skift take
“The 77” video campaign is one way Choose Chicago promotes inclusive community tourism. And it’s delicious.
elizabeth casolo
Chicago is home to many famous local eateries. At La Catedral Cafe & Restaurant, you can choose from up to 14 types of chilaquiles. At Old Fashioned Donuts, you can order freshly made donuts, handcrafted by artisans with over 50 years of donut making experience.
Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism agency, invites you to delve into Chicago’s historic and culturally rich neighborhoods with its new web series, “The 77: A City of Neighborhoods.”
The video campaign, funded by an American Rescue Plan grant, is posted on YouTube and the Choose Chicago website and focuses on five sets of neighborhoods across the city’s 77 community areas.
Mark Skala is the creative director and founder of Skalawag Productions, the production company behind this campaign. Scala said most episodes follow a similar trajectory. That is, starting with established eateries, moving to neighborhood history and culture, and ending with small and medium-sized “pioneers.”
Skift has learned more about the campaign and its progress since its premiere earlier this month.
gathering around the table
In each episode, viewers are greeted with cinematic shots of food and cocktails. Chicago is a foodie’s paradise, and the campaign’s creators embraced that.
“Food is the hook that gets people interested,” said Rob Fozik, Choose Chicago’s vice president of neighborhood strategy and the show’s host and executive producer.
As Scala would say, this show will make you salivate. Skalawag Productions focuses specifically on food and beverage videography, which helped them distinguish themselves when Choose Chicago called for pitches for their campaign.
The series hopes to showcase the culture and history of the city’s neighborhoods, and food is an easy way to draw in viewers.
“You can learn about history, but if you don’t have a place to eat lunch, dinner, or cocktails, the trip becomes less fun,” Fozik says.
A platter of Papa’s Cash Sabroso.Source: The 77: Select nearby city/Chicago
Narrow down your neighborhood
“Choose Chicago” was only able to showcase a handful of neighborhoods at the series’ launch. There were two deciding factors when narrowing down which communities to feature.
We build relationships of trust with neighboring residents through collaboration with chambers of commerce and regional development corporations. This could allow Choose Chicago to get in the door of the mom-and-pop store and be filmed for up to 12 hours a day.
But beyond logistics, select neighborhoods play a role in Chicago’s growth.
“Each of these five communities has a unique cultural identity, a unique history, and something that speaks to the larger story of Chicago,” Fozik said.
This series is going to challenge the story. As the show explains, Chicago’s racism led to inequality, socioeconomic diversity, and community isolation. While we still contribute to pressing issues across Chicago, we shouldn’t ignore Chicago’s history.
“The things that cause us so many problems are also the things that give us so many great and rich experiences that can only be found in Chicago,” Fozik said.
spread the word
Choose Chicago posted the episode online, but the group also hosts community screenings around the city. Viewers can enjoy the same content they see on the big screen.
Fojtic said Choose Chicago also launched a paid advertising campaign to draw attention to the show.
Through its promotional efforts, Choose Chicago targets a broad audience, including Chicago residents.
“We can easily get to other communities by riding the CTA, by car, by bike, etc.,” Fozik told Skift. Choose Chicago also wants to consider local and national levels in its campaigns, identifying high-affinity groups and niches that would enjoy these travel experiences. More broadly, Fozik emphasized the prominence of “cultural explorers,” or tourists interested in knowing all aspects of a city.
empower the community
In addition to directing travelers to other parts of Chicago, neighborhood campaigns have the potential to empower communities themselves.
Mike Moreno runs Osito’s Tap, a notable bar in Little Village with a bohemian past and a Latin twist. Osito’s store has already been reported, but Moreno has seen so many customers that he needs to hire more staff, he said.
“My bar has been banging for the past few weeks. It’s amazing,” Moreno said. “(This series) brings attention to an area that I love that not many people know about.”
Fojtic sees the series as an opportunity for the community to make its voice heard.
“These were opportunities to really amplify and highlight community voices and perspectives,” Fozik said. “I think it gave a lot of people who participated an opportunity to have their voices heard.”
