New York City Takes to the Streets to Tout New Enhanced Earned Income Tax Benefits Program
April 6, 2023—It’s no easy feat to get New Yorkers’ attention. So, when New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently wanted to promote the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which is available to New Yorkers during this year’s tax season, he selected a marketing vehicle to help spread the word: wrapped cars.
The initiative is part of a $1.5 million multimedia campaign launched by the New York City Mayor’s Office in partnership with Venus Media Group and Athena to highlight the expanded benefit, which provides a city tax credit worth up to $11,000 for qualifying families.
In a recent press conference, the mayor detailed the numerous facets of the campaign, which include traditional advertising, such as television, radio, social media, and print. But along with those mediums, Venus Media Group has contracted with Carvertise, the nation’s largest rideshare advertising company, to wrap a large fleet of Uber and Lyft vehicles and deploy them to specific zip codes around the city to encourage city residents to apply for the tax credit.
The cars, which the Mayor’s Office touted as “one of the best assets of the campaign,” are wrapped with NYC EITC branding and the message, “The Hustle Is Real. Now, So is the Cash Back,” along with a QR code residents can scan to access a landing page with information on how to apply for the benefit.
The drivers of these cars reside on the zip codes in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx that the advertising campaign is targeting, and Carvertise is not deploying additional cars in the city’s roads.
“Last year, we went to Albany and secured an expansion of the city’s EITC for the first time in almost 20 years and matched that with city action. This marketing campaign will encourage eligible New Yorkers to take advantage of this expanded benefit before the end of tax season,” said Mayor Adams. “The expansion of the EITC will help approximately 800,000 New Yorkers be able to better afford essential items like food, rent, and utilities, as well as promote a more equitable recovery across the city. This is how we ‘Get Stuff Done’ in New York City for working New Yorkers.”
The Carvertise vehicles began rolling through New York City’s streets on March 13th and will continue through April 18th.
This isn’t the first time Carvertise has partnered with a public or nonprofit entity to help important programs gain attention. During the coronavirus pandemic, the company worked with the United Way of Greater Newark, New Jersey, to create “Vax Vehicles,” fleets of cars driven by rideshare drivers that touted the importance of being vaccinated against COVID-19. For that campaign, the drivers — who all resided within the zip codes of the vaccine-resistant communities the United Way targeted — provided passengers with branded face masks and detailed information about where they could get vaccinated and how to access free transportation to a vaccine site.
“Branded cars are an ideal medium for such public service campaigns,” said Carvertise Co-Founder Greg Star, because they are attention-getting and can be driven through specific neighborhoods that public or nonprofit entities want to reach.
“Not only are our campaigns highly targeted, but our clients tell us that our cars are the most memorable advertising medium they’ve seen,” Star said. And there’s data to back up their contention: Statistics from a 2019 Nielsen out-of-home study reveal that wrapped cars are proven to be the most effective and memorable form of transit advertising.
Star said Carvertise is proud to be a key part of the City of New York’s latest marketing initiative. “We’ll continue to help our clients find exciting ways to bring critical messages to their communities,” he said.
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Carvertise Co-Founder Greg Star,
About Carvertise:
Carvertise is America’s largest rideshare advertising company on a mission to revolutionize the way brands communicate with consumers outdoors. Leveraging a network of 550,000 registered drivers, Carvertise is running wrapped-car ad campaigns around the country for clients including Netflix, 7-Eleven, EA Sports, NASCAR, and GlaxoSmithKline. Geo-targeted, highly memorable, with a heavy emphasis on analytics, Carvertise is proudly spearheading the future of transit advertising.