Hoping for holiday guests, Highland Park to place ads on Holiday Lite, 93.9 FM

Highland Park is looking beyond its borders to draw more shoppers and diners to the City this holiday season. 

The City Council on Sept. 28 approved the city’s first advertising partnership with iHeartMedia for radio and digital streaming ads that will promote Highland Park as a regional destination for shopping and dining.

The campaign will run on popular Chicagoland holiday station the Holiday Lite, WLIT 93.9 FM for eight weeks: Nov. 9 to Jan. 3, 2027, which is the “busiest season for radio listening,” a City staff report says. 

Communications Manager Amanda Bennett said it’s the first such campaign in which the City has ever participated.

The City has identified the time frame the campaign will run as a “core time to try and increase foot traffic in our community,” and it will reportedly align well with the City’s extensive holiday programming.

In light of the City’s success previously working with 87.7 MeTV-FM radio station for the Vintage Car Show on Aug. 22, they decided to invest $40,000 in the iHeartMedia campaign, officials said.

The Holiday Lite is a Chicagoland holiday tradition. It consistently ranks as the No.1 station across all demographics during the holiday season. The staff report says the campaign’s 206 planned commercials are expected to reach more than 800,000 listeners with over 2 million impressions.

Those impressions represent a cost-per-thousand, or cost-per-impression, an industry standard, of $11.47. The City noted that the cost falls within reasonable rates for the Chicago area market during the peak holiday season.

The campaign will feature radio and digital streaming components. Through a mix of 15- to 30-second spots for broadcast radio, cross-platforms and in-stream audio running through different day-parts, the campaign will push listeners to explore the Enjoy Highland Park website and hopefully consider visiting the community during the 2026 holiday season. 

During the week of Dec. 28, the campaign reportedly will include 30 commercials. 

City staff reportedly will support the campaign with “refreshed content” at EnjoyHighlandPark.com, including updates to calendar content, holiday-themed guides focused on dining and retail, and a “New Year, New You” guide focused on wellness, service, personal care and businesses. 

With the City always looking for ways to attract visitors, working with iHeartMedia was the “right fit” for the City’s broader advertising reach, Bennett said. 

City officials have reportedly noticed, through Placer.ai location data, that foot traffic from communities like Buffalo Grove and Long Grove has been increasing consistently over the years at events like Taste of Highland Park, but growth has lagged from western Lake County communities, like Libertyville, Lincolnshire and Barrington. In response, staff decided to act on this “untapped” marketing opportunity, Bennett said.

The campaign essentially will target residents of western Lake County who will “hopefully hear the ad, come visit Highland Park, and then come back,” Bennett said. 

The City has been considering a broadcast campaign for several years, she said, and are “really excited” it finally came together with iHeartMedia.

To measure the project’s success, the City will monitor foot traffic patterns and other data with Placer.ai.