The Go-To-Market Visual Identity Behind SUMMIT One Vanderbilt
Summary
When SUMMIT One Vanderbilt was preparing to open, it had one shot to introduce itself to the world. I served as creative director on a $400K go-to-market production, defining the visual identity of a $3B development from scratch. I sourced and managed photographer Evan Joseph and Wonderful Machine's creative production team to produce 100+ stills and video assets that launched alongside the October 21, 2021 opening. Those assets ran across every channel — OOH, paid social, press, print, and digital — and are still in use today.
The Challenge
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt was a brand new category of attraction in a competitive NYC market. Unlike the Empire State Building or Top of the Rock, SUMMIT had zero visual identity, zero awareness, and one chance to communicate what it was. The product was also genuinely hard to explain — a 65,000-square-foot immersive observatory with mirrors, glass sky boxes, and an art installation by Kenzo Digital. You couldn't describe it in a headline. You had to show it. That meant the creative assets weren't just marketing materials. They were the entire first impression of a $3B development.
Objectives
Primary objective: Build a go-to-market asset library that could communicate what SUMMIT felt like to someone who had never seen anything like it, and do it across every channel simultaneously at launch.
Key deliverables:
100+ final stills spanning lifestyle, architecture, and aerial photography
Video assets for paid social and digital placements
A visual system flexible enough to run across OOH, print, paid social, press, and the brand website
Creative that held up under a New York Post cover wrap, Subway digital screens, and LinkNYC bus stands at the same time
Strategy
The core creative challenge was making something invisible feel visceral. Nobody knew what SUMMIT was, and no amount of copy would fix that. So I led with images that created a physical reaction before the viewer could even process what they were looking at. A woman standing on a glass floor 1,063 feet above Madison Avenue. The Manhattan skyline reflected infinitely in every direction. The glass elevator suspended against open sky.
I defined the creative direction myself, working closely with Kenzo Digital and presenting the approach to the SUMMIT marketing team and SL Green for sign-off. The goal was a visual language that felt aspirational and slightly disorienting. Premium enough for a luxury New York attraction, bold enough to stop someone mid-scroll or mid-stride on a Midtown sidewalk.
Role & Execution
Creative Production: Sourced and managed photographer Evan Joseph and Wonderful Machine as the creative production team. I coordinated every element of the shoot: models, wardrobe, locations across all three floors, helicopter and drone footage for aerials, and simultaneous photo and video capture to make the most of a single production window. Total output: 100+ lifestyle, architecture, and aerial stills plus video assets.
OOH: Assets ran across JCDecaux digital screens, LinkNYC bus stands, taxi toppers, and billboards across New York City, placing SUMMIT's visual identity in high-traffic Midtown and transit locations ahead of and during the opening.
Print: New York Post cover wrap during opening week, one of the city's highest-visibility print placements.
Digital Takeovers: Homepage takeovers on Time Out New York, New York Magazine, and Gothamist on opening day, plus a New York Post sponsored placement, targeting the audiences most likely to convert to ticket buyers.
Paid Social: Video and static assets ran across Facebook and Instagram.
Press and Owned: Assets seeded to media partners ahead of launch served as the visual foundation for all earned media coverage. The same library has powered SUMMIT's marketing ever since.
Results
$272,728 Ticket revenue driven by digital ads on opening day alone
690,419 Ad impressions on October 21, 2021
19,426 Clicks on opening day
2.81% Overall CTR across all digital channels
22.86% CTR on search ads, highest of any platform
75,331 Website sessions on opening day, 63.9% from new users
1,671 Ticket transactions on day one
Still in market Assets remain in active use across SUMMIT's marketing channels four years after production
