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

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