Manhattan Mini Storage Selects Mcgarrybowen New York as Agency of Record

The storage company, owned by real estate firm Edison Properties, has garnered a reputation in New York for its bold, often envelope-pushing ads that blanket the city’s buildings and billboards. For instance, one once read: “Your closet space is shrinking as fast as her right to choose.”

According to Mcgarrybowen, the agency will “expand and elevate” the brand while providing a more strategic approach to its advertising. Its first work is expected to debut this spring.

“We’re excited to work with Manhattan Mini Storage, as they are a brand that truly understands and embodies the same values as New Yorkers, and this is going to lead to some great and provocative work,” said Mcgarrybowen New York president Ida Rezvani, noting that the agency is collaborating with the company to develop a new brand platform that aims to grow its customer base and increase usage of its storage units.

Manhattan Mini Storage, which has 17 locations across its namesake borough, chose Mcgarrybowen from among seven agency finalists.

“We had broad interest from a variety of agencies, but it was very important for us to identify a New York-based firm and a team who really understands our brand and are familiar with us from living here,” said Jason Morros, vice president of integrated marketing at Edison Properties.

In the past, the company’s internal creative team has partnered with agencies and production companies for campaigns on a project basis. Moving forward, Mcgarrybowen will partner with the brand’s in-house team, which includes writers and designers.

“We were impressed with Mcgarrybowen’s creative approach and their genuine passion for our brand,” said Adam Steckler, president of Manhattan Mini Storage, in a statement. “They believe in our business as much as we do and will be a welcome extension of our own team.”

According to Kantar, the storage company spent $296,000 on measured media between January and September of last year (its figures don’t account for money spent on social media).

Manhattan Mini Storage’s signature brand of humor, which has often waded into political territory, stems from two women who long worked on its ads while employed by Edison Properties: Archie Gottesman and Stacy Stuart. In a 2014 Fast Company article, Gottesman—whose father founded the company—details how she spent years crafting Manhattan Mini Storage’s voice.

“We’re the witty friend that people encounter when they go about their day,” she said at the time. “We were the snarky Twitter voice before there was Twitter.”

While the two are no longer with the company, Gottesman and Stuart created many of the brand’s most buzzworthy one-liners, such as a 2011 billboard that posed a question that proved to be contentious: “Why leave a city that has six professional sports teams, and also the Mets?”