Company: Silverstein Properties
Agency: Rubenstein Communications, Via Group
Timeframe: 2005 - 2006
It was the last building to fall on 9/11 and the first to be rebuilt in that area infamously known as "The Pit," or Ground Zero. Four years after the terrorist attacks, 7 World
Trade Center was ready to be reopened by its developer Larry Silverstein. There was one problem: Silverstein's company, Silverstein Properties was the building's only tenant, as
the leasing firm Silverstein had hired to lure prospective tenants into the building could not find any takers. The project was at a stalemate until Silverstein launched a
marketing campaign to rebrand Lower Manhattan as not only a viable business district, but also a thriving, multi-purpose community. He also set out to ease the fears of
prospective tenants of another attack in the area as well as quality of life conditions.
To come up with a solution, Silverstein enlisted the services of NY-based PR firm Rubenstein Communications, and a guerrilla branding firm from Portland, Maine, called the Via
Group.
"We were handling the World Trade Center the moment Larry Silverstein acquired it," says Howard Rubenstein, chairman and founder of Rubenstein Communications. "This was just a
few weeks before the tragic attacks. We've walked with him through all the turmoil of all those buildings coming down and the effort to rebuild them."
Fear & Misunderstanding
Together, they came up with three objectives for their initiative: find tenants for 7 World Trade Center; demonstrate progress at the WTC site; and show the viability of
Downtown Manhattan as a place of work.
Targeting multiple audiences, which included potential tenants and their families, local residents and small business owners, elected officials and the local, national and
international media, the team conducted extensive research. Among its findings were:
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Fear was a major factor why C-level executives were reluctant to move into 7 World Trade Center;
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Real estate brokers, also manifesting this fear, weren't even bothering to show clients available space in Downtown Manhattan to financial tenants; and,
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Public perception of Downtown Manhattan was not commensurate with reality.
Still, the negative attitude that the public had about Downtown Manhattan, compounded by the media's constant pronouncements about the area being dead, prompted the team to
step up their efforts to change public sentiment.
"There was an attitude in the minds of the public that this area couldn't possibly come back after [9/11]," says Rubenstein. "There was a pall over New York City and the U.S.
It was a general negative feeling of, 'Oh my God, these iconic towers were knocked down. Who's going to rebuild?' You had a lot of negative media that was saying all kinds of
things--that Larry should get out--that he'll never fill up the buildings."
Bringing Back Business
Other challenges had to do with forging and renewing ties in the business community and calling upon them to help 7 World Trade Center become a thriving hub again.
"You had to bridge some relationships that were difficult," admits Rubenstein. "You had government, you had insurers, you have a developer and you have people that were
focusing on this and coordinating them so they work together toward a common goal. It worked out well, but it was a challenge. We tried to solve it. Larry made it clear in the
beginning that he was here to stay, that he would devote the majority of the rest of his working life to building [this area]."
Working with the building's architects and designers, the team developed tactics for the campaign that were more than just the traditional routes (i.e. brochures, Web sites,
media outreach). "Because the project was so fraught with controversy," says Dara McQuillan, marketing/communications director of Silverstein Properties, "it was difficult to
promote 7 World Trade Center through traditional media. We wanted to let [the building] speak for itself." The strategies included:
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A futuristic 25-floor marketing center with actual offices and a conference room (which would become a movie set for a Bruce Willis/Halle Berry-starring film entitled
Perfect Strangers for two months in early 2006);
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Intricate scale models and architectural renderings of the completed WTC site five years from now;
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Daily hard-hat tours of the building for potential tenants, residents, students, tourists and the media; and,
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An innovative program of events in the building's top floor raw space that would take on a life of its own.
The idea was to bring as many people into 7 World Trade Center as possible, and to disabuse them of any negative impressions they had about the building and the WTC site.
Yet, according to Rubenstein, there were those who persisted in thinking that Silverstein should not have to charge competitive rental fees for tenants--that he should offer
fees far below the market value. Silverstein balked at this.
"Larry had a great understanding of what the area could be and the demand that could exist," Rubenstein maintains. "So he held his ground and called for and got rentals that
were equivalent to new buildings in the other marketplace. He didn't have to give away bargain basement deals. That was a tremendous asset to him because it made people think it
was really worthwhile."
Hitting The Pavement
The campaign kicked off in November 2005, when ads promoting 7 World Trade Center appeared in financial publications and on New York City buses. Also, the wtc.com Web site was
unveiled with images, videos, renderings and tidbits about the building, as well as plans for the new World Trade Center and information on the neighborhood, parks and
restaurants.
The redesign of 7 World Trade Center was another way of combating the image problem.
"Larry made some design changes that opened up the street right in front of 7 World Trade Center to traffic, creating a real grid that was consistent with the city's street
grid," says Rubenstein. "We promoted that; we talked about the building's easy access and about how this area had great transportation. We started to promote the pluses, and we
ignored the minuses."
The next month, the Architects Newspaper held its holiday party at one of the top floors of 7 World Trade Center; about 900 architects, designers, critics and reporters were in
attendance. Supposedly, it was the first time many of them had seen the building.
In March 2006, the team put together a series of media events that addressed tenants' concern about the air in the environment; another point of focus was 7 World Trade Center
being certified as the first green office building in New York City.
Architectural and design groups held fundraisers, galas and award ceremonies in the building. Architecture critics were given tours of the facility. Many of them wrote positive
reviews, leading the building to win several architectural, design and engineering awards.
Open For Business
The opening of 7 World Trade Center came on May 23, 2006; Silverstein celebrated the event with an open-air concert featuring seven New York bands, including punk rock icon Lou
Reed and folk rock songstress Suzanne Vega. Over 2,000 residents, workers, officials and spectators attended the event.
The campaign continued throughout the summer; highlights included an art exhibit for the WTC Memorial Foundation, a Clean Air press event with the local community board and a
tour for members of the Foreign Press association.
Four days before the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Silverstein used the building to introduce designs of three new skyscrapers at the WTC site. Media coverage was positive,
culminating in a New York Times front-page article with the headline, "Rounding Out a Vision for Ground Zero."
During the fall of 2006, 7 World Trade Center became a very busy hub. "By default, we've become the place to be," says McQuillan. Whether it was hosting fashion week parties
for Calvin Klein and Valentino or being used for TV and movie shoots, the building was a popular multi-purpose venue rather the ghost town it seemed to be a year earlier.
The campaign's ROI was extensive:
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One month after the 7 World Trade Center initiative bowed, Silverstein signed its first tenant, the New York Academy of Sciences, with the financial services firm
Ameriprise signing a lease a month later;
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Following the opening of the building, Mansueto, the publisher of Fast Company and Inc. magazines, the law firm Darby & Darby, Moody's Investors and ABN Amro, the Dutch
bank, all signed leases. Currently, 75% of the building is occupied;
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The opening of the building was seen by 11.6 million TV viewers and by 9 million newspaper readers; the wtc.com Web site received 9.3 million hits during the three-day
period leading up to the fifth anniversary of 9/11; and,
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According to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted on November 15, 2006, public perception about the WTC site has shifted considerably, with 50 percent of New York City
voters feeling that the work at Ground Zero is going "very well" as opposed to 40% who felt it was going "somewhat well" in a poll that was taken on July 12, 2006.
For their efforts, Rubenstein Communications, Silverstein Properties and the Via Group took home the 2007 Silver Anvil Award in the category of Marketing Business to Business -
Products. But, according to Rubenstein, their involvement with 7 World Trade Center will not be over. "We still have those weekly meetings," he says. "We're still taking people
through 7 World Trade Center. We're going to continue on this not only when that building is filled but we're going to use it as an example for the next three buildings that Larry
is going to build on that site." PRN
CONTACT:
Howard Rubenstein, [email protected]; Dara McQuillan, [email protected]
Persistence Pays
For Rubenstein Communications' eponymous founder and chairman, Howard Rubenstein, working on the 7 World Trade Center project presented several pointed lessons to be learned.
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Stick to the truth.
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Be imaginative.
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Even when you're dealing with negative media, don't succumb to the idea that you'll never be able to tell a positive story. "We were able to turn around the attitudes of
many writers who came at it with a negative point of view," he says.
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"You have to put the time in," Rubenstein says. "You can't talk the talk and forget the walk. So we talked the talk and we walked the walk. That worked."