Parisian style has officially hit the streets of New York City.
French fashion brand Sézane recently expanded its New York presence with the opening of a new store on the Upper East Side, and to help bring attention to the opening, Sauced Lab executed a citywide wheatpaste poster campaign from start to finish.
The goal was simple: take the effortless Parisian energy Sézane is known for and make sure New Yorkers saw it everywhere.
And we mean everywhere.
The campaign stretched from Bushwick, Brooklyn, all the way up to Harlem and 125th Street, creating a street-level presence across some of New York City's busiest neighborhoods and commuter corridors.
Combining 24x36 and 48x72 Wheatpaste Posters
One of the strongest elements of the Sézane campaign was the decision to incorporate both 24x36 standard wheatpaste posters and 48x72 jumbo posters.
Brands like Sézane can take advantage of the unique benefits of both formats rather than limiting a campaign to a single poster size.
The 24x36 poster is the street-standard format for wheatpasting. Its smaller footprint allows us to secure more placements, spread creative across additional neighborhoods, and repeatedly expose pedestrians and commuters to the brand.
The 48x72 jumbo poster, on the other hand, is about impact. Its larger format creates a bold street presence that can dominate walls, construction barriers, and other high-visibility surfaces.
When the two sizes are combined, a brand gets the best of both worlds: quantity and coverage from the 24x36 posters, plus the larger visual impact of the 48x72 posters.
For a citywide campaign, that combination can create a much stronger overall presence.
From Opening Night to Millions of Street-Level Impressions
The Sézane wheatpaste campaign officially kicked off around the opening of the brand's new Upper East Side store and continued for approximately two to three weeks.
Over the course of the campaign, we estimate the placements collectively generated millions of potential street-level impressions, with exposure coming from New Yorkers, commuters, tourists, shoppers, and people simply moving through the neighborhoods where the posters were installed.
But impressions alone aren't what make wheatpasting powerful.
Repetition is where the format really comes alive.
Think about a commuter jumping on the train in Harlem after seeing a Sézane poster near 125th Street. Later that day, they exit the subway downtown and see Sézane again. They grab coffee in the Lower East Side and encounter another poster a few blocks away.
The following day, they might see the brand again in another neighborhood.
That repeated physical exposure is what makes a properly executed wheatpaste campaign memorable.
Wheatpasting Creates a Different Relationship With the Consumer
Digital advertising plays an important role in modern marketing, but the experience is completely different.
Someone might scroll past a sponsored post on social media once, and the next advertisement in their feed could immediately be from a competitor.
Wheatpaste posters occupy the physical environment.
A strategic campaign places the same brand message along the routes people repeatedly travel: where they live, commute, shop, eat, work, and spend their weekends.
You see the poster in Harlem.
You see it again downtown.
Then you see it in Brooklyn.
Before long, the campaign starts to feel like the brand is everywhere.
That is exactly what a strong out-of-home campaign is designed to accomplish.
Bringing Paris to New York
Sézane already carries a distinctive Parisian identity. Our job at Sauced Lab was to translate that identity into a New York street-level campaign capable of standing out in one of the most competitive advertising environments in the world.
By combining 24x36 and 48x72 wheatpaste posters and strategically distributing placements across Manhattan and Brooklyn, the campaign extended the Sézane message far beyond the doors of its new Upper East Side location.
It wasn't simply about announcing a store opening.
It was about bringing the Parisian swag of the streets of Paris directly to the streets of New York City.
From Bushwick to Harlem, Sézane became part of the city's visual landscape.
That's the beauty of wheatpaste poster marketing. When the creative is strong, the locations are strategic, and the campaign is refreshed consistently, consumers don't encounter your message just once.
They see it again. And again. And again.
At Sauced Lab, that's exactly what we aim to deliver.
We handle wheatpaste campaigns from printing and production through installation, strategic placement, campaign refreshes, and documentation. Whether a brand chooses the versatility of 24x36 posters, the impact of 48x72 jumbo posters, or a combination of both, our objective remains the same:
Make sure New York sees you.
If your brand is preparing for a store opening, product launch, fashion release, event, or simply wants to take over the streets of New York City, Sauced Lab is ready to bring the campaign to life.
