Hello Howard

Hello Howard was an integrated brand and advertising campaign designed support transit-oriented development in the East Rogers Park neighborhood. Recent streetscape improvements, a new fieldhouse and community center had given Howard Street a facelift, but long-held perceptions about the commercial corridor lagged far behind. The campaign challenged old stereotypes by personifying Howard in a series of unexpected portraits, featuring actual small-business owners.

The rollout included transit ads, print, direct mail, community identifiers, social and on-premise tool kits for merchants. Campaign extensions included a community garden and harvest festival. In the following year, we built an active social community around the campaign, giving each small-business owner their own month as the face Howard Street. To everyone’s surprise, when the usual skeptics cried, “too good to be true,” our social community stepped in and stood up for their flourishing neighborhood.