Grand Central Terminal Case Study

Located in the heart of midtown and over a century old, Grand Central Terminal has grown and developed alongside the beloved City of New York. Best known as a transportation hub commuting people through New York and points of Connecticut, Today Grand Central Terminal is also the destination of 68 unique shops, 35 places to dine (including 5 fine dining restaurants and cocktail lounges) and a gourmet foods market and dining hall. Grand Central Terminal also features ultra-luxurious venue spaces to host public and private events.

Our Scope of Work

We were asked to participate in an RFP after we attended a meeting for the initial renovation on behalf of a real estate client. Based on a very spirited exchange at the meeting regarding marketing to 15,000 people moving through the terminal a day a very specific curation of shops and stores and message was needed to reposition the general population perception of the Terminal.

SO, we did what we do best, we stood in the terminal for a week and created a video of interviews with commuters, tourists, people passing through to expedite their time to a destination from Lexington Avenue to Vanderbilt or Park Avenue to 42nd st, and asked them what the terminal mean to them. At the time we deemed them light users with limited engagement and heavy users who took advantage of any of the services they had as rushed commuters.  We put the RFP together and wrapped it up with a bow with this video of passion, compassion and the needs people wanted filled based on the amount of time they were commuting, visiting, walking through as a shortcut or for a deep breath looking at the newly cleaned ceiling and a magnificent structure. 

The result is now history. We were the first women owned business to be awarded the account to work with the MTA, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, The Governor’s office and their very limited team of ONE to rebrand, re-curate and tell the world that if you got a minute or 5 or 30 or needed a place to eat that was commuter friendly in the grab and go prepared food or ingredients category plus with mid to higher end dining options, this was in fact your destination.

We created a Style and Brand Identity guide based on the architectural facets of this Beaux Art Beauty. It became iconic for advertising and marketing and all the campaigns we developed and executed which included, got a minute, catch the terminal and Connections.

The Engagement Includes:

  • We conducted strategic planning workshops and both quantitative and qualitative research on a shoestring budget to begin the task at hand.

  • The projects that fell under the scope of work which widened everyday over several years were as follows:

  • Print, outdoor and in terminal advertising

  • Tenant curation

  • Commuter campaigns

  • Tourist campaigns

  • Retailer spotlights, ding hall, food market and fine dining newsletters

  • Working with all the alliances and surrounding corporations

  • Creation of “Connections” an in train, in terminal magazine, which we then created an alliance with Time out New York to produce and insert in their Holiday Gift guide and Spring Fair events.

  • Negotiated a New York Times insert in kind for the GCT Annual Holiday Fair

  • New York Times in kind participating in the annual holiday fair

  • Converted all trash cans, and signage of advertising revenue and digital signage for rotation for a rebranding campaign for Tiffany’s and terminal tenants.

  • Negotiated and executed Target station domination and train wraps for the shuttle between Grand Central Terminal and Times Square for the holidays