Yonkers launching media blitz to lure millennials
Commercials promoting the city of Yonkers will air during “Monday Night Football,” “The O”™Reilly Factor” and the Major League Baseball playoffs beginning this week.
According to the city, it will air 1,000 commercial spots regionally over 10 weeks as part of its Generation Yonkers marketing campaign developed by Thompson & Bender, a Briarcliff Manor public relations and marketing agency. The campaign launched in April in an effort to lure millennials in search of what promoters called “The metropolitan area”™s next great place to live, work and play.”
“Day in and day out, we see all of the buzz, excitement and activity here,” Mayor Mike Spano, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We”™ve got it all in Yonkers ”“ great restaurants, great businesses, great schools and great people. We welcome others to see for themselves and to be part of our city.”
An announcement from Thompson & Bender about the television and radio advertising push said the spots would include testimonials from executives of Yonkers businesses, including the tech startup MindSpark and ContraFect Corp., a biotech company.
MindSpark relocated its office last year from White Plains to a 40,000-square-foot space at the former Otis Elevator factory complex on the Yonkers waterfront. ContraFect moved from Manhattan in 2012 into a 15,000-square-foot laboratory space in iPark Hudson.
The commercials will air on networks such as ESPN, TBS, FIOS1 and News 12 and will include an exclusive sponsorship of a WCBS Radio report, “The Generation Yonkers Opening Bell” report.
In one of the ads, Tony Schwartz, CEO and president of the consulting firm The Energy Project, says Yonkers was attractive because it was close to his home in Riverdale and more affordable than options in New York City. “And then I loved the idea of being in a truly urban setting that was on its way up to be part of something new.”
The millennial generation includes people born from the 1980s to the end of the 20th century. Development has focused on catering to that demographic’s living preferences, with rentals or condominium options in walkable communities with access to public transportation.