Reaching Customers in River North: Chicago Billboard Cost, Locations, Formats, & Neighborhood Data

When you're ready to bring word of your business to Chicago's River North neighborhood, choose outdoor advertising campaigns that meet the residents and visitors where they live, work, and play. In this corner of the Windy City, a tapestry of cultures, entertainment, and commerce weaves together to make a vibrant community. Just as many of the sleek art galleries, luxe shops, high-end dining spots, cocktail bars, and other eateries that line River North streets were born out of former warehouse buildings, our Chicago billboard experts at View Chicago can help you transform vacant space into creative, informative billboard ads that speak directly to and resonate deeply with Chicagoans.

Our neighborhood experts can help you own the River North neighborhood and make the most of River North advertising by selecting ad locations that can attract the eyes of and connect you with the diverse population of people that come and go in Chicago's most fashionable urban neighborhood.  

Take your message to your target audience

Using OOH ads in your River North advertising campaign can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your efforts, allowing you to reach thousands of people on a large scale. We help you locate spaces for the Chicago billboards you create to be seen by thousands and, specifically, by members of your target audience.

Your target audience is the group of consumers most likely to buy and use your goods and services. You should focus the time, money, and effort you put into your River North marketing campaigns on this group. Why should you identify and prioritize a target audience? Because trying to reach everyone at one time is impossible and costly. Creating Chicago billboards that advertise in a general way without having a specific audience in mind wouldn't be worth the billboard cost because these ads wouldn't resonate with anyone. Casting a wide marketing net wouldn't deliver a great return on your investment. In attempts to capture everyone’s attention, you might end up capturing attention your business doesn't want.

Working with our neighborhood experts in Chicago allows you to utilize hyperlocal Chicago billboards that reach more qualified consumers in your defined audience in ways that empower your business to compete with others in your industry.

Master marketing for River North's mosaic of audiences

Just across the bridge from the Loop, River North is a neighborhood that swells with energy by day and night—and for good reason. It's home to a healthy mixture of young professionals, artists, fashion enthusiasts, foodies, singles, and families, as well as an urban playground for visitors and commuters. Members of this community work in the many office spaces and frequent the art galleries, shops, restaurants, nightclubs, and other attractions. This sophisticated, affluent area sees thousands of pedestrians, drivers, and CTA passengers traverse here each day.

Employing a River North marketing campaign requires you to ask yourself who your target audience is in this diverse part of The Windy City. In River North, you have a vibrant plethora of options:

  • The young and seasoned professionals and business investors who would be interested in your brand's profitability, growth, and vitality

  • Prospective team members who would be interested in knowing your business is expanding to new locations

  • Locals and tourists who are shoppers, art lovers, and food aficionados who enjoy partaking in trends and consuming slices of the city's culture

In all the advertising campaigns we do here at View Chicago, our neighborhood experts help clients make the most of one of Chi-Town's greatest assets: the unique demographic makeup of each of its neighborhoods. 

Each neighborhood has its own identity, and like the entirety of Chicago, River North is full of various audiences, diverse incomes, cultural backgrounds, ages, and more. Knowing which areas your target audience members live, work, and play in and being aware of their purchasing habits enables our experts to use demographic data to help you place unique, creative, specially tailored billboards, HotSpots, Wild Postings, and more in the areas your defined audience members frequent most.

Reach the hottest spots in the neighborhood with your next River North marketing campaign

How do you reach the hottest, most frequented spots in River North? Through HotSpots, a neighborhood-focused, smaller-scale OOH ad format. Don't let them being smaller in size than traditional billboards and more prominent OOH formats fool you.

HotSpots can be used in localized spaces to target your defined audience members in the most popular places they frequent. While smaller, they're flexible, high-impact, and affordable, allowing you to include more of these ads in your budget and cover several spots to reach more of your audience and fit any advertising goal.

Our experts can help you place your Chicago billboards in strategic locations that offer unparalleled visibility and impact. These dynamic displays, set in high-traffic areas, capture the attention of local and visiting passersby and motorists, making them an ideal choice for engaging with the River North audience.

Focus on River North’s fashion fans

HotSpots are an ideal personalized hyperlocal marketing method because they can help brands appeal directly to consumers by sending messages that are congruent with their purchasing habits.

Suppose you own a shoe business or design a unique brand of handbags. In that case, you're interested in River North marketing, rightfully so, because you want to tailor your advertising messages to Chicago's most frequent shoppers. A HotSpot advertising your clothing or accessory brand near River North's luxe clothing stores and boutiques is bound to effectively capture and hold the attention of The Windy City's most stylish, trendsetting shopaholics living in the area.

  • Leverage HotSpots at busy intersections. At View Chicago, we helped Verishop, an upscale online retailer offering fashion, beauty, and home products, benefit from utilizing a HotSpot in a River North advertising campaign. We provided Verishop with a HotSpot in a prime location on North Orleans Street, a bustling spot that sees heavy foot traffic, particularly from folks whose product preferences align with Verishop's offerings. The placement of the ad ensures maximum exposure, as its viewers include the affluent young professionals seeking to buy new office ensembles, individuals looking for the perfect fit to wear on their next outing to an upscale restaurant, and other fashion-forward shoppers of the neighborhood who are likely to purchase and enjoy Verishop's high-quality, trendy offerings. When employing River North marketing tactics, this brand could use HotSpots to display dynamic, captivating content, such as showcasing their latest collections, exclusive deals, or limited-time and seasonal offers.

Pitch to potential buyers purchasing beauty products, too

Another example of an effective HotSpot is one we helped Sally Beauty implement in its River North advertising campaign. Our experts helped Sally Beauty, a renowned beauty supply store, effectively leverage a HotSpot located on North Elston Avenue to target its ideal customer base. River North's diverse demographics include beauty enthusiasts seeking high-quality products. HotSpot advertising at this strategic, highly visible location frequented by residents, commuters, and tourists alike gave Sally Beauty access to beauty enthusiasts and allowed the business to tap into this niche market effectively.

The beautiful flexibility of HotSpot advertising is that you can show some versatility in the type of engaging content you create for your audience. What would you want your Chicago billboard to display to beauty product enthusiasts in River North? With HotSpots, you could establish your local beauty brand as a go-to resource for beauty needs by creatively showcasing

  • Product demonstrations

  • Tutorials

  • Seasonal promotions for summer essentials or holiday-themed collections

  • Beauty tips

Use Wild Postings to win over audiences

Wild Postings are another form of more neighborhood-focused, hyperlocal Chicago billboard advertising. These OOH ads have a perfect, strategic placement at eye level in high-pedestrian areas near retail and public transit. Impossible to miss because of their ideal position, individuals living, working, and walking in River North, can easily pass by a Wild Posting several times a day.

The Wild Posting format can be beneficial because these eye-catching posters can be affixed to a wide range of surfaces, from walls to construction sites, in a way that appeals to and enhances River North's artistic and urban charm. An aesthetically pleasing dedicated Wild Posting can particularly resonate with the art enthusiasts who call River North home.

Outdoor media that meets millennials where they are

One of the most significant benefits of implementing Wild Postings in your River North marketing campaign is that these Chicago billboards target millennial demographics. Our experts find locations in trendy neighborhoods and identify spots near public transportation that frequently see high millennial foot traffic, so members of the target audience you defined can view your Wild Posting.

Wild Postings enable businesses to make the most of utilizing urban aesthetics. Take the Wild Posting on West Huron Street we did for Bumble, a leading dating and social networking app. These OOH ads' artistic, urban vibes align with River North's cultural scene, which allowed Bumble to integrate seamlessly into the neighborhood's atmosphere. This approach perfectly created buzz and captured the attention of single tech-savvy millennials and young professionals in River North. Putting the Wild Posting in an area with popular, upscale restaurants and cafes made the ad impossible to overlook and gave it the power to inspire date ideas for Bumble users in River North.

Spread the word on wheels

Bus wrap advertising is one of the best, most cost-effective marketing methods to include in your River North advertising campaign. This OOH format allows your ads to travel through the neighborhood on wheels and generate thousands of views from thousands of people. The public, widespread nature of buses makes them effective at increasing impressions, brand awareness, and sales for your business.

Using bus wraps in your River North marketing strategy equips you to cover a lot of ground literally—per the U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), a transit bus travels more than 40,000 miles per year on average. 

Buses constantly drive through plenty of bustling Chicago streets occupied by plenty of people. When you can own the neighborhood, loyal patrons will start recognizing your brand on sight and associating it with the buses they regularly ride.

Well-designed, creative, fun, yet sophisticated bus wraps can target affluent audiences and:

  • Help you inspire trust in River North and other Chicago neighborhoods

  • Build an omnipresent brand presence for your business within and around the community

  • Boost customers' confidence in your goods and services

Anchor your River North advertising strategy in affordable, data-backed efforts

When you want to reap the benefits of Chicago billboards and bus wraps, rely on our professionals at View Chicago. Our team of neighborhood experts knows all the best locations and formats to help you demonstrate to your target audience that you, too, are a neighborhood expert. Our experts' experience in hyperlocal advertising and their knowledge of this amazing city's demographics can help you effectively and strategically position creative ads in places where they'll be seen by and resonate with your target audience.

Once you know which audiences in River North you want to reach, you may also consider and want to know how much billboards cost. How much is a billboard campaign? It all depends on how busy the location(s) are that you've chosen for your outdoor ad campaign, the disposable income and buying power of your target audience, the OOH format(s) you choose, and how long you plan for your ad campaign to run and how soon you get started.

Typically, advertisers base billboard costs on monthly or 4-week terms. In the affluent River North neighborhood, neighborhood signs such as HotSpots and Wild Postings can cost between $1,000 to $6,000/4 weeks. You can inquire with our consultants about the price of bus wraps and for a custom Chicago billboard cost analysis. Our experts are ready when you are to get started on an OOH ad campaign in an ideal, prime location that'll capture your target audience member's eyes as they explore River North and direct them to check out your brand.

An Average Commuter's Day in the Life: Daily Chicago Billboard Touchpoints

An Average Commuter's Day in the Life: Daily Chicago Billboard Touchpoints

When strategically placed, Chicago OOH ads like billboards, bus shelters, or street furniture can capture the attention of even the busiest commuters, from the high-level exec rushing to get to a meeting on time to working or stay-at-home parents trying to balance it all or college students on tight schedules.