Highfloor
Chicago area · Restaurants & Delivery

The Chicago metro plus the western and northwestern suburb growth corridors.

Chicago's restaurant footprint extends across one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, and the new-location pattern follows the population growth out through the western and northwestern suburb corridors. Bar TV runs against the dense local catchments where new-location flights actually move the needle.

Chicago-area restaurant and delivery advertising — new-location flights for chains opening in Naperville, Schaumburg, the Western suburbs, and the dense urban corridors. Bar TV weighted to dinner and late-night dayparts within the five-mile radius around the conversion location; programmatic and rideshare layered per brief.

Chicago's restaurant geography splits cleanly into two patterns: dense urban catchments inside the city limits, and lower-density suburban catchments across the western and northwestern growth corridors. The new-location flight pattern adapts to which side of that split the new store sits on. Urban openings in the city — West Loop, Wicker Park, Logan Square, the South Loop — run against a tighter three-to-five-mile radius and weight heavily toward the dense walkable corridor. Suburban openings in Naperville, Schaumburg, Oak Park, or Evanston run against a wider five-to-seven-mile radius and weight toward the residential corridors feeding the new store.

The new-location flight in Chicago runs twelve weeks regardless of urban or suburban shape. Dinner-and-late-night daypart weighting in the bar and casual-dining venues feeding the residential catchment. The flight starts the week before the opening and runs through the trial-and-repeat window. Programmatic stacks on top during the daytime hours bar TV doesn't cover, weighted geographically against the same catchment as the bar TV layer.

Same-store comp campaigns in Chicago run year-round at lower weekly weight, designed to keep the brand visible during the slow seasons and ramp up around the calendar moments that move the business. Bears Sundays from September through January are the highest-leverage window in the Chicago restaurant calendar — game-day pull on bar and casual-dining traffic in this market is among the strongest in the U.S., and same-store comp flights weight heavier on those windows than the equivalent flight would in Phoenix or Boston.

Delivery platforms in Chicago run against the metro's deep audience density and the strong delivery-platform penetration the market has historically supported. The flight is broader than the radius-based restaurant flight — metro-wide rather than neighborhood-focused — and bar TV functions as the brand-tier reinforcement on top of the heavy programmatic and connected-TV spend that drives most of the platform's user-acquisition budget. Rideshare layers in for the late-night ride windows where a placement during the ride home converts to an order within the next two hours.

The suburban delivery catchments in Chicago — Naperville, Schaumburg, Oak Park, the Lake County corridor — are unusually strong for delivery platforms because the residential density combined with the restaurant footprint produces order frequency at a rate that approaches the urban catchments. Bar TV in the suburb venue list reinforces the delivery platform's brand familiarity with the audience that converts hardest on repeat orders.

Recent: a regional fast-casual chain running a twelve-week Chicago-area new-location flight across the restaurant corridor surrounding a Naperville store, weighted toward dinner dayparts at sports bars and casual dining venues within a six-mile radius. Comp-store performance held above projection through the trial window and into the steady-state period.

Growth corridors
Naperville · Schaumburg · Aurora · Oak Park · Evanston
Common flights
New location · same-store comp
Strongest dayparts
Dinner · late-night
Footprint
5–7 mile radius around the store
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What does Highfloor Media actually do?

Highfloor sells three coordinated ad surfaces — a curated bar and restaurant TV network, programmatic display, and rideshare in-vehicle screens — to brands reaching active, social, out-spending audiences. We operate across Phoenix, Boston, and Chicago and specialize in regulated and conversion-window verticals: cannabis, legal, nightlife, hospitality, dating, and restaurants and delivery.

What does a campaign cost?

Pricing depends on inventory size and footprint. Small-inventory placements in very specific corridors or single-venue clusters start in the hundreds of dollars. Full regional dominance flights — multiple venues across an entire metro, layered with programmatic and rideshare — typically run in the five-figures-per-month range. Custom quotes within one business day.

How fast do campaigns go live?

Most flights launch within two to three weeks of insertion order. The path is: brief and compliance review (week one), creative review and trafficking (week one to two), in-flight (week two onward). Rush turnarounds are possible for non-regulated verticals.

Do you handle creative?

We provide the format spec and review every creative before it ships. We do not produce creative end-to-end as a default service, but we partner with brands' creative teams or external production partners and have produced cuts from existing brand assets where the brief calls for it.

How is performance measured?

Weekly venue-level and daypart-level reporting is included on every flight. For verticals where conversion measurement matters — cannabis, legal, hospitality — we add foot-traffic attribution within a five-mile radius of conversion points, branded-search and call-volume halo measurement, and category-specific metrics like draft-handle pull-through or ticket velocity.

Where does Highfloor operate?

Phoenix, Boston, and Chicago are the priority operator-controlled markets. The bar and restaurant network extends across thousands of venues nationwide, and programmatic and rideshare layer on top of that footprint per campaign.

What's the typical flight length?

Twelve weeks is standard. Some campaigns run year-round (especially legal and same-store comp restaurants). Event-driven campaigns run eight to twelve weeks, weighted toward the lead-up window. The flight length is built around the brief, not a default contract.

Opening a Chicago-area location? Run the radius flight.