Chicago, that toddlin’ town with the big shoulders, is ready to rebrand itself through a new slogan and marketing campaign aimed at driving tourists, businesses and even locals to explore the second city.
Developed over more than a year of listening sessions, focus groups, research and spitballing with creative agencies, Choose Chicago unveiled the new campaign Thursday. The city’s tourism arm is hoping it has found a way to sum up and sell Chicago to the world in four words:
“Never Done. Never Outdone.”
The city’s new branding will launch at home and abroad as summer ushers in Chicago’s busiest tourist season. The rollout also coincides with the U.S. Travel Association’s IPW 2025 trade show, which returns to McCormick Place this weekend for the first time in a decade, providing an influential international test audience for the new campaign.
“I think it’s going to change the narrative for Chicago,” Kristen Reynolds, Choose Chicago’s new president and CEO, told the Tribune.
Destined for everything from billboards and social media to TV, the campaign is being introduced with a 60-second spot featuring fast-moving vignettes of the city, from obligatory overhead shots of the “L” to street festivals, sporting events and skyscrapers. The video is narrated by award-winning Chicago poet J. Ivy, who touts the people and places in the “greatest city in the world.”
The campaign, which is slated to run locally, nationally and internationally, incorporates the red stars and colors of the Chicago flag, and features scenes of people making donuts, running by the lakefront and partying en masse at a live concert. The ads include slogans such as “outwork,” “outplay” and “outlast,” sounding very much like the tagline from the “Survivor” TV show.
Reynolds, who took the helm at Choose Chicago in May after previously serving in the same role at Discover Long Island, didn’t take credit for the campaign, but added a few last-minute tweaks and gave her stamp of approval to “Never Done. Never Outdone.”
“The first part really is about evolution and always staying and innovating and keeping current,” Reynolds said. “And then never outdone is really dropping that Midwestern humble and bringing some of that New York City swagger in here, and being able to say, we’re the best at what we do, and we’re going to work harder and we won’t settle.”
Choose Chicago has an annual marketing budget of about $4 million – far less than comparable cities such as Boston. But Reynolds said the campaign will find its way out into the world through paid and earned media, and partnered with other Chicago institutions.
Target domestic markets will include Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City, while international focus will be on Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
Choose Chicago created the new marketing campaign in collaboration with local agencies including Envisionit, Agents of Slang, October Productions, Word and Soul, and Chu Batsaihan. The branding was developed with MMGY Global, which works with many destination marketing organizations.
Successfully branding a city can significantly boost visibility and tourism, searing memorable taglines into the collective unconscious of potential visitors. A good example is “What happens here, stays here,” the ubiquitous Las Vegas slogan which has captured the essence of the city’s appeal in countless commercials since its introduction in 2003.
The slogan was updated in 2020 to “What happens here, only happens here.”
Chicago, which has accumulated a number of slogans over the years from sources both literary and cultural, has evolved from “hog butcher for the world” to a diverse world city, a major convention and tourism destination, and an international business center.
But recent attempts at rebranding have not quite stuck.
In 2015, Choose Chicago introduced “Chicago Epic,” a bold national TV campaign recasting the city as a hotbed of music festivals, hipsters, fine dining and shopping. At the time, officials said the slogan “Chicago Epic” would become as famous as “I Love New York.” It didn’t.
In 2022, a pandemic-battered city launched “Chicago Not in Chicago,” a low-budget guerrilla marketing campaign touting a long list of homegrown innovations — from the cellphone and the coffee maker to the skyscraper — that changed the world, but with little credit given to Chicago. Despite the campaign, for the most part, the world has yet to thank us.
Officials nonetheless have high hopes for the new slogan and marketing campaign.
“I am proud of the work our colleagues at Choose Chicago have done in developing this new campaign,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a news release Thursday. “I’m confident it will ultimately share an authentic depiction of our city and convey the open-minded, welcoming spirit of Chicagoans.”
Chicago seeing fewer international travelers, but local hotels still expect ‘solid’ summer
Tourism in Chicago is on the rise, with the city welcoming 55.3 million visitors in 2024, up 6.5% year-over-year and setting a post-pandemic high, according to data released last month by Choose Chicago.
But economic and political headwinds may make it hard to match that total this year, with tariffs, civil unrest and international backlash to President Trump’s policies and bluster potentially tamping down tourism.
Choose Chicago is nonetheless projecting a strong summer tourism season, with events such as upcoming Premier League soccer exhibitions and NASCAR Chicago Street Race setting the pace in July.
While the budget is limited, Choose Chicago will remain nimble in targeting markets – domestic and international – for the best chance to get a return on investment, Reynolds said. A newer market she has her sites set on is Phoenix, hoping to lure Chicago expatriates and transplanted Californians to visit from the “Valley of the Sun.”
As to the new campaign, Reynolds expects the “Never Done. Never Outdone” slogan to become ubiquitous, including buy-in from Chicagoans, who provide the bulk of recreational activity during the winter months.
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“This is a campaign that we’re hoping the entire community embraces and you’re going to see it so much that it’s going to be second nature,” Reynolds said.
If the new marketing campaign doesn’t resonate, the city’s image may still get a boost from divine intervention – the selection of south suburban Dolton native Robert Francis Prevost as the first American pope. On Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV was photographed sporting a White Sox cap at the Vatican, spreading the gospel of Chicago around the world.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
