The 2023 We❤️NYC The campaign was intended to encourage New Yorkers, still pessimistic in a post-pandemic world, to show love for their city.
And boy, did I do it always.
Last year, Maryam Banikarim royally upset the Olsen twins And the Jonas Brothers with their We❤️NYC campaign. But the same campaign got twice as many impressions as a Super Bowl ad… in 48 hours.
I caught up with Banikarim to get her top marketing lessons, and it was immediately clear that she was the embodiment of “do what you love”—and it all stemmed from her asking herself, “What if “If I did that?”
That’s why we talked about working with purpose, how to use your curiosity to fuel your marketing campaigns, and the best ways to stay up to date with new technologies.
“What if I did that?”
1. Good campaigns have excitement. That’s what gets people talking.
I can see Banikarim’s eyes twinkling through my computer monitor as she tells me how she ruffled the feathers two Groups of famous siblings. She enjoys the memory of it.
Her agency worked on the citywide advertising campaign, funded by members of the Partnership for New York City, to promote civic action and community engagement. It took advantage of something that is very, very important to New Yorkers: New York.
When “We❤️NYC” began appearing on bus stop signs, at Barclays Center and across Times Square, “everyone thought we were trying to get rid of the I❤️NY sign,” she says. They weren’t, but “Communication is not what I say, it is what you hear.”
So when someone posted (wrongly and angrily) that the new campaign was trying to supplant Milton Glaser’s iconic I❤️NY, it kind of became a reality. A reality picked up by the talk shows Mary-Kate and Ashley and the Jonas Brothers – “it was just a whole.” thingsays Banikarim, laughing.
There is no going back into the tube: We❤️NYC was now a perceived threat to the identity and iconography of New Yorkers. Tension built; Tweets came in. “Milton Glaser would be so angry.” “Can we please let Milton Glaser rest in the peace he deserves?” “Milton Glaser got it right the first time.”
Banikarim is happy about this. “We couldn’t have bought this media,” she says.
Your next campaign probably will not incur the wrath of the Olsen twins (although a girl can dream). But know what your target group feels responsible for and where you can tease out the excitement in your marketing campaign.
2. DIY – with curiosity.
“I always seem to have a part-time job these days,” she tells me. (One gets the impression that Banikarim has always had to have a part-time job.)
It’s just that Banikarim’s side hustles would make most full-time workers jealous. Last weekend she celebrated her third year The longest tablea community-building event born out of the need for human connection when everyone was still masked and sharing tips on finding Lysol wipes.
She saw a neighbor setting up a folding table outside so they could have dinner with some friends. She introduced herself and thought: “What if I did that?”
One also gets the feeling that Banikarim does not ask rhetorical questions. She started with a few posts on Next Door and an outdoor potluck for eight people on her street in Chelsea. On October 6, 2024, over a thousand people showed up for dinner.
Together, they cobbled together a Squarespace website and “we use HubSpot to send email to people.” (We didn’t bribe her, pay her, or threaten her for saying that. -Ed.) Banikarim doesn’t complain about DIY marketing technology; on the contrary, it refuses to be overtaken by evolving technology.
“Marketing has always been for curious people,” says Banikarim. And “in order to constantly learn, it is really helpful to take the tools into your own hands and not just direct them from above.”
3. Move sideways, move quickly. And take small bets.
Moving sideways means sometimes taking a job that feels like a sideways move or even a step backwards. That’s not unusual Nowbut Banikarim jokes that she was a millennium ahead of her time because she had so many jobs for someone in her fifties.
“But I was always looking for meaning in my job.” Like millennials, she is “looking for impact.”
Your marketing career “doesn’t always have to be on the rise. You can move sideways. You can move out, you can move in.”
Of course, Millennials don’t need banikarim to tell them that a non-linear career is okay. But are you worried about it or are you learning from it? (No judgment; glass houses and all.)
“I think there’s a lot of lip service paid to the idea that it’s ‘okay’ to fail,” she tells me. And then she says what so many of us feel in these moments: “But that’s not it Really OK.”
When I ask her what the biggest waste of money in the entire marketing landscape is, she replies that it’s not a tool. The point is that “we all need to be better at finding things to test and learn from” – and we need to stop thinking that if those tests don’t work, it’s a mistake or a waste of time.
Her advice: move quickly. Take the small bets. See where you’re getting the signal—then go big.
