Silverstein Properties’ long term mission to redevelop 3 World Trade Center, and their passion for the place, their tenants, and the future of Lower Manhattan is palpable in everything they do. The early believers that bought into their belief of a revitalized Downtown have come to define the neighborhood, and, as the Trade Center reaches its final phases, have turned that vision into reality. It was our job to bottle that passion.
Our takeaway from the pitch brief for the 3WTC campaign was that the World Trade Center, and surrounding downtown, was a widely misunderstood neighborhood. Dated perceptions clouded people’s understanding of what Lower Manhattan has become, and the change has been especially rapid in the past five years as more and more reopens. It’s young, it’s incredibly diverse, and there’s much more going on now than there has been in decades. Much of that message has not been coming across, and the assumption that the Trade Center was overly corporate and boring was misguided. We wanted to correct that.
As the task was in effect a 3WTC branding effort with a neighborhood rebrand on the side, we looked to develop a three-part platform that addressed shifts in the workplace and workplace culture, alongside the spectrum of passionate individuals that have come to define the Trade Center and greater downtown community. The brand narrative weaves together the people, the place, and the product in an effort to address the complex process of choosing a new location to operate your business. The end result is a far more personal approach to a commercial office campaign—one that is dynamic and adapts to cultural and neighborhood trends.
The brand embraces the people and places downtown by putting a real human face to the neighborhood and Trade Center. We relied heavily on portraiture of tenants–from the C-suite all the way down the chain, local business owners, chefs, neighborhood influencers, and uniquely Downtown places to validate the brand.
People are passionate about what they do. By capturing tenants in their natural element, we were able to tell a more authentic story that truly brought out the passion in each individual and showcased the uniqueness and vibrancy of those who call the neighborhood home.
A major component of the campaign was recalibrating people’s perception of downtown and WTC.We embarked on an information campaign that showcased the energy and the people while keeping the brand top of mind. Reinforcing content that’s seasonally relevant, and often not directly focused on leasing office space, is being rolled out constantly.
This was one of the rare instances where we used very little 3D collateral on a leasing campaign. The completion and opening of 3WTC made the project very real, and our focus on neighborhood activity drove us to rely heavily on photography.
Historically speaking, the branding for the previous WTC buildings has been very much aligned with the parent WTC brand and Silverstein Properties’ own brand identity. That served its purpose at a time when redevelopment of the WTC was built heavily on vision and the promise of a exciting future.
With the opening up of 3WTC, the project found itself in a very different place, one where we felt an individual building and it’s brand could stand on its own successfully. And as the brand was a dramatic departure from a look and messaging standpoint, we wanted to create a dedicated online space that was supportive of that shift in perspective.
Identity, Branding, Renderings, Photography, E-blasts, E-brochure, Corporate Presentation, Print Ads, Banner Ads, Website
