Business environment in New York
New York City is truly the city that never sleeps… literally. At any hour of the day or night you will see people walking the streets, eating, drinking and just enjoying the wonders of New York City.
New York City | Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash
New York provides a great working environment in that it’s the media capital of the world, the financial capital of the world and the cultural capital of the world. It’s expensive to live and work here but the business opportunities are significant. Interestingly, just outside of New York City, in New Jersey is the lion’s share of pharmaceutical companies, so the business opportunities are endless in NYC. There is also an incredibly strong pool of talent from which to recruit staff.
Media, Communications and PR environment in New York
There’s no question that New York City is the U.S. media capital with more press outlets located within New York City. All of the national morning shows broadcast from New York City, the major magazines are headquartered here as are the wire services.
On the Public Relations front, almost 80 percent of all firms have presence in New York because of all the reasons mentioned so far, so it’s an extremely competitive market, but offers significant opportunities.
Key expertise of Southard Communications
Southard Communications is primarily a consumer products company and this segment represents about 80 percent of the agency’s current business. Since founded in 1994, the agency has always been a general practice PR firm with expertise across a myriad of markets and industries. Specific areas of expertise include:
Toy and Game industry: Southard Communications is one of the largest independent firms in the U.S. on this front and has represented brands including Etch A Sketch, Elf on the Shelf, LeapFrog, Toys”R”Us, to name a few.
Consumer Packaged Goods, including food and beverage, is another key expertise area in which we do significant work representing both large established food and beverage companies, as well as early stage companies. This includes natural and plant-based products, which is a strong and growing category.
Educational Products: We have launched LeapFrog, and work with a number of companies such as KinderCare Learning Centers, Hooked on Phonics and Smile Zemi that market educational products for children – pre-school, elementary and high school.
Top 3 advice for companies to navigate the media and communications environment in New York
Be realistic about expectations: Despite the size of our country, it’s extremely competitive and is a cluttered environment. Set deliverables that can be obtained based on the business environment and the opportunities within that space.
Understand the U.S. is different than the country you are currently selling in. The same messaging, positioning and approach you are using in your home country likely will not work here in the U.S., so be appreciative of the differences and let your agency guide you through this process.
Start with consumer research so you can best understand the end user you are targeting here in the Unites States, Don’t make assumptions but invest in some preliminary qualitative and quantitative research to most effectively understand your customer (consumer) and client (business-to-business) base.
Most influential media for consumer communications in New York
All national press are based here, including the national morning shows, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and Fox and Friends. A myriad of afternoon talk shows. Also just almost every magazine is located in New York City as are the main national influencers.
Most influential media for corporate communications in New York
All of the business and financial outlets, from broadcast such as CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Fox News and others. Also all the business press such as BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, Entrepreneur and lastly the financial outlets, such as The Financial Times, Dow Jones and Bloomberg to name a few.
Most important international events in New York
There are just simply too many events to name as the United Nations is based in New York and meets regularly.
Many view New York City as the center of the sports universe with three hockey teams, two baseball teams, two basketball teams, two soccer teams and has the most famous arena in sports – Madison Square Garden. New York City also hosts The U.S. Open.
Also, we host the New York City Marathon in the Fall and host a ton of cultural events including the Global Citizen Festival held in Central Park, and the Tribeca Film Festival to name just a few.