2021
Why Times Square still has a high search volume during the pandemic?
With the vaccination rates growing in the U.S., people and traffic are now back to Times Square; however, can you imagine the crossroads of the world having no passengers on the street, and with no customers in shops just a few months ago?
As a Times Square insider agency, standing at the most busy business district in the world, we
have witnessed a nearly empty Times Square in 2020. People are still wondering what was happening around Times Square as we can see that Times Square is still a hot keyword during the lockdown. Here are some first hand views and thoughts that we’d love to share with you.
Times Square not only has commercial value to the city, but also has sensational and symbolic meaning. James Traub (2004) commented in his book The Devil's Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square, “Times Square quickly became New York's agora, a place to gather to await great tidings and to celebrate them, whether a World Series or a presidential election.” People are wondering what is going on in Times Square even during the lock-down.
Nowadays, sitting in the center of the City that Never Sleeps with the busiest subway hubs, Times Square boasts hundreds of 24-hour running billboards and 300,000+ daily visitors. Tiger Party established its branch office in Taipei in order to leverage on the time difference and manage those billboards 24 hours non-stop. Even during the hardest time in the pandemic, when Times Square was nearly empty, the billboards never turned the lights off. Times Square and its 24-hour-running billboards become a symbol of New York spirit over time. When people know that the lights are still on, they know there’s still hope and it’s not the time to give up yet.
As a Times Square insider, we have witnessed seen the ups and the downs of the area first hand. “This is not Times Square...” one of our colleagues said that he could not believe his eyes when he had to come into the office and walk by saw how an empty Times Square was during the pandemic.
Even though everyone was trying to stay home and stay safe during the pandemic, people are still very curious about what was happening in Times Square. In the year-end of 2020, Times Square had its first-ever virtual countdown. The event was not open to the public, and only essential vendors were allowed to enter the bow-tie area with daily covid tests. Countless people participated in this virtual event online to celebrate the new year under social distance.
After the difficult year which the city has been through, we are very happy to see that Times Square is finally back in full business in July. It is expected that ad spending in 2021 is projected to grow 14% to a historical high after a slow year the globe has been through. We are soon expecting the last quarter of 2021 and Tiger Party is already getting more inquiries about ad selling this holiday season than ever. The Times Square Alliances and essential vendors are starting to have meetings discussing this year’s New Year celebration. The virtual NYE countdown is cool, but Times Square misses its crowds even more. We are looking forward to the 2022 NYE celebration. Until then, we will definitely keep you posted if we have any first-hand news regarding this year’s celebration.