With a blitz of print ads featuring youthful executives at Yonkers businesses, the city of Yonkers on Tuesday launched a $350,000 marketing campaign that targets millennials in search of what its promoters called “the metropolitan area”™s next great place to live, work and play.”
The six-month campaign, called Generation Yonkers, invites millennials or generation Y ”“ a large, loosely defined demographic whose core age group was born between 1983 and the early 2000s ”“ to “be part of it” in Yonkers. Developed by Thompson & Bender, a Briarcliff Manor public relations, advertising and marketing agency, the campaign also launched a website, GenerationYonkers.com, at the same time as its prominently sized ads in metro newspapers that included The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
“Our future in Yonkers is very bright,” says Laura Alemzadeh, general counsel at Kawasaki Rail Car Inc., in one of the testimonials from business executives featured in the ads. “There”™s a new vibe and energy. It”™s exciting to be part of it.”
“Yonkers is a great fit for our business,” Tim Allen and Eric Esterlis, co-presidents of Mindspark Interactive Network Inc., are quoted in another ad. “Great location, great convenience, a great environment with an urban feel.”
A digital applications developer, Mindspark last November relocated its main office and 160 employees from downtown White Plains to a 40,000-square-foot space at iPark Hudson in the former Otis Elevator factory complex on the Yonkers waterfront.
Elizabeth Bracken-Thompson, partner at Thompson & Bender, said the marketing campaign will not be focused solely on New York City but also appeal to businesses in Westchester and Rockland counties and the entire New York City media market area. It also will employ search engine marketing and social media to reach millennials.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, speaking at a Tuesday press conference to announce the new city-funded campaign, called Yonkers “the best-kept secret in the New York City area.” The campaign is “about showing people what so many of us already know: that Yonkers is a great place to live, work and play,” he said.
“People are looking for the next urban frontier,” Spano said. “They”™re asking, ”˜Where is the next Brooklyn? Where is the next Hoboken?…Where is the next place to go?”™”
“You have the answer. Generation Yonkers is what”™s next,” he said.
“Be wowed. Be dazzled. Be smart,” the campaign website invites its target audience. “Be part of a generation that knows no age limits and has no boundaries when it comes to being successful and living life on your terms ”“ Generation Yonkers. Yonkers has it all. Excellent schools, low crime rate, diverse housing, modern and affordable office space, a great mix of businesses, exceptional retail opportunities, fabulous restaurants and spectacular Hudson River views. And we”™re only 25 minutes by train to Grand Central Station.”
In a Generation Yonkers video segment, Barry Kappel, senior vice president for business development at ContraFect Corp., said the biotech company found it could lease space in Yonkers at 20 percent to 25 percent of its cost in New York City. The company in 2012 moved from Manhattan to office and laboratory space at 28 Wells Ave. in iPark Hudson.
“As a biotech company, you need to conserve capital,” Kappel said in a campaign promotion. “Building out a 15,000-square-foot laboratory in Yonkers was economically feasible for us. At the end of the day, we”™re really happy with our decision to be in Yonkers. We”™re proud to be associated with the city and we encourage others, both in our industry and in other industries as well, to make the move.”
Declan Baldwin, founder of Big Indie Pictures, has moved his film and television production company from Manhattan to downtown Yonkers. “I noticed more than a decade ago while I was shooting a film in Yonkers that something was happening here,” he said in a campaign testimonial. “I”™ve watched that progression, and I just wanted to make sure that I was going to be a part of it.”
Other Yonkers businesses that participated in the first phase of the Generation Yonkers campaign are Carolyn Ray Inc., a textiles and wall coverings design studio; Eileen”™s Country Kitchen; Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway; Hudson Valley Bank; Progressive Computing; Tacos El Poblano; The Energy Project; and Yonkers Brewing Co.
Thank you so much for the well-written description of the futuristic vision that Yonkers has taken on under the leadership of Mayor Spano. I have been living in historic Park Hill for 45 years and have been waiting patiently for this type of activity to occur.
I appreciate the theme Generation Yonkers that has been selected especially since it has been defined as a generation that has no age limits and has no boundaries. The theme conveys that there are many more possibilities in the future of our city that are unforeseen and unknown.
I look forward to seeing the revival that the South Yonkers BID will contribute to forwarding the concept of Generation Yonkers.
My husband and I saw the unique position as well as great potential for Yonkers and recently moved here from Brooklyn. We are exactly the population you are targeting, and we, too, saw the great value this city offers. Who wouldn’t want to be on the Hudson, close to the city yet even closer to upstate and nature, and have access to affordable housing? Although It was difficult to move away from the cultural mecca that is Brooklyn today, we knew it was time and had the vision that Yonkers is it. Hopefully more like-minded friends and tastemakers will see it the same way we did and continue to grow this already thriving community. Arts, culture, history, food and drink, tech, nature and community. Sounds like a great city to me!
Great article. We are looking forward to bringing W@tercooler (a shared workspace for freelancers and small business owners) to Yonkers in the fall. We recently confirmed our next location at the Yonkers waterfront and hope to be open by early September if all goes as planned. We are excited to be one of the trailblazers – and to bring coworking to Yonkers!