TE+A was selected by Costco to promote the opening of their first downtown Chicago location.
TE+A crafted an integrated public relations and advertising campaign that combined five major components; transit billboards, newspaper ads in the Chicago Tribune Sunday Edition, PR outreach, direct mail invitations, and collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development to attract job candidates from the Department’s Welfare-to-Work Program, as well as assurance of the Mayor’s attendance at the Opening.
TE+A’s efforts culminated in Costco’s best-ever grand opening (attendance and sales). Our media outreach lead to coverage by all Chicagoland television networks, as well as the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune and other local media. In total, we received 11 television placements and 14 print placements, with the total circulation/viewers reached by the program exceeding 6.1 million. Additional results included:
- A record percentage of actual hired employees from a candidate pool produced by the City’s Welfare-to-Work program;
- The Mayor officially greeted Costco and spent over 1.5 hours in the new store with Costco’s President and CEO;
- The media had a great event to cover with multiple stories wrapped together, as well as the Mayor’s presence, all under one roof.
- TE+A won a Silver Trumpet Award from the Publicity Club of Chicago.
