• by Fern Siegel , September 8, 2009

New York City is celebrated in song, books, movies and TV. It was a constant lover in "Sex and the City," the setting for "Seinfeld" and the destination for millions each year. Which is why branding the city takes savvy and state-of-the-art slickness. That job belongs to NYC & Company and their latest media push is NY400 Week, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's arrival and Dutch contributions to New York.

Now through Sept. 13, the program offers outdoor and sports activities as well as the New Island Festival, held on Governor's Island, offering performances by more than 100 Dutch artists. The program culminates in the first Harbor Day on the 13th to highlight the city's waterfront. Various brands are partnering for the effort; the main sponsor is ING.

The trick is how to promote it with style.

Alongside ongoing banners on lampposts throughout Manhattan, ads for Harbor Day are evident on street banners, phone kiosks and bus shelters. A special magazine is dropped at hotels, parks and cultural institutions. There is a 30-second PSA on 40% of city cab TV monitors; Twitter will also communicate event info, augmenting the NY400's Web site splash, which, like the rest of the city, is aggressively promoted on nycgo.com.

The current effort underscores the larger aim -- to maximize travel and tourism throughout the five boroughs.

"Mayor Bloomberg is results-oriented, and his directive to all city agencies is to promote the quality of life," says Jane Reiss, Chief Marketing Officer of NYC & Company. "We use all available media -- traditional and digital -- to secure that end. But our packaging is unique, especially with our ad partners, to create customized partnerships. We use New York to push their product, such as promoting the "Spider-Man" movie with an American Museum of Natural History tie-in, or the association with Travelocity.com to drive traffic for Gay Pride Week."

NYC & Company, which positions New York City as an aspirational global brand, maximizes its economic goals by a creative use of media and serious sponsorship alliances, including past and ongoing pairings with American Express, Bravo, Coke, JetBlue, Sony Pictures, AT&T, Snapple, Delta, among others.

"Our advertisers want engaged eyeballs," Reiss adds, "and we deliver." In 2008, an estimated 47 million visitors brought in $30 billion to New York City.

To that end, Google recently unveiled a new campaign for Google Maps that celebrates New York City for consumers and businesses, via nycgo.com, while strengthening the marketing of Google Maps as a navigational guide. The program's objective is to promote Google Maps and support local business development through personal endorsements. Given that an estimated 89% of U.S. Internet users use the Web to find business information, expectations for success are high.

In New York, Chef Nobu Matsuhisa recommends his favorite restaurants, while Yo-Yo Ma, Mark Morris and Maya Lin cite art exhibits and theater. (Other participating cities include San Francisco, London, Paris, Moscow, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Madrid and Prague.)

An added plus for visitors is the Official New York City Information Center in midtown Manhattan. An extraordinary digital center that houses information on thousands of possible attractions, it's designed to be both effective and easy to use. Once visitors build their own itinerary, they can send the info (and map) to any mobile device. Some 500,000 visitors annually exploit this vital resource.

Recently, Lucy, the world's oldest and most famous fossil, was advertised at the center as part of a traveling exhibition. Going forward, the center will be a growing venue for advertising and promotional opportunities for hotels, theater productions, events and brands that work with the city.

"Our mission is unique," says Reiss. "Part tourism, part marketing. This is a vibrant, one-of-a-kind city, and we want to communicate that singularity and energy to the world."