Superstorm Sandy devastated much of the New Jersey shoreline and crippled parts of New York City. Many are still recovering, and will be for some time. On Staten Island, many storm victims remain living in a shelter.

Part of the region's recovery will inevitably depend on branding efforts that must override images of utter destruction from the public's mind, just as the need for donations remains as the rebuilding continues.

On the larger scale, New Jersey is deploying its first post-Sandy branding effort to woo tourists back in summer.Continue reading...

“UNIQLO Lucky Cube with Maru” (you know — Maru, Japan's Garfield turned YouTube and web sensation) is one of the ways UNIQLO USA is celebrating the fall openings of new stores in San Francisco and New Jersey.

The brand’s first West Coast flagship store, 111 Powell Street in San Francisco's Union Square, opens on October 5th. “San Francisco has always been a place of creativity, diversity, and social innovation,” stated UNIQLO USA’s COO Yasunobu Kyogoku. “In this same spirit, UNIQLO takes pride in developing innovative technology to create high-quality casual basics that are not only functional, but also affordable.”

Fans in the Bay Area can win blimp rides, merchandise and other prizes by playing with the You Tube Japanese cat sensation and the game is available now through October 14th on UNIQLO’s website, and via Facebook and Twitter.Continue reading...

Competition for locals looking to book "nearcations" in New York City's tri-state area is heating up. While the Big Apple doesn't need much help on the marketing front, Connecticut just launched its big tourism campaign. Now New Jersey's fabled Atlantic City is wooing northeastern residents to visit — and not for the reasons you might think. 

The Atlantic City Alliance, a non-profit funded and operated by local casinos, is focused on increasing tourism by pitching. The marketing challenge: how to promote a city synonymous with gambling without focusing on casinos? The strategy: woo potential visitors on the city's other charms, as part of a campaign titled "Do Anything. Do Everything."Continue reading...

Rebranding a state can be a dicey proposition. As the Wall Street Journal noted in an article about New Mexico's desire to come up with a new marketing slogan,

New Jersey hired a consultant a few years ago to come up with a new tourism slogan. The result? "New Jersey: We'll Win You Over." That may have been an improvement over its 1970s tagline, "New Jersey's Got It," which inspired innumerable jokes about venereal disease. But state officials thought "We'll Win You Over" sounded defensive and spiked the campaign.

So we're watching with interest another rebranding project in New York City's tri-state area: Connecticut, which has been saving its pennies and now has $22 million in its coffers to spend on boosting tourism and business investment in the state. The Nutmeg State hasn’t spent any money in the last two years on tourism and is now opening up its wallet to try and rebrand itself over the next two years.Continue reading...

Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul Kitchen is an example of what can happen when “a painter, a student, a local builder and a rockstar work together, that's what we call the power of we making a difference," as the New Jersey born rock star says in a promotional video.

The star rocker and his wife Dorothea opened the restaurant in their hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey, serving gourmet dishes with ingredients in the restaurant's garden. There are no prices listed on the menu, just a suggested $10 donation for a meal. The Bon Jovi “community kitchen” is redefining the issue of hunger as customers leave whatever they choose in envelopes on the table.

For those who can’t pay or prefer to donate their time, volunteers are welcome for every facet it takes to run a restaurant from setting the table to washing the dishes. Volunteer work earns an individual a certificate that can be exchanged for a meal at The Soul Kitchen.Continue reading...

Things will be a little different at the 2014 Super Bowl. The main difference is that it will be cold. Viewers will likely see the breath of players on the field. The gloved applause of thousands will sound like a muted herd of cattle rampaging.

It marks the first time a Super Bowl has been in an open-air cold-weather stadium. The logo for the big game, unveiled at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, signifies the potential chill at the event by sticking a snowflake right at the center. The dominant image of the logo, at right, is of the George Washington Bridge, which connects New York and New Jersey, where the game will be played.

“We are going to be completely up front from day one about the weather,” said host committee CEO Alfred Kelly, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

“It’s going to be February in New Jersey when that game is played. It’s likely to be cold. It’s likely to have snow or remnants of snow or threats of snow and we thought it would be both fun and direct to put the snowflake right into our major symbol.”Continue reading...

Unless your last name is Steinbrenner, it’s not easy being the owner of a New York-area professional sports franchise.

Islanders owner Charles Wang has been unable to find the breakaway success he enjoyed at Computer Associates (now CA), the software company he co-founded. The owners of the Mets have been forced to cuts costs while being sued for profits they allegedly earned from Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

And now, thanks to a $100 million missed loan payment on September 1st, the New Jersey Devils are going bankrupt, if a report in the New York Post is to believed. Unsurprisingly, the Devils shot back: Don’t believe it.Continue reading...

A year ago, a Quinnipiac University survey found that half of New Jersey residents find MTV's series Jersey Shore "revolting." A "Jersey Doesn't Stink" campaign duly launched in an attempt to clean up the state's image. Ah, New Jersey.

Now, the state's Governor Chris Christie has embarked on a campaign to reclaim the Jersey Shore from the seedy image fostered by Jersey Shore ... which was just named the "cable phenom" of the year by Bloomberg Businessweek, by the way.

Christie's campaign to reclaim and restore the image of New Jersey's shore towns includes a visit today to Atlantic City — battling its own image downgrade at the hands of another cable network (HBO) and TV series (Empire Boardwalk) peopled by less than upright citizens. 

Blame/credit an earlier HBO series, The Sopranos, for ... ah, fuhgeddaboudit!