The CAC 2018 Inaugural season began with the CAC opening over Labor Day weekend. The CAC hosted print and broadcast media over the three-day holiday, particularly a number of broadcast reporters with lengthy live feeds and recorded pieces including this WGN report on Sunday.

The month of September kicked off with a series of media tours with international and travel journalists hosted by Choose Chicago visiting the city’s new design destination. In October 2018, an OHC media campaign tied the popular citywide event with nearly 100,000 visitors annually, to our new home and brand. The CAC education department hosted events for young people in the CAC’s lecture hall and design studio throughout the weekend that was popular with broadcast media.

Media visits  continued through the end 2018 and intensified during 2019 right up through the one-year birthday on August 31, 2019. CAC media coverage for 2018 reached 1.64 billion reach/impressions (a 17% increase from 2017) and $14.5 million in ad value equivalent (a 12.5% increase from 2017). The first full year coverage in 2019 reached 2.19 billion reach/impressions (a 22% increase from 2018) and $20.24 million in ad value equivalent (an increase of 26% over 2018).