Riverside and Brookfield are looking to benefit from a series short videos touting the community’s quality of life, schools and housing stock to help lure people looking to relocate to the Chicago area.
The three roughly one-minute public relations videos come courtesy of a grant from the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus and were produced by CGI Communications, a New York-based marketing company that operates a website dedicated to helping professionals who are changing jobs relocate.
“It’s really meant for individuals who get job transfers,” said Village Manager Peter Scalera. “They can click on a list of communities and view videos to attract them to come here.”
The videos are already live on Relocate.org. The primary video for each village is essentially an overview of the community. A second video touches on educational opportunities from elementary schools to colleges. The third is a generic look at hospitals available in the south Cook County region.
Residents may be a little confused by some of the information contained in the videos, however. The initial photo montage in the Riverside welcome video has a picture of the North Riverside Village Commons, while the Brookfield video mentions that the village’s housing options include “expansive estates.”
Hospitals highlighted in the Brookfield welcome video include Rush-Oak Park Hospital and West Suburban Hospital, while the Riverside and Brookfield healthcare videos highlight hospitals on Chicago’s South Side. The Riverside welcome video does mention MacNeal, Loyola and Hinsdale Hospital, although the latter is pronounced “heinz-dale.”
Morton College is also highlighted as a college option for both villages, although neither village is in that district.
The Riverside videos will be available soon for viewing on the Riverside village website, according to Scalera.
The company has been busy producing similar videos for other west suburban communities, including Berwyn, Lyons, Westchester, LaGrange and LaGrange Park and Countryside.
