the upgrade lounge by marshalls
Last year, 7.7 million people flew over Memorial Day Weekend — making it one of the busiest (and least relaxing) travel weekends of the year.
Vacation? Lovely.
The airport? A lawless, fluorescent hellscape.
So Marshalls did the unthinkable: we made the airport... nice.
We launched The Upgrade Lounge at JFK Terminal 4 — a luxe, totally free oasis open to everyone. Not just the 1A crowd. Not just those with lounge access from three overlapping credit cards. Everyone.
All bringing Marshalls’ “access to better” mission to all, even at the airport.
And for those not traveling through JFK? We teamed up with Amanda Batula to curate her favorite summer finds at The Upgrade Shop on Marshalls.com.
Because summer style? Always essential.
We also collaborated with brand partner Vivian Tu to create social content to get people talking about travel compromises (like wearing 3 jackets and your heaviest Doc Martens). And we engaged 8 social influencers and social editorial creators to capture content at our lounge to showcase the activation live to their followers.
brought to life by a first-class crew:
agency: Edelman
ecd: Michelle Tucker
gcd (and last-minute DP): Dan Licht
cds: Brandon Kramer, Alex Ohanessian
sr cw/acd: (and last-minute DP): Laura Walsh
design: Graham Robson, Emma Dowling
production: Scott Siegel, Liz Bradley, Autumn Brawer, Lisa Parisi
production partners: Cowboy Bear Ninja, Deyan Design
The lounge showed what travel should be:
Comfortable seating
Charging stations
The latest summer fashion
A Glow & Go beauty bar
Free, premium amenity kits
(these could give Emirates a run for their money)
And yes, must-have airport snacks. Obviously.
media impact (so far!)
Leading up to Memorial Day 2025, we received earned coverage in Travel + Leisure, Parade, Teen Vogue, Stylecaster, People en Español, OK! Magazine, and more,
totaling 100M+ earned media impressions.