Paul Greenberg

Vice President Media Services NYC & Co. New York, New York

Paul Greenberg is a risk taker. He and the team at NYC & Company have a mandate from Mayor Bloomberg and City Hall to attain 50 million visitors by the year 2015. At the end of 2006, the numbers were close to 44 million, so they had to strategically meet an aggressive target in a short period of time. Among those 44 million visitors, 7 million are Internationals, and given the current low dollar conversion rate to sterling and the euro, Greenberg worked to maximize the visitor potential by specifically messaging the “This Is New York” campaign to visitors in U.K., Ireland and Spain with dedicated national communications programs. He explains, “The campaign consisted mostly of TV, Online, Out of Home and Print in specific markets. The effort commenced in October 2007, marking the first time that NYC had outreached and marketed ourselves to the world.”

There is no question that the U.S. is not universally popular around the world at this moment in time, and International tourism to U.S. as a whole has declined. However, New York has countered the trend with international tourism growing steadily since 2003. “We believe our messaging helps to showcase NYC as a welcoming U.S. destination,” says Greenberg.

Problems still exist, however. Some potential international visitors are reluctant to come to the U.S. due increased visa fees, excessive processing time, and more stringent Homeland Security rules. Greenberg continues, “While we need to be mindful of security, we also need to do more on a national level to make international visitors feel welcome in our country. A visit to our shores does wonders in changing perceptions for the better. Therefore, we feel it is pretty assertive of us to encourage visitors to come to NYC despite all of the hurdles to get here.”

While Paul Greenberg admits that he would like to say the campaign is as complex as rocket science, it is in truth a matter of following the basics, and having a talented team at NYC & Company and at BBH/NY. He explains, “The team collaborated using the same classic media and marketing principles and plotted them out on a Global basis. And while media evolves and mutates, the principles of sound thinking and good business, provide us the tools to develop the benchmarks. As a consequence, these exercises helped us understand our International visitor performance relative to the World Tourism Market. So it is going back to the tried and true, creating our Brand Development and Category Development Indices, understanding the political, economic, and social influences and then prognosticating what might be next in an unpredictable world market.” Paul Greenberg is a native New Yorker and also calls himself a Media War Horse, given his long ad agency experience. He admits, “Part of my passion in life is NYC. And to tell our story on a Global basis is a dream come true.” Contact: pgreenberg@nycvisit.com

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