Provocateur:

The pandemic has forced monumental change across the marketing and TV landscape, both nationally and regionally. Viewership and consumer behavior as a whole have shifted and, out of the necessity to adapt, media messaging and the sales process have transformed, too.

As we finish the year and plan 2021, we naturally ask ourselves: How permanent are these unexpected changes? How have they impacted New York and ultimately the national media landscape? In essence, New York is the hub of the national media landscape—its heart and soul—and all eyes are on its comeback.

New York is far from dead. A lot of that doomsday chatter has come from a deluge of news coverage on the migration out of Manhattan and the New York City area. But, when you take a closer look, the timeframe on migration goes further back. Data show us that there’s been a net migration, particularly out of Manhattan, since about 2013. There have been, for a while, more people moving out than in. But where are they going? Not far.

A large majority of those migrating are staying within the New York market. The migration to Connecticut is up 75 percent, to Long Island 50 percent, and to New Jersey, which is up 40 percent. But collectively, we are New York. This is the real landscape, pandemic-triggered migration aside.

Here in New York, our pride is notorious, and that makes the market especially powerful, suggesting a certain inclination to engage. Regardless of where you’re from on Long Island, or if you’re from Jersey or the boroughs, you always have this pride about being in the market, and that’s what, in turn, fuels the market. So, at present, that pride is the spearhead of New York’s comeback.

What’s vital to understand, however, is that at the core of where we are right now is not the migration patterns, but the change in viewership—and how to plan for it.

For context, before the pandemic, according to Nielsen Media Research, we saw TV viewership increasing; up 2 percent in the New York DMA. Since the onset of the pandemic, it’s grown by 16 percent. With stay-at-home orders in place, TV usage during the daytime hours has grown +53 percent in the DMA compared to last year.

The timeline tells a story

If you take an overview of the timeline pre-pandemic to today on the New York media marketplace—quarter by quarter, starting from Q4 2019 to first quarter 2020, to second quarter, into the pandemic, and onward—there is much to observe that is helpful to current planning.

The fourth quarter of 2019 was very strong in the New York market. We kicked off with MLB playoffs being a tremendous success, with the Yankees making a nice run there. As it happened, Q1 started off a little slow from what we typically see. But then by February, we started picking up momentum and media activity strengthened. March was looking great, particularly anchored by March Madness.

And then, right around the 13th or so, the rug got pulled out from under everybody when the stay-at-home orders came down. We saw a lot of reactive scaling back, and some businesses coming off the air or offline completely. Businesses closed, car manufacturing slowed or halted (even at a “parts” level), and travel-related business withered, all amid what are usually peak seasons.

When you fast forward to today, we’re seeing advertisers come back. Dealerships, destination travel, healthcare, and a number of verticals are meaningfully reengaging. It’s especially worth noting what’s happening in sports.

The return of live sports has been excellent for all of us because the sports viewer is a unique viewer: a highly engaged viewer. Once August kicked in and MLB came back, followed by NHL and NBA, viewership began to rise. The demand has absolutely been there—thanks to such welcome, exciting, excellent programming.

Looking back, one of the things that we also had to do in the TV business during the pandemic was to take a step back and look at how to use set-top-box data to examine the patterns of those sports viewers when they didn’t watch the NBA, for instance. What were they now watching? We were able to watch where the eyeballs went and to which entertainment networks. For example, they went from watching the NBA on TNT or ESPN to perhaps Discover or other channels. The ability to leverage data to track these migrations helped advertisers reach those eyeballs when there were no sports available.

Through it all, messaging and creative have been the biggest changes. We applaud the agencies that adapted when a lot of people were staying home. They had to pivot and move the message from a sales message toward a “we’re here for you” message or a “thank you” message to the first responders and people who were on the frontlines. While it was heartening and great to see that, in media you have to walk that fine line when it comes to fatigue around that message. The best in the business did a great job with that.

And now, here we are. The comeback is in progress, and adaptation has been key to that.

The fourth quarter is coming on strong, particularly among political advertising and auto. If we see travel and tourism rise later this quarter, it’ll really turn out to be a strong quarter.

This is New York. The fuel is there, and the spark has been ignited. But, with a turnaround like this, it’s like steering an aircraft carrier. You don’t just turn it on a dime. It’s a slow progression.

Just as New Yorkers know how to do big change, we also know how to do things together, as one. So, we’re seeing nothing short of all players in the media ecosystem—advertisers, agencies, media companies, and networks alike—doing their part.

About the Author

As VP of regional sales for NY Interconnect (NYI), Michael Minardi leads the execution of highly successful media strategies, as well as managing the assignments of accounts, agencies, and prospects, while ensuring that both individual and team goals are consistently met. Minardi has 20 years of experience in the media sales industry. He is well-versed in working alongside high-profile clients on large-scale campaigns that drive engagement and revenue while using best-in-class multiscreen advertising solutions.