The City of Chicago wanted to advertise its new master brand platform ‘Chicago. City of Stories”. However, instead of telling Chicago stories in Chicago, we’ve decided to show that our stories go way beyond our borders. Why? Because Chicago has influenced most of the major cities across the Globe and only a few people know about it. That’s true, Chicago is truly a trailblazing city of firsts. We were the first city to ever have a skyscraper, we're home to house and electric blues music, we invented the first Ferris Wheel, American Cinema Industry, and even the first cellphone was created here, besides many other inventions. Along with the Bus Tour in NYC, posters, films, and social content depicted how Chicago has influenced capitals worldwide. Our goal was to change people’s perception about Chicago and show how our city is a world-class city.

We’ve created a Chicago Tour in NYC. The idea was to show that many things that people know and love in New York only exist because of Chicago. A Chicagoan comedian guided the tour through sixteen landmarks and explained to tourists and New Yorkers how many things surrounding them originated in the windy city, like the Flat Iron Building, the World Trade Center, the Coffee Maker, the Street Art, and much more. But NYC wasn't the only target. The campaign with posters, films, and social content depicted how Chicago has influenced capitals worldwide.

In New York, thousands and thousands of people get on Tour Buses to get to know the city. We used this transportation to highjack New York tourists to tell and show them a little bit of Chicago and its history. As the word went out, many TV Channels, Newspapers, Blogs, and other media got interested in the campaign which helped us to advertise even more the project. Even New Yorkers got interested in the campaign, too. At this point, those were our main target: NYC tourists and New Yorkers. But the other pieces showed that Chicago has influenced much more than New York City, bringing attention to the media and people all over the world.

The bus tour run in NYC in early November 2021 but the campaign is still running. On our website, people can take a virtual tour in New York and see how Chicago has influenced other cities, such as London, São Paulo, Mexico City, Berlin, Melbourne, and many others. The Chicago Mayor, mayor Lori Lightfoot tagged Mayors all over the world starting a worldwide conversation about the subject. Also, posters, billboards, and print ads have been advertised all over the country, and we’re still running them.

So far, the results have been amazing. The campaign got over 200mm views, over U$ 7mm in earned media, and 75% of positive sentiment. Many people have been asking for a tour in another city, and that’s why the next chapter of the campaign is going to take place in London in the summer.