Crain’s Chicago Business takes a closer look at the city’s advertising scene.
You can tell by the title of the article that the perception is it ain’t too good there: Dream of Chicago ad revival is dashed:
The city’s ad agencies, decimated after years of losing headquarters and major accounts, seemed poised to regain their fizz when local player DraftFCB Group aced out Madison Avenue in winning the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. account.
Instead, Wal-Mart’s sudden removal of Draft from the $580-million account has delayed the road test of a new industry model — a leading-edge attempt to combine direct marketing with traditional advertising — that promised to revamp Chicago’s competitiveness as an ad center.
After booming in the 1990s, ad industry and related employment in Cook County dropped nearly 15% during the three years ended in 2004. While the slump mirrors national trends, industry globalization has hurt Chicago more than New York, despite Chicago’s proximity to packaged goods, auto and other industries that formed the backbone of the ad business here.
Any AdPulpers in Chicago wanna weigh in on this? Is it really that bad up there?