It is hard to believe that it was more than 40 years ago in 1977, when the State of New York launched its iconic “I (heart) New York” marketing campaign with advertising firm Wells Rich Greene.
It is time for New York to reinvigorate its marketing efforts again to combat what is becoming an all-too-frequent negative narrative about our city.
A Bloomberg story stated: “Wall Street firms are moving out of the Big Apple and relocating to the Sun Belt… and taking $1 trillion in assets under management with them.”
It is becoming something of a truism that Austin, Charlotte, Miami, Nashville and other Sun Belt cities are the places to be – from the new Texas Stock Exchange to Investment News writing that “since 202, Goldman Sachs Group, Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital Management, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Ken Griffin’s Citadel have all relocated offices to Miami.”
New York needs to work harder at telling its story, for frankly, the naysayers are missing a lot.
New York remains the financial capital of the world, with the NYSE and NASDAQ the largest and second largest stock markets with listings of more than 6,000 and 4,000 company listings respectively with market caps of $25 trillion dollars and $23 trillion dollars.
We have more than 700 theaters, including 41 on Broadway, more than 170 museums and 1,400 art galleries. Soloviev Group’s own Field of Light art installation on the East Side has drawn more than 50,000 visitors.
We have The Met, Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater and the New York City Library with 53 million items, second only to the Library of Congress.
We have two baseball teams, two basketball teams, two hockey teams (if you count the Islanders) and two football teams. (They are the New York Giants and Jets, even thought the play in New Jersey.)
In commercial real estate, New Yorkers are returning to the office 15 percent more than the rest of the country and more than 30 percent on Mondays. Our property at 9 W. 57th Street is 97 percent occupied.
In 2023, New York City attracted 62.2 million visitors, including more than 11 million from other countries.
We know New York is great, but we need to stop being complacent and tell our story again with a renewed, vigorous marketing campaign.
It shouldn’t be too hard, as we aren’t exactly shy people.
In the words of Frank Sinatra, “Start spreading the news… I want to be a part of it, New York, New York.”
Michael J. Hershman is Chief Executive Officer of Soloviev Group, based in New York City, a privately held, multi-billion dollar company that encompasses real estate, hospitality, transportation, railroads, agriculture and philanthropy.
