The Grand Opening of SUMMIT One Vanderbilt
Summary
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt opened on October 21, 2021 as New York City's most anticipated new attraction, a 65,000-square-foot immersive observatory in the crown of Midtown's tallest building. I led go-to-market strategy and grand opening execution for a $4M launch campaign with zero prior brand awareness, coordinating media previews, influencer programming, an industry night, and a ribbon cutting attended by then-Mayor-elect Eric Adams. The result was a sold-out venue, a first-week press wave reaching more than 320 million people, and over 1 billion media impressions from the initial announcement alone.
The Challenge
SL Green was opening a brand new category of attraction in a city that already had Edge, Top of the Rock, the Empire State Building, and One World Trade Center. There was no existing brand awareness, no comparable benchmark for pricing or demand, and the experience had to speak for itself in a market that had been battered by COVID-19 for two years. The challenge wasn't just launching a venue. It was defining an entirely new category of NYC experience and building excitement around something the public had never seen before a single visitor had been through the door.
Objectives
Primary objective: Drive awareness, pre-registration, and advance ticket sales ahead of the October 21 public opening, and establish SUMMIT as a must-visit NYC destination from day one.
Key KPIs:
Press coverage reach and outlet quality in launch week
Pre-registration volume on SummitOV.com
Influencer content reach and engagement
Ticket sales and sellout trajectory in opening weeks
Strategy
SUMMIT couldn't be described in a press release. You had to be there. No amount of copy would make someone understand what it felt like to stand in a glass box 1,063 feet above Madison Avenue. So the entire pre-launch strategy was built around getting the right eyes in the building before it opened: credentialed press who would write about it, influencers whose audiences would want to experience it, and industry peers who would talk about it.
The launch ran in two phases. Phase one was the May 2021 announcement, a controlled media preview designed to generate national coverage and seed pre-registration demand months ahead of opening. Phase two was October, the full grand opening week: media preview tours, influencer night, industry night, and a ribbon cutting with city leadership. Each event targeted a different audience with the same goal: give people something real to react to, then let that reaction do the work.
Rather than spending the full budget on paid ads from day one, we front-loaded earned media so that when paid launched, it was amplifying something that was already working.
Role & Execution
PR and Media Previews: Coordinated individual press preview days in the weeks before opening with Berlin Rosen, hosting journalists from The New York Times, Forbes, CNN Travel, Travel + Leisure, Bloomberg, Good Morning America, New York Post, Thrillist, Condé Nast Traveler, and Reuters. Each visit was a first-look experience designed to generate exclusive coverage timed to the October 21 open date.
Influencer Night: Hosted approximately 150 influencers and celebrities across the pre-opening period, generating more than 65 million engagements. Notable attendees included Jennifer Hudson, Floyd Mayweather, Ryan Serhant, and the cast of Hamilton. TikTok content from the activation drove millions of organic views, including a single post from @tourdelust with 3.3M views and @findingfiona with 2.4M views.
Industry Night: Approximately 400 to 500 attendees from the NYC tourism, hospitality, and real estate community. This was about building local word-of-mouth infrastructure that would sustain demand beyond the initial press wave.
Ribbon Cutting: Organized and executed the grand opening ribbon cutting with SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, NYC mayoral candidate Eric Adams, Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. The city-level attendance reinforced SUMMIT's role in NYC's post-COVID tourism comeback story.
Digital Advertising: Launched paid media May 11 across Facebook, Instagram, Google Search, and programmatic display with Berlin Rosen. Within the first week, digital ads drove 32% of total website sessions and 18% of pre-registrations, with social ads earning a 4.31% CTR.
May Announcement Earned Media: The initial announcement generated 320M+ total audience reach within the first three days, picked up by CNN, Forbes, New York Post, Time Out New York, Reuters, CBS News, PIX11, Good Day New York, Univision, Thrillist, and dozens of broadcast affiliates nationwide.
Results
1.5M+ Tickets sold in Year 1
$100M+ Revenue generated in Year 1
320M+ Audience reach from launch week press coverage alone
1B+ Media impressions from announcement through opening
500+ Press stories published, reaching audiences in 13 countries
150 Influencers and celebrities hosted, generating 65M+ engagements
6 months Sold out from opening day through spring 2022
Press
The New York Times — "From Graffiti in the Shadows to Designing an Observation Deck in the Clouds"
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/arts/design/summit-one-vanderbilt-kenzo-digital.html
Forbes — "First Look: Summit One Vanderbilt Observatory Offers the Best Views in All of New York"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradjaphe/2021/05/14/first-look-summit-one-vanderbilt-observatory-offers-the-best-views-in-all-of-new-york/
CNN Travel — "New York Gets Dizzying New Glass Elevator Ride"
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/summit-one-vanderbilt-glass-elevator/index.html
Bloomberg — "A Preview of Summit One Vanderbilt"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-09-20/a-preview-of-summit-one-vanderbilt-video
New York Post — "NYC's Scary New Tourist Attraction: An All-Glass 'Ascent' Into the Sky"
https://nypost.com/2021/05/14/nycs-scary-new-tourist-attraction-an-all-glass-ascent-into-the-sky/
Reuters — "Exhilarating Views From New Observation Deck 1,200 Feet Above NYC"
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/travel/exhilarating-views-new-observation-deck-1200-feet-above-nyc-2021-05-12/
AFAR — "NYC's New Observation Deck Is Delightfully Disorienting"
https://www.afar.com/magazine/summit-one-vanderbilt-observation-deck-opens-in-nyc
amNewYork — "Summit One Vanderbilt Officially Opens to the Public"
https://www.amny.com/news/summit-one-vanderbilt-officially-opens-to-the-public/
6sqft — "NYC's Newest Observation Deck Summit One Vanderbilt Officially Opens"
https://www.6sqft.com/nycs-newest-observation-deck-summit-one-vanderbilt-officially-opens/
ABC7 New York — "One Vanderbilt Summit: Midtown Observatory"
https://abc7ny.com/post/one-vanderbilt-summit-midtown-observatory/11151214/
Untapped Cities — "Summit One Vanderbilt Opens Today"
https://www.untappedcities.com/summit-observation-deck-one-vanderbilt/
Insider — "I Got a Sneak Peek at NYC's Brand-New Observation Deck Opening This Fall"
https://www.businessinsider.com/summit-one-vanderbilt-observation-deck-new-york-sneak-peek-2021-5
NY1 — "Soaring to New Heights at Midtown Skyscraper Observatory"
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2021/09/15/summit-one-vanderbilt-soaring-to-new-heights-at-midtown-skyscraper-observatory
Time Out New York — "You'll Be Able to Take a Glass Elevator to the Top of a 1,401-Foot Skyscraper This Fall"
https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/youll-be-able-to-take-a-glass-elevator-to-the-top-of-a-1-401-foot-skyscraper-this-fall-051121
