How Chicago’s Lincoln Park Chamber Activates Key Neighborhood Hubs with Digital Experiences
Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood is a lively hub of local business, theatre, outdoor activity, and arts. Its unique offerings set it apart from destinations like the famous Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile shopping district that is just south of the neighborhood. If you’re not from the area and are staying downtown, you get to Lincoln Park in two stops via the “L” or five minutes by car. Best of all, walk there along Lake Shore Drive which takes you past the City’s best beaches and through one of its biggest parks, Lincoln Park, which boasts an amazing free zoo.
The neighborhood contains four distinct business corridors — locations where arts, culture, and business intersect. Helping visitors navigate to and around the area is an annual board-level priority for its influential Chamber of Commerce. Yet, even though practically every visitor has a navigation tool in their pocket, the challenge of connecting people to significant places in Lincoln Park has become increasingly difficult.
Challenge: How do you guide digitally savvy visitors?
Robin is the Chamber’s Vice President and Director of Marketing Communications. Her main goal is to support local business by increasing engagement with both locals and tourists. One of the primary ways to do this is by finding a way to encourage visits to the main business corridors. During her solution search, she considered options ranging from traditional pamphlets and street maps to installing digital kiosks.
Previously, the Chamber used physical signage to assist in wayfinding, but it was now looking for a wayfinding solution that would also inspire more visitation. While kiosks offered the benefit of wayfinding with interactive information, the timeline, cost, and maintenance made the option infeasible. Robin considered developing a dedicated app for the Lincoln Park neighborhood. However, the time and money required to design, develop, update, and market her individual app were far too high.
Solution — Digital Storytelling meets Wayfinding
The Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce chose VAMONDE because it offered a way to achieve its wayfinding goals while making efficient use of a small team. The Digital Experience Publisher was easy to use and gave her the flexibility to highlight the whole variety of things to do in her neighborhood.
She began using VAMONDE to build content that focused on her four main business corridors. She created digital guides for each area that serve as a local expert’s handbook for exploring, dining, and shopping. Her mobile experiences combine rich storytelling about local businesses with built-in wayfinding that visitors can take on the go.
Robin has since grown her Chamber’s digital presence by adding self-guided tours designed to attract tourists from out of town or other Chicago neighborhoods. She highlights local businesses with mobile experiences tailored to traveler interests such as dining, comedy/entertainment, and even fitness and wellness travel.
Creating digital experiences gives the Chamber a way to reuse content it already distributes to residents in a print guide and, additionally, to share it with a broader audience outside of the area. The reception in her area has been positive, “With VAMONDE, visitors and residents of Lincoln Park are able to learn more about the community and neighborhood businesses in a way that’s fun and unique — and we’re able to add content which allows us to tell the story. It’s like having a neighborhood tour guide in your pocket.”
When Robin publishes on VAMONDE, her content is immediately shared with an existing community of engaged travelers. In her area, this gives her access to 500 new monthly users. The Chamber’s content has also been featured by the Chicago CVB, which boosts its reach with incoming tourists.
Results — Tangible Technology Benefits for Members
In addition to promoting her area as a whole, Robin also offers VAMONDE as a member benefit that her partners can utilize. As members of the Chamber, cultural attractions and businesses have access to VAMONDE’s Digital Experience Publisher. Members, ranging from museums to theaters to hospitality venues, have used the technology tool to create their own digital narratives that help them connect directly with visitors to the area.
Robin continues to share the technology with her members and focuses on promoting their content in addition to hers. In the future, she plans to create experiences that highlight neighborhood events and initiatives to drive more outside visitation.
To learn more about the tools the Chamber uses to promote local business, visit info.vamonde.com or email jasmine@vamonde.com with any questions or to request a personalized demo.
