The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2025
StreetEasy warns New Yorkers that 92% of those who leave the city regret it
Five real ex-New Yorkers are shown as fish out of water in suburbia to sell staying — 'Never Become a Former New Yorker.'
StreetEasy
What it had to solve
Many New Yorkers believe they will have to leave the city they love to find more space and greener pastures. Yet research by Zillow and StreetEasy found that 92% of New Yorkers who leave end up having regrets, so the campaign had to make leaving feel like the loss it usually is.
How it works
StreetEasy, the New York real estate platform, built a campaign around a fear its own data exposed: so many New Yorkers believe they will have to leave the city to find more space and greener pastures, yet research by Zillow and StreetEasy found that 92% of New Yorkers who leave end up having regrets. The real threat to the brand was not another listings site but the city's own departure fantasy.
The creative move was to show leaving, not staying. 'Never Become a Former New Yorker' features five characterized depictions of real New Yorkers who moved away, feeling like fish out of water in the idyllic, albeit sleepy, suburban backgrounds they now call home. Where a typical ad sells the dream of a new home, this one dramatizes the regret of the one that got away.
The work taps the universal fear New Yorkers share — that someday they will be forced to move away from the city they are proud to call home — and turns it into a shared warning. D&AD's Writing for Advertising archive lists it as a campaign powered by a research insight about why staying beats leaving.
Why it lands
- The 92% regret figure contradicts the common belief that leaving means more space and a better life.
- Real former New Yorkers as fish out of water make the abstract fear concrete and credible.
- Naming the fear — 'Never Become a Former New Yorker' — gives the city itself a role in the argument.
- Fighting the decision to leave protects StreetEasy's core market instead of chasing customers out of town.
What it did
The idea gave the 92% finding a story: leaving stops being an escape and becomes a future to avoid, which is exactly the fear the slogan names. The work is archived in D&AD's Writing for Advertising section as a campaign built on a research insight rather than a listing feature.
What you can take
When a company's data shows customers regret the alternative, advertise the stay: give the competitor's promise a human face and let the regret statistic do the persuading.
Since then
The campaign treated the fear of becoming a 'former New Yorker' as the real competition and made staying feel like the wiser choice, showing how a listings platform can advertise against the moment its users consider leaving. The portraits and the slogan gave the brand a message about why people stay in New York, not just about what they can buy there.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card