Moving to New York

J. Walker Marketing is moving to New York City on June 28.

I’ll be living and working in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. This move from Lancaster, PA is creating new connections and relationships while enabling me to continue to serve my current valued clients. It’s also a chance to widen my marketing network with people who'll teach me and challenge me to stay abreast of techniques that are always emerging in this fast-changing field.

The last time I lived in New York, I worked at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising at 375 Hudson Street; I worked on the Ivory Soap account and helped make some TV commercials for a campaign called “Baby Your Skin with Ivory.”

Saatchi & Saatchi isn’t there anymore and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen any national advertising from Ivory. Appropriately, one of the new tenants is Sapient Razorfish, a digital marketing agency. I also hear that Brooklyn has become a hub for digital marketing with exotic firms like Huge and Big Spaceship luring millennials to cool jobs in emerging neighborhoods.

In recent trips to Manhattan, I’ve seen areas that got a body blow from COVID. Midtown Manhattan is full of empty office buildings, stores are boarded up, and I didn’t see many tourists. Overall, it looked dirty and tired. But Manhattan has been down before and I’m betting it’ll get back on its feet soon, perhaps changed, but full of gawkers and strivers once again.

I’ve started conversations with some business friends in New York and it’s clear that there’s plenty for me to learn about the next new things that are emerging in marketing, but that’s why I’m going.

So I look forward to staying connected with friends and colleagues in Lancaster, PA while heading into a new phase of life and work in New York.

Stay in touch!

This post was written by John Walker, Principal at J. Walker Marketing, a marketing consultancy. Contact John directly to discuss your marketing challenges.