AW22 Herald Square Station Takeover
Bringing Unpolished 2.0 to Life Across One of New York City's Busiest Transit Hubs
Bringing Unpolished 2.0 to Life Across One of New York City's Busiest Transit Hubs
As part of Dr. Martens' Autumn/Winter 2022 global campaign, Unpolished 2.0, the brand set out to re-energize its most iconic product franchises: the 1460 Boot, 1461 Shoe, 2976 Chelsea Boot, and Jadon Platform Boot.
Building on the campaign's central creative device: the brand's iconic yellow welt stitch reimagined as a dynamic character interacting with talent, the campaign celebrated individuality, rebellious self-expression, and the enduring relevance of Dr. Martens' hero silhouettes.
To amplify the campaign in the U.S. market, Dr. Martens secured a full-station takeover of Herald Square in New York City, one of the highest-traffic transit destinations in the country.
The Challenge
Unlike traditional marketing campaigns, transit takeovers require creative to function across an enormous variety of formats, scales, viewing distances, and physical environments.
The Herald Square installation included:
• Large-format wall murals
• Digital screens
• Platform displays
• Turnstile placements
• Station dominations
• Column wraps
• Stairway graphics
• Entrance signage
• Environmental wayfinding integrations
Each placement required custom adaptation, mechanical preparation, and production oversight while ensuring the campaign remained visually cohesive throughout the station experience.
My Role
I led the adaptation and execution of the global campaign creative across the entire Herald Square station takeover, partnering closely with Global Creative, U.S. Retail Marketing, and Outfront Media to bring the campaign to life at scale.
Working within an accelerated production timeline, I was responsible for translating campaign assets across hundreds of unique environmental placements while maintaining creative consistency, technical accuracy, and brand integrity throughout the installation.
The Outcome
The final installation transformed Herald Square into an immersive Dr. Martens brand environment, surrounding commuters with campaign storytelling at every touchpoint.
Project highlights:
• 500+ individual placements produced and adapted
• More than 10 million impressions generated
• Full station domination across Herald Square
• Collaboration across Global Creative, U.S. Retail Marketing, and Outfront Media
• Execution completed under a highly compressed production timeline
This project remains one of the largest and most technically complex environmental campaigns I executed during my tenure at Dr. Martens, requiring equal parts creative problem-solving, production precision, stakeholder management, and large-scale systems thinking.
