Chicago Overview: Bullish About Chicago

Don’t mention the words ‘Second City’ around Chicago’s proud ad execs. They know that this vibrant – but affordable – city, a Mecca for the creative arts and heart of ‘real’ America, has always made great work and they’re finally getting ready to shout about it

Back in 1964, Frank Sinatra sang that Chicago was his kind of town. And if current opinion is to be believed, Ol’ Blue Eyes was way ahead of the game because Chicago, more and more, is becoming a lot of people’s kind of town. The creative advertising industry in America’s third most populous city is undergoing something of a creative revolution and while its inhabitants believe the revolution has been in progress for some time, it’s only now that they feel comfortable enough to shout about it. And the rest of the States seems to be taking notice.

Bursting the bubbles

When you think of the great creative cities of America, no doubt you’ll highlight Los Angeles and New York, and you’d be right to do so. But Chicago is staking its claim to be mentioned in the same breath as those two advertising behemoths. The work itself is, of course, paramount in establishing Chicago as a creative hub, but great work is created by great people and to attract great people you need something special to entice them and that, it seems, is where Chicago itself comes in.

Chicagoans – both native and settler – are often evangelical about their city, about what it offers and why it’s a perfect place to live and work. It is, they say, more cultured than LA, much more affordable than New York and more reflective of the nation at large than either. “I lived in New York for years and loved it,” states Vinny Warren, creative director of Chicago agency The Escape Pod, “but it is to America what Hong Kong is to China; New Yorkers are not representative of the vast majority of Americans, and ideas generated in isolation from the rest of the culture can suffer because of that. We live and work in real America. No diss against LA or New York, but they are bubbles. Lovely bubbles, but bubbles nonetheless.”

Radar Studios’ Don Hoeg suggests that historically Chicago “has had a little bit of a chip on its shoulder” regarding cities like New York, Los Angeles and London, but that more recently the feel-good factor is back and Chicagoans can compare their city favourably with that celebrated triumvirate. Some also point to the recently opened Chicago outpost of private members club Soho House as further evidence of the city’s growing creative stature; the Soho House Group tends to target creative hubs for their venues.

But why has the city started to come to people’s attention and garner covetous creative glances now? Jared Yeater, managing director of The Mill Chicago, which opened in the city 18 months ago, thinks that living out of the spotlight (till now, at least) has been an advantage. “There is a little less pressure to keep your head above water in Chicago,” he says, “and that allows you to be a bit freer to explore different things a little more.”

Designed to be invisible?

Vincent Geraghty, EVP and executive director of production at Leo Burnett Chicago, thinks that people shouldn’t be surprised that Chicago is making a name for itself; that the only real surprise is that it hasn’t been noticed sooner. “Chicago is an environment that fosters creativity,” he says. “It’s a Mecca for the arts, and not just industrial arts like advertising, but for full-on art communities, and it’s been that way for quite a while.”

One of the accusations that could be levelled at Chicago is that it doesn’t quite have the international diversity of some of its more celebrated counterparts; that this lack means it can’t compete to the same international standards. But Matthew Wood, partner and editor at The Whitehouse Chicago disagrees. “New York is the melting pot of the world, so it’s hard to compete with that, but in the 10 years I’ve been here I’ve noticed a lot more of an international mix: Argentinians, Brazilians and Brits, like me.”

Despite most people’s positivity about Chicago’s present and future, there are some, like The Escape Pod’s Warren, who think that there’s still a lot of work to be done. “I think it’s been ‘Meh!’” he says, when asked about Chicago’s creative output. “Billions of dollars of business goes through Chicago’s advertising agencies every year and what do we have to show for it creatively? Ship My Pants from FCB was brilliant [but] I struggle to remember anything produced here in the past few years that actively tried to engage the popular culture (other than our own efforts, of course). An awful lot of the work produced here almost seems designed to be invisible. It’s very strange and it doesn’t do the city’s creative rep any good.”

It’s not that he doubts the ability of Chicago to be one of the best creative outposts in the world. “I hate all this ‘Second City’ bullshit,” he states. “We have tons of great, big brands in this city. We have no excuses. We have only ourselves to blame if Chicago advertising isn’t among the best in the world. It used to be the best and it very easily can be the best again if we want it to be so. It’s not that hard, but the first step is actively trying to be the best.”

The work speaks for itself

Trying is another thing that Chicago excels at. There is, it seems, a ‘can-do’ attitude that pervades the place. That work ethic is what has put Chicago on the map and what will see it thrive, thinks Onion Labs SVP, Rick Hamann: “There’s a difference between saying you’re great and being great. I think Chicago has the talent to simply be great without having to broadcast it to the world. This creative renaissance we’re having is because the world is starting to notice our work. It’s not because we’re using a megaphone to broadcast it, we’re just doing great work, and the recognition comes from that. That’s the Chicago way.”

shots, The Whitehouse Post Chicago and The Mill Chicago held a panel discussion about Chicago and it's place in the US's creative community. You can see highlights of that discussion here.