Culture, Media & Opportunity in NYC
The media upfronts are this week in New York, colliding with NYC’s Art Week. Tack on the Met Gala and the Knicks game 1 upset of Boston in the conference semis, and the Big Apple has a lot going on, even for a city that never sleeps.
The intersection of brands, culture, and technology is truly our jam and I’m glad to be back in NYC to see them all meet. They are independent yet interdependent. They need each other; they thrive off each other; and they seem to provide unlimited blue sky opportunities.
Smart Spend, Cultural Return, and the Art of Opportunity
Brand spends are down this year as tariffs and economic uncertainty have created a climate of caution when it comes to budgets. I’ll always be bullish on a good marketing spend, but as we head into the second half of the year, smart marketers know every dollar has to count and cultural impact has to have exponential returns.
The art world in particular is opening up its doors to more brand collaborations. Frieze Art Fair, which always features cool, emerging artists and was once owned by WME, is now owned personally by Ari Emanuel. Emanuel is a capitalist to the core and he’ll most certainly want to bring more brand dollars through the doors of his fair.
In my view, the art world is a great place for brand dollars to go and Art Basel in Miami is still the place to start (a much better Miami investment at this point than F1, although it was impressive to see the city turn out in just the third year of hosting a grand prix). All in all, this is a week where you can see clearly what’s happening in media, new media, and art. It’s a great moment to forecast where the opportunities will be for the remainder of 2025 going into 2026.
