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Forum Club
Welcomes Leaders from
The New York Waterway
and the City of New York
Tuesday, October 7, 2003
 Arthur E. Imperator is at the helm of probably one of the most impacting transportation systems ever conceived, one that encompasses 45 vessels traveling over 23 different routes, and transporting a massive 65,000 people every single day. What’s more amazing is that this transportation
 system, known as New York Waterway, originated 17 years ago, in 1986, as a mere one-vessel ferry system and a few chartered buses. The master behind this magnificent accomplishment is its founder, Mr. Arthur Imperatore, Sr. This transportation system, which is the largest of its kind in the United States is also safe and environmentally sound. The New York Waterway vessels have counterparts, over 100 buses which connect its ferry facilities with different points throughout Manhattan and the Hudson and Bergen County regions of New Jersey. Impressively, New York Waterway has demonstrated its ability to double its daily capacity at a moment’s notice when it had transported over 160,000 people from the disaster region of Lower Manhattan to various points points in New Jersey. Arthur Imperatore had indeed challenged and defied skeptics in his successful pioneering of a FerryBus system—built on his 55 years of experience within the transportation industry—which became an international model for effective, coordinated mass transportation systems.
 In telling the story as to how the New York Waterway got started, Mr. Imperatore started by referring back to the family trucking business he was involved in. The business had, as he indicated, sustained profits of up to five-fold to its competitors. Mr. Imperatore implied that his success is the result of having combined what he learned from his family trucking business with his corporate knowledge. In more detail, Mr. Imperatore pointed out that the family trucking business, along with all of the other businesses the family had owned, were focused on service, which gave him a deep insight as to how service-oriented businesses work, thus making it easy for him to migrate into the businesses he helms today. Arthur also pointed that he had purchased a piece of land, spanning from 34th Street to 74th Street in Manhattan, which later became the port area where his future ferries would dock. He pointed out how effective it is reliable transportation can be, because it is not subject to traffic congestion as land transportation is. “You know, literally within seconds, when a boat will arrive and when it will depart.” He also spoke about the large numbers of people his boats were able to move across the water during catastrophic events, September 11th, a major flood in the Path Tunnel System in 1992, and, just recently, the blackout of 2003 (during which the New York Waterway moved close to 200,000 people). He speaks of a very civilized operation—clean, efficient, courteous people—which is now equipped with Global Navigation Systems, enabling the tracking of departure, traversal, rpms, fuel consumption, the parts of the river where the boats need to slow down, thus enabling the most efficient use of the boats. Additionally, Arthur had pointed out that the buses are also equipped with GPS’s, thus making it easy to determine when a bus will arrive at a particular stop. He then went on to talk about the many, many different opportunities that are available for the New York Waterway system—the different islands around Manhattan, the hub setups at numerous different water edge locations through Manhattan—and so on. Mr Imperatore is truly, as he describes himself, a visionary, with the hopes that he will, ultimately, build the finest transportation system in the world. As he indicates “We’re in this to stay, it’s a ferry story and a good story, and I’m glad I had the chance to stay.”
 Joseph Perello, the Chief Marketing Officer for New York City, is another visionary. He was appointed to use every positive aspect of the City’s image and assets in order to generate new streams of revenue for New York City. Joe Perello, prior to his appointment as Chief Marketing Officer, was the president of his own marketing agency, Perello & Company, a firm which specialized in sports consulting, team and league marketing services, and sponsorship measurement and development. Among his clients were Modell’s Sporting Goods, the National Football League and Everlast Worldwide. Prior to running the agency, he was Vice President of Business Development for the New Yrok Yankees, during which time he assisted the Yankees in increasing attendance mark to over 3,000,000 for the first time ever. He also developed many of the Yankee’s business models and doubled the Yankees’ sponsorship revenue. Perello is also responsible for helping David Bowie is interactive firm, UltraStar, a subscription-based business focused on the music industry. Joe Perello’s previous business background consists of a decade span of experience with MBNA America. He is a graduate from the University of Delaware, and holds a degree in History and Journalism.
 Joseph Perello’s vision is to take all of the marketable assets which New York City has to offer, and effectively market them, targeting the corporate sector with a centrally strategized proposition for sponsorship, similar to the way the sports industry markets its teams and events, using stadiums and institutions. The idea, ultimately, is to “brand” New York City, almost like a product being marketed to a targeted audience. Among the city agencies which will be involved in this branding process are its tourism and convention bureau, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York City Host Committee, the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, and the City’s Economic Development Corporation. The CMO will report directly to Deputy Mayor Doctoroff.
Mr Perello’s presentation was aided with a slide show. He presented The New York City Marketing Development Corporation, which was made possible by Mayor Bloomberg, who saw that the City has a great set of assets. He went on to sat that New York City is a great brand. This instinct to many of us. The brand asset valuator is a measurement tool developed by Young & Rubicam, in which New York City was ranked at the thirteenth from the top among 2400 different brands. Five of the brands ahead of NYC are Disney Brands, another brand Hallmark and another, the Oprah Winfrey show. This validates our instincts that New York City is a great brand, and we share some of the same foundations of other great brands (Disney World, NFL and the Olympics) There is emotional attachment by the consumers; having interacted with these brands for a long period of time, consumers can, like with the other brands, come to expect that brand to deliver a promise—and that is what happens. New York City has all of the brand attributes that these other brands have. Additionally, an enormous number of people have, in come way, interacted with New York City. The manners in which New York City generates revenues is likened to the NFL. Money is made from licensing, corporate sponsorships, and events, and broadcast rights. All rights and assets are centralized in one place. There is tight control over their brand—only certain people are allowed to associate with that brand. New York City has that same foundation that the NFL has. New York City has an enormous amount of media sources, it runs events community service, it runs an enormous amount of promotions. These powerful ways in which New York City communicates to people are not centralized within one particular place, where full control can be exercised and marketing can be tightly controlled as with the NFL. This is where Joseph Perello’s centralized marketing strategy comes from.
On a side note, New York City just signed a major contract with Snapple, for Snapple to be the official supplier juices, iced teas, and water. This contract is worth $60 million over the next five years ($12,000,000 a year.)
In summary, Mr. Perello spoke of the burdon of selling sponsorships being lifted off of the shoulders of the politicians, and being taken over by a professional marketer, the Chief Marketing Officer of New York City, Joseph Perello, who can envision New York City as just any other well known brand that, when properly and centrally marketed, will generate the same excitement and interest from consumers as the NFL is now generating.
Over twenty different members joined The Forum Club. There were so many people there this time that I could barely move around. Other dignitaries on hand were Former Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr., Terrel L. Cass, President and General Manager for WLIW Ch. 21 Public Television, and many more dignitaries from the respected fields—businessmen corporate heads and politicians.
For the next upcoming Forum luncheon, which will take place Tuesday, November 11th, 2003, or for more information, feel free to contact Caroline Winston, director of the Forum Club, at 212-755-1492, Ext. 27, or log onto their website, at www.forumclub.org.
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Robbie. |
