Marketing

Marketing the businesses of East Midtown district – and helping to build a distinct identity for this community – has been one of our more challenging goals over the past several years. We have initiated several marketing programs in the past several years that have served to enhance our image as a major international center for home décor and design and underscore that East Midtown is “Where New York Gets Its Style.”

Over the past twelve months, distribution of our popular district shopping guide continued, and we have launched several street banner campaigns. In addition, our web site continues to orient visitors to district shopping, dining, and accommodations. One of our more recent projects – a survey of every commercial building in the district, with the goal of cataloguing the names, types, and key contacts of upper-floor commercial tenants – was completed last summer, giving us the means to reach and promote almost 2,000 new district businesses.

In the next year, we will build on our existing programs, while integrating new initiatives into the overall EMA marketing plan. With an extensive database of upper-floor commercial tenants, we will have an enhanced distribution network for an updated and redesigned shopping guide, and we will also reach out to all district businesses – upper and ground floor alike – as we reintroduce networking and professional development events.

Among new initiatives under discussion by the Board is the creation of a shopping card providing discounts or other benefits at participating businesses, as well as new programs to brand East Midtown as a destination neighborhood for upscale retail, dining, entertainment, and accommodations. We also intend to engage more businesses in our programming, to both gain great input into marketing proposals and broaden participation levels.