PRESS RELEASE:Yonkers Launches $325,000 New Generation Yonkers Marketing Campaign

Campaign Features TV and Radio Ads, Print and Digital Advertising, and Metro-North Car Cards

YONKERS, NY — March 3, 2017 — Dean Bender of the public Relations and advertising firm Thompson & Bender divulged that Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano had engaged the firm for the next generation of the Generation Yonkers marketing campaign, that people in the know have advised the Yonkers Tribune is an initiative that will cost $325,000. The advertising promotional is said to be an “innovative economic development initiative created to reposition Yonkers as the next great urban frontier.”

Partner Dean Bender suggests, “The new campaign, which was developed by the Westchester-based advertising agency Thompson & Bender, has a new look and feel from the previous two campaigns and features leaders in the fields of business, higher education, restaurants, arts and culture.

The firm advises those featured in the new marketing campaign include:

· Mike Brady, President & CEO of Greyston Bakery;
· Jason Evege, Founder and Owner of Linoto textile company;
· Christian Petroni, Chef and Owner of Fortina Restaurants;
· Kanwal Singh, Dean of Sarah Lawrence College;
· Melissa Starke, Curator of Urban Studio Unbound Gallery
· Masha Turchinsky, Director of the Hudson River Museum

The Generation Yonkers campaign kicked off during the opening days of March with TV ads running for three months on FIOS and Cablevision, as 60-second spots running on WCBS-880 radio through the end of August and Gen Y is sponsoring the WCBS-880 opening bell report every weekday morning. Print ads will be running through the end of the year in local publications and interior car cards are appearing on the Harlem and Hudson Line of Metro-North through March 26. The campaign also includes a comprehensive program on a digital ad network that includes geotargeting, geofencing, key word search, contextual ads, search retargeting and Facebook ads. In addition, www.generationyonkers.com, new website for the campaign was also launched.

The new campaign was unveiled at a reception held at the Hudson River Museum featuring those who are appearing in the new ads as well as those who appeared in the previous campaigns.

“The secret’s out – Yonkers is the city to live, work and play in,” said Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano. “We’ve seen tremendous growth in our city over the last five years, thanks in large part to the Generation Yonkers marketing campaign and I am confident that this latest re-energized and refreshed campaign will continue the momentum. The future of Yonkers is now – we invite everyone to be part of it.”

Here is what some of the leaders featured in the new marketing campaign have said about Yonkers:

· “Yonkers is in the center of a renaissance. That same energy that started happening in Brooklyn about 10 years ago is happening here. I feel it germinating.”
— Christian Petroni, Chef and Owner of Fortina Restaurant, who is opening his newest restaurant in April at the Boyce Thompson Center in Yonkers
· “As a business owner, it’s so refreshing in Yonkers. People are more receptive to what you need to keep your business going. When you look at Brooklyn and you look at Yonkers, Yonkers just makes more sense.”
— Jason Evege, Founder and Owner of Linoto, a high-quality textile company that moved to Yonkers from Manhattan

· “One of our partnerships with Yonkers is the Environmental Education Center right there in one of the most exciting parts of the city. It’s really a way for our students to be involved in the vibrancy of Yonkers.”
— Kanwal Singh, Dean of Sarah Lawrence College which has the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River on the Yonkers waterfront

· “There is $1 billion worth of development going on in the City of Yonkers and the arts are leading the way.”
— Masha Turchinsky, Director of the Hudson River Museum

· “Yonkers has a really diverse artistic population. There’s a great vibe in the downtown.”
— Melissa Starke, FIT professor and Curator of Urban Studio Unbound Gallery

· “What we like about Yonkers and working with city officials is their real entrepreneurial spirit.”
— Mike Brady, President & CEO of Greyston Bakery, which has operated in Yonkers for the past 33 years

Bender writes: Yonkers is undergoing an economic renaissance with more than $1 billion in development under way. According to the city’s Department of Planning and Development, Yonkers has more than 5,000 multi-family residential units recently completed, under construction and approved for development. The city’s hotel market is also booming with approximately 1,200 rooms. Since 2012, the Department of Planning and Development has been responsible for winning 13 grants valued at more than $10 million and has administered a total of more than $40 million of existing grants during the past four years.”