• by Larissa Faw , June 7, 2019

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Office of Tourism (IDCEO) is launching the group's first work under new AOR O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul (OKRP) that sharpens the State’s long-time “Are you Up for Amazing?” positioning into one "amazing" concept.

The creative across all advertising opens with the line Amazing is… and then expands to show and detail various experiences offered in the state, including Shawnee National Forest and Chicago’s Alinea restaurant. The ads end with “Amazing isn’t just a place you take yourself. It’s where that place takes you.”  

Sample the work here.

“For the next chapter for this great tagline we really wanted to capture what ‘Amazing’ feels like, through the traveler’s eyes in a ‘show me, don’t tell me’ way,” explained Tom O’Keefe, CEO of OKRP. “Amazing isn't just a place you take yourself. It's where that place takes you.”

There will also be several ads from the visitor’s point of view, including some user generated content. 

The media buy, handled by the Spurrier Group, will run across a wide range of media from television, online video, out of home, online sites, print and social. 

The integrated PR effort is led by TimeZoneOne. The overarching goal is to get visitors to travel  throughout Illinois and to stay overnight in paid accommodations.

"We want to touch our consumers’ heart and evoke real emotion, explains Erin Guthrie, Acting Director, IDCEO. "It’s about the specificity of our locations that makes them so memorable – the sights, sounds and tastes that are unique to Illinois." 

The new campaign is supported with a bigger media budget, up from $8 million last year to $15 million running across markets surrounding Illinois including St. Louis, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee.