‘New York Writes Itself.com’ and the resulting Off-Broadway play ‘8 Million Protagonists’ was created as a crowd sourcing and branded content idea in New York City, designed to be shared through social media, cultural influencers and entertainment. Rather than use a traditional approach to media, branded content reached our audience in a direct way where they could enjoy and share the content as a new form of arts and culture.

Village Voice is an editorial channel that has a heritage of capturing the real, uncensored voice of New York. Our challenge was prove this brand position, and at the same time, re-establish the Village Voice as the go-to source of arts and culture. The objective was to re-establish the Village Voice as the real uncensored voice of New York, and a brand that is in touch with New Yorkers and the cultural scene of the city. Our strategy was to create a campaign that would not just advertise the Village Voice, but would give New Yorkers a new way to get involved in the creation of cultural content with the brand. The solution was ‘New York Writes Itself.com’, a simple online destination for New Yorkers to write down the real, uncensored stories they see and hear on the streets everyday. In 2012, a collection of the best stories submitted were woven together to create the script for a first of its kind Off-Broadway play, called ‘8 Million Protagonists’. The show brought the real, uncensored stories and experiences of New Yorkers to life on stage in the plot of a typical day in NYC, and the melting pot of characters you meet. ‘8 Million Protagonists’ is the first entirely crowd sourced play of its kind.

The audience were drawn to New York Writes Itself.com and the resulting Off-Broadway play ‘8 Million Protagonists’ through integrated channels including:

-NewYorkWritesItself.com, the hub of the consumer generated content which fuelled the Off-Broadway show

-Social media including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, the Village Voice newspaper and villagevoice.com

-Editorial content and show reviews including Village Voice and earned media such as New York Times, Fast Company, Playbill and New York Theatre Review

-Key cultural influencers and bloggers who targeted relevant sub-cultures in the arts and culture community

-Street poster campaign on the streets of NYC in relevant theatre environments

The idea struck a real cultural vein in NY and an entirely new space for an editorial brand, proving that the Village Voice captures the real, uncensored voice of NY and as a relevant source of arts and culture:

- 51 million media impressions

- 84 articles from editorial channels outside The Village Voice, including New York Times, Fast Company, Playbill and New York Theater Review.

- 20% increase in traffic to VillageVoice.com following launch

- Sold out shows over 2 weeks in Manhattan

- 9.5 minutes average time per visit at NewYorkWritesItself.com

- Over 2 million unique visits to NewYorkWritesItself.com to date

- $20,000 in tickets sales donated to NY Hurricane Sandy victims.