Eighty five years is a long time to wait for your moment. King's Hawaiian came to us with a clear ask. Take New York City. Not a billboard. Not a banner. The city itself. From the East River to midtown, from the river crossing to the most recognized skyline on the planet.
We built them a full takeover. Four landmark projections. Two thousand plus taxi tops moving through every borough. LED trucks circling the activation footprint. And one moment at the end of the night that nobody on our team will ever forget.
Grand Central Terminal · Forty Second Street
Grand Central. The Crossroads.
Grand Central is the heartbeat. Seven hundred and fifty thousand commuters move through it every weekday. Tourists stop on the sidewalk and look up at the facade out of pure instinct. We turned that facade into a King's Hawaiian story. Orange light wrapping the limestone. The brand mark scaled to the height of the building. The kind of moment that stops a New Yorker mid stride, and that is hard to do.
From Grand Central we ran the projection footprint south and east, building toward the river. The Brooklyn Bridge was the next landmark on the list. The bridge is the kind of icon that defies advertising. You cannot put a billboard on it. You cannot tape a banner to it. So we lit it.
Brooklyn Bridge · East River Crossing
The Brooklyn Bridge projection played to the Manhattan skyline as backdrop. From the Brooklyn side you watched the King's Hawaiian story bloom across one hundred and forty year old stone with the entire downtown skyline glowing behind it. The bridge has been photographed more than almost any structure in America. That night it had a brand on it, and it worked because the light belonged on the stone.
We had a vision to engage with consumers in an outside the box idea with a holiday inspired NYC takeover, and Forty North Media delivered. I would highly recommend Paula and Forty North Media if you are looking for a high quality, top notch organization.
Kevin Hunker · Omnichannel Marketing Manager, King's HawaiianVerizon Building. The Brand In The Skyline.
The Verizon Building is a Tribeca giant. Bare concrete, brutalist, made to be seen from the West Side Highway and the river. It was the third landmark we put on the schedule, and it gave us a clean canvas at scale. The full King's Hawaiian visual played across the south face. Drivers on the FDR slowed down. Boats on the Hudson kept their lights on. People posted it before our crew had packed up.
Verizon Building · Tribeca
Two Thousand Taxi Tops. The City On Wheels.
While the projections were stationary, the rest of the campaign moved. Over two thousand King's Hawaiian taxi tops were live across the five boroughs during the takeover window. LED trucks ran a circuit through the activation footprint. Riders pulled up to red lights and the brand was already there waiting. The takeover was not a single moment. It was the entire city, all night, in motion.
By the time the projection crew started breaking down, the campaign had already done what we set out to do. Eighty five years of King's Hawaiian. New York City as the stage. Four landmarks lit. The five boroughs covered. A clean ten on execution.
Then the city joined in.
We were leaving the activation. Fully happy. The execution was a ten. Then someone looked up. The Empire State Building was glowing pink and orange. Forty North pink. King's Hawaiian orange. Lit up together at the top of the most famous skyline on earth. It was not coordinated. It was not planned.
Read the full Empire State story →What Eighty Five Years Looks Like
King's Hawaiian wanted a holiday inspired takeover for an eighty five year old brand. They got a city. Grand Central. Brooklyn Bridge. Verizon Building. Two thousand cabs. And the most iconic skyscraper in the world deciding, on its own, to join the party.
That is what we do. We put brands where the world is already looking. Sometimes the world looks back.