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 voice that exists in New York comes from people on the street. ‘New York Writes Itself’ created a new destination for New Yorkers to write down the great things they hear on the streets – which forms a continually growing online script that Village Voice harnesses to turn into a new source of editorial and creative content – straight from the voices of New Yorkers.

The Village Voice has a heritage of capturing the real, uncensored voice of New York. In a highly competitive New York (and USA) media market (New York Times, The New Yorker, NY Post, Gothamist etc) our objective was to re-connect people with the Village Voice as the brand that captures the real voice of NYC – An honest, raw and real editorial point of view, and also a newspaper that is in touch with real New Yorker’s and the New York cultural scene such as the arts and entertainment.

Introducing ‘New York Writes Itself’ – we began by creating a platform inviting New Yorkers to write down the funny, weird, romantic, or just plain crazy things they hear people say on the streets. We then re-created the writing in a way that would create PR as a new source of arts and culture. To do this we collaborated with New York letterpress artists to re-create the most popular submissions letter by letter, in an exhibition that brought New Yorkers voices to life as pieces of art. The idea struck a real cultural vein in New York, gaining widespread PR in many relevant channels outside the Village Voice including The New York Times and CBS News. Due to the cultural success of the idea, the Village Voice has made it a permanent piece of its arts and culture content – standing as a new platform for the brand that constantly engages New Yorkers, and proves the brands position as the real, uncensored voice of New York.

New York Writes Itself has been hugely successful in PR: >24 million media impressions to date>Exhibition had a record attendance at the Art Director’s Club>2 million unique visits to NewYorkWritesItself.com>52 articles of earned media including NY Times and CBS News>New York Writes Itself has made such a strong cultural impact, Village Voice has made it a permanent piece of its arts and culture content - An Off-Broadway play and comedy series are currently in production for 2012>Created an entirely new platform of content curated by the Village Voice

Rather than tell people that the Village Voice is the real voice of NY in an advertising campaign, our strategy was to create a platform and PR story that would prove it. To do this, we tapped into a real source of constant entertainment in New York – the voices of New Yorkers on the street – and turned these voices into a new source of cultural content that would both prove the Village Voice’s brand position as the real voice of NY, and at the same time, grow as a new source of cultural content and entertainment in itself. This has created an entirely new space for the Village Voice as an editorial brand.

The Village Voice is an iconic newspaper and editorial channel in New York. It has held a brand position in the market as the real, uncensored voice of New York – An honest and real point of view. However, the Village Voice has had increased competition from both the highly competitive newspaper / editorial market in New York, and online channels of entertainment and opinion. Therefore, our challenge was to re-establish the brand as a leader in the market by re-inventing the brands heritage in a modern, fresh and engaging way that would create an ownable property and brand positioning.