do they behave, what do they buy?

Reminds me of when President George Bush had no clue how a supermarket checkout worked - an event New York Times reporter Andrew Rosenthal turned into a chiding front page story about Bush’s lack of familiarity with the details of ordinary life in America:
Today, for instance, [Bush] emerged from 11 years in Washington’s choicest executive mansions to confront the modern supermarket.
Visiting the exhibition hall of the National Grocers Association convention here, Mr. Bush lingered at the mock-up of a checkout lane. He signed his name on an electronic pad used to detect check forgeries.
“If some guy came in and spelled George Bush differently, could you catch it?” the President asked. “Yes,” he was told, and he shook his head in wonder.
Then he grabbed a quart of milk, a light bulb and a bag of candy and ran them over an electronic scanner. The look of wonder flickered across his face again as he saw the item and price registered on the cash register screen.
“This is for checking out?” asked Mr. Bush. “I just took a tour through the exhibits here,” he told the grocers later. “Amazed by some of the technology.”

Bush obviously was clueless about life for every day Americans and it hurt him at the time tremendously - Brands can also be easily fooled – If they don’t understand the market, they can’t win…. And I’d argue to you marketing and PR are increasingly welding much much closer to each other…

(and the final key to success, despite being out till 2:30 AM yesterday I was at my desk today by 9:15 AM)… Back to work.

Ronn Torossian

5W PR