Joe Torre’s ‘I Love NY’ Ad Lures Visitors to Hall

By JIM KEVLIN

COOPERSTOWN

You may have heard your neighbors remarking on the “I Love NY” TV ads where incoming Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Joe Torre urges us to “join me in Cooperstown.”

It turns out conversations about those ads are going on throughout the New York Metropolitan Area, and Torre’s pitch is working.  Brad Horn, Hall of Fame Vice President for Communications, said 160 percent more visitors – yes, 160 percent – went through the turnstile at 25 Main St. in the nine days before Easter this year, compared to the same period in 2013.

“The ‘I Love NY’ campaign and the governor’s tourism focus has been a major driver in the decision for families to visit,” said Horn.

This was no accident, according to Richard Newman, executive vice president/state marketing strategy for the Empire State Development Corp., which runs the “I Love NY” campaign.

“This is part of a much larger initiative,” he said in an interview, “to drive economic development through tourism throughout the state.” Governor Cuomo has committed $60 million to the campaign, Newman said.

Because of the Hall of Fame’s 75th anniversary celebration, the Cooperstown spot was a natural, he said, but it was one of four.

The others featured Whiteface Mountain, “the highest vertical drop east of the Rockies” and its proximity to Lake Placid; the Tug Hill Plateau south of Watertown, which heavy snowfall makes ideal for snowmobiling and cross-country skiing, and Dia: Beacon in the Hudson Valley, “the world’s largest contemporary art museum.”

The Torre TV spots, running in New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, are part of a “fully integrate campaign” that also includes “There’s more to New York than NY” posters in MTA stations and on billboards.

Newman’s office has been tracking results, and they are impressive: In 2013 over the year before, 8.8 million more people visited New York State, a 4.7 percent hike. They spent $61.3 billion in the state, a 7 percent increase.

Statewide, 808,700 people are now working in the leisure and hospitality industry, making it the state’s third-largest sector.  Locally, where the county Tourism Office was privatize the first of the year, Executive Director Deb Taylor said the new effort plans to complement what “I x NY” is doing, and reach into markets beyond the state effort.

In Boston, where Red Sox archival Torre will have little traction, plus Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and central Pennsylvania, the local effort is placing banner ads on websites and tablet displays, as well as “pre-rolled videos,” the 15-30 second spots that run before your typical YouYube-like video.

That year, tourism generated $7.7 billion in state and local taxes.