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The Department of Cultural Affairs is presenting the ninth annual Chicago Creative Expo on Saturday, March 12. This free, day long event is ideal for any Chicago based artist. You can spend the day attending talks presented by experts in the field. If you’re interested in getting some feedback, you can have your portfolio looked over by art curators and gallery owners. If you’re wondering about how to get insurance as an artist you can attend a workshop covering that. With over 25 workshops and 130 vendors, there’s someone covering every aspect of life as an artist. If you’re interested in promotions, direction will have a booth at the expo and our very own Micah Taylor will be leading a workshop at 3pm entitled “Streetmarketing the Arts”.

The direction team has been distributing materials for the Chicago Creative Expo throughout the entire city.

The Chicago Creative Expo is from 10am to 5pm on Saturday, March 12 at the Chicago Cultural Center. Please visit chicagoartistsresource.org for more information.

2010 was a wonderful year for direction and we’re looking forward to 2011. The printshop was a huge success in its second year. We were thrilled to work with adidas on their World Cup promo. Groundbreaking Chicago theater companies such as the Steppenwolf, Looking Glass, Broadway in Chicago, Remy Bumppo and more continued to use us to get the word out on productions. Projects from the Museum of Science and Industry and Shedd Aquarium widened our outreach and we worked with institutions like the Harris Theater and Chicago Cultural Center. All in all, direction teamed up with fantastic artistic groups and hope to continue that trend. We’d like to thank all of you for a great year and want to wish everyone a safe and happy holidays.

Everyone’s favorite Baltimore bred cult director John Waters is coming to the Harris Theater for one night only. The personality will perform the Chicago premier of his critically-acclaimed one man show, “A John Waters Christmas”. The New York Post has said the production, “Puts the “X back in X-Mas” and would you expect anything else? Don’t miss what the holidays are like from the mind that brought you “Pink Flamingos”, “Cry-Baby” and “Hairspray”.

Direction was happy to print the materials for this special event as well as distribute them to Chicago’s north side and GLBT friendly neighborhoods.

“A John Waters Christmas” will be performed on December 14 at the Harris Theater. Please visit harristheaterchicago.org for more information.

For the past two weeks direction has been working with our good friends at Mirrorball to bring The Lost Art of Cinco to bars and venues throughout the Chicagoland area. We’ve been having a lot of fun leading these activations and coordinating the logistics for the Aztec Goddess of Cinco as she represents her tribe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo and Dos XX. The Aztec inspired promotion is travelling from bar to bar to ‘open the skies’ for the celebration of Cinco de Mayo with spiritual dancing and drumming.

Come Celebrate Cinco de Mayo and visit the Goddess and her maidens TONIGHT at Cactus, Tilted Kilt, Bull & Bear, and The Boundary. We’ll be making our stops starting at 5:30PM and will continue through the evening. Don’t forget to ask one of our maidens for your own complimentary Dos Equis!

One of the world’s greatest classic tales hits the stage for the first time with THE 101 DALMATIANS MUSICAL. Audiences will be transported to a slightly topsy-turvy, exciting, and altogether fantastic reality that gives grand license for song, dance and spectacle in a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience!

Our good friends at Broadway in Chicago have shared a special offer with us this week for $50 main floor seats for selected shows. Just click here to purchase tickets and use the code CRUELLA when ordering.  101 Dalmatians not your flavor? Tickets are available and now on sale for An Evening w/ Patti & Mandy, Billy Elliot, and Beauty and the Beast.

The 101 Dalmatians Musical opens TODAY and runs through February 28th!

We were very excited this past week to learn that direction played a role in supporting six of Chris Jones top 10 picks of 2009. There is quite bit of competition in the city and we’re so excited to be associated with such standouts! Congratulations to all of the top ten’s producers, actors, and crew!

1. ) Lookingglass Theatre’s Arabian Nights

3.) Next Theatre’s The Overwhelming

4.) Victory Garden’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity

5.) Victory Garden’s Blackbird

7.) Court Theatre’s The Mystery of Irma Vep

9.) Writers Theatre’s Oh Coward!

Check out the full list here

On behalf of the staff of direction tour marketing we would like to wish you a very happy holiday season and extend our best wishes for the new year. 2009 has been full of ups and downs which has made us stronger and made us even more appreciative of our wonderful clients over the year. Thank you for your patronage and thank you for creating and producing such wonderful events!

361 Experiential, A Red Orchid, Action Marketing Group, Advice Agency, Allied Live, American Theatre Company, Art Institute of Chicago, AWR Music, Back Garage, Beam Global Spirits, Blue Man Group, BMF Media, Broadway in Chicago, Carol Fox & Associates, Chamber Opera Chicago, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Chicago Dancing Festival, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago History Museum, Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Chicago Improv Festival, Chicago Loop Alliance, Chicago Opera Theatre, Chicago Reader, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Cinema Chicago, Court Theatre, Eighth Blackbird, Empty Bottle, Giantstep Marketing, Goodman Theatre, Grant Park Music Festival, Ground Control Streetmarketing, Harris Theater for Music & Dance, Hatchetman Presents, Hopera World, IMAX, Infamous Commonwealth Theatre, KAW Marketing & Communications, KMA Management, League of Chicago Theatres, Lifeline Theatre, Lillstreet Arts Center, Live Nation, Lookingglass Theatre, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Mandalorian Marketing, Massimo Gallatto Productions, Media Consultants, Metro / Smart Bar, Millennium Park, Milwaukee Art Museum, Mirrorball, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Science & Industry, My My My, Navy Pier, Newberry Library, Next Theatre, Noble Fools Theatricals, Northlight Theatre, Old Town School of Folk Music, Piccolo Theatre, Quad Communities Development Corp., Rainforest Learning Center, Remy Bumppo, River North Dance Company, Schubas, Second City, Shout Marketing, Steppenwolf Theatre, Stevens Adveritising, The Actors Gymnasium, The House Theatre, The Shrine, The Vitalist Theatre, Theatre Council Productions, Theatre Wit, Victory Gardens Theatre, Wilmette Theatre, Working Well Massage, World Science Festival, and Writers Theatre

If you happen to be in Salt Lake City over the next two weeks come visit us at Provo Towne Centre, South Towne Center, or Fashion Place Mall and have your holiday gifts wrapped by the Utah Jazz Dancers! We’ve teamed up with 361 Experiential and will be working with them to execute 3 mall activations in Salt Lake City on December 12th and December 13th.

Qwest Communications will be hosting the Utah Jazz Dancers who will be wrapping your Christmas gifts for a small donation to the South Valley Boys and Girls Club. While in line, Qwest is offering to review your bill to see if they can apply any savings on your account. Regardless if they find savings or not, you’ll get a pair of tickets to an upcoming Utah Jazz game.

For more information log onto www.qwest.com/jazzupyourgifts.

Poster/flyer distribution and printing is probably the first thought when you think about direction tour marketing. However, we offer allot more services in a number of fields that you may not even know about. Did you know we serve as in-market support arms for a number of brands and agencies? Over the years, marketing agencies have reached out to direction and our street level experience to leverage local vendors, production support, brand ambassadors, and shipping logistics. Our years of experience and market knowledge can put your mind at ease before arriving in-market for an event or promotional activation.

Some of the agencies we regularly support include Mirrorball, Action Marketing Group, BMF Media Group,  and their brand clients range from adidas to Zumiez. Chicago serves as our home base but our network of market managers allows for execution across the country, just like our Bustelo activations this past weekend in South Beach! Need local solutions for an upcoming event or promotion, give us a call!

Did you know we have a free service in which we can build customized routes specifically for your project or production? This week Millennium Park inquired about our abilities in covering the Chicagoland Polish community to promote their show with Teatr Zar and their US premier of Caesarean Section. We quickly researched, confirmed, and built a route that includes locations that specifically cater to the Polish Community. We targeted over 100 locations in the south and northwest sides of the city in 9 neighborhoods including Archer Heights, Clearing, Garfield Ridge, Belmont Central, Avondale, and a number of others.

Give us a call to discuss how we can best reach your niche audiences.