Skift Take

With so few Americans taking full advantage of their vacation days, local travel hits the sweet spot between taking a break from reality and keeping costs low. NYC & Company is smart to target this easy-to-access "visitor" base.

New York City’s tourism marketing organization NYC & Company is hoping to spark a local travel movement with the launch of its new “See Your City” campaign.

The three-month marketing program aims to get New Yorkers on a subway and outside of their neighborhood or borough for their next brunch date, gallery hop or bike ride. The campaign showcases 10 neighborhoods across the five boroughs through editorial content, itinerary suggestions and video snapchats.

This is one of the first major campaigns to launch since Fred Dixon was appointed as CEO of NYC & Company in March 2014. For more than a year, the tourism board’s primary campaign has been its Neighborhood x Neighborhood initiative, which encouraged tourists to get out of midtown by releasing high-quality videos and itineraries for the city’s five boroughs.

“We want to give New Yorkers a new perspective on the five boroughs,” Dixon said of the new campaign. “Start thinking of the more than 250 New York City neighborhoods as 250 opportunities to travel.”

Perhaps the most creative design element of the campaign is a series of illustrated stamps and scenes created for five of the highlighted neighborhoods. Famous sites are reimagined as cartoon locations and outlined on the stamps.

“By referencing vintage travel posters and passport stamps, we reframe the familiar as foreign and idealized,” says Emily Lessard, creative director of NYC & Company. “Our goal was to create inspiration to convince New Yorkers to explore their own backyards.”

The campaign will appear on bus shelters, taxicab video commercials, and print and digital media channels aimed at New Yorkers. NYC & Company will also push the content through its own social media channels and well as those of its sponsor, American Express.

NYC & Company also identified 20 Instagram influencers who will be tagging posts with #seeyourcity in hopes of sparking a citywide movement.

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Tags: local, marketing, nyc

Photo credit: The homepage for NYC & Company's new "See Your City" campaign. NYC & Company

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