Village Voice asked us to prove their brand position of being the real, uncensored voice of New York, and at the same time, re-establish the brand as a go-to source of arts and culture. We began with the insight that the most raw, uncensored and entertaining stories that exist in New York, come from people on the street. We launched ‘New York Writes Itself.com’ as a simple destination for New Yorkers to write down their great stories from everyday life in NY. The best stories were then re-created on stage as a first of its kind crowd sourced Off-Broadway play called ‘8 Million Protagonists’. The idea has created an entirely new platform of content and entertainment for the Village Voice, generating widespread PR for the brand as a modern and relevant source of arts and culture in NY.

The Village Voice has a heritage of capturing the real, uncensored voice of New York. Our objective was to re-connect people with the Village Voice as the editorial channel that captures these real stories of the city. And at the same time, re-establish it as a go-to source of New York 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

- 2 million unique visits to NewYorkWritesItself.com to date

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

We began by creating ‘New York Writes Itself.com’ – a simple online destination inviting New Yorkers to write down the great stories they see and hear everyday. A collection of the best stories submitted were then woven together as the script for a first of its kind crowd sourced Off-Broadway play called ‘8 Million Protagonists’. The show generated amazing PR value as a new genre of crowd sourced theatre, proving that the Village Voice captures the real, uncensored voice of New York in an entirely new platform of entertainment for the brand.

The Village Voice is an iconic editorial channel. The highly competitive editorial market in New York and the USA meant that the Village Voice had to re-establish its position as the real, uncensored voice of NY, and a go-to source of arts and culture.

We began with the strategy that rather than just compete directly with the competition, we would prove our position in a way that only Village Voice can – and create a new platform for PR and content by harnessing the real stories of New Yorkers as an entirely new space for an editorial brand.