A consortium of San Francisco business leaders has launched a spirited campaign to remind the world why San Francisco has been, and will always be, one of the greatest cities.
With the goal of inspiring a more equitable, resilient and vibrant economy, the non-profit organization Advance SF worked with Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P) to create “It All Starts Here,” a multimedia campaign to assert San Francisco’s role as an innovative and thriving hub for business and the arts. The campaign launches as San Francisco is leading the way in artificial intelligence and bioscience, and prepares to host global business leaders and government officials for the 2023 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting, chaired by President Biden from November 11-17.
“It All Starts Here” brings together dozens of the city’s leading employers and businesses, including Gap Inc., Levi’s, Lyft, OpenAI, San Francisco Giants, and Uber. All are equally committed to solving the challenges that afflict post-pandemic San Francisco. The campaign was launched today (10/19) at Oracle Park, home of the SF Giants. The campaign will also feature a civic pride festival on Saturday at The Crossing at The East Cut to celebrate the vibrant spirit of the city.
“San Francisco has survived great fires, earthquakes and deep recessions, and it keeps coming back—stronger,” said Larry Baer, president and CEO of the SF Giants and co-chair of the Advance SF board. “There is no doubt, we have real challenges to overcome, and we know the business community, along with the local community and government, must drive the solutions. With this campaign, we’re creating a spark so that people say, ‘Let’s do this together, because San Francisco is an amazing city and ‘it all starts here.’”
The campaign celebrates all that makes the San Francisco Bay Area extraordinary – highlighting its diverse, homegrown companies, institutions, and IP. The outdoor and digital ads invoke playful headlines and visuals composed of unexpected juxtapositions. One ad features Mike and Sulley from Pixar’s Monsters University entering their dorm room with the corresponding headline “UCSF. Berkeley. Stanford. Monsters University.” Another ad combines the little-known fact that the waterbed was invented in San Francisco in 1968 with the well-known fact that the summer of 1967 was probably what inspired the invention.
This two-minute video anchors the campaign and takes viewers through a stirring time traveling journey. Voiced by actor and director Peter Coyote, a longtime Bay Area resident, the video transports viewers from the city’s earliest days of entrepreneurialism and pioneering spirit to its cutting-edge present. Coyote sets the stage by evoking the Bay Area’s geographic mystique and then guides viewers through an impressive sample of some of the area’s most notable moments of innovation and influence—from Levi’s to electric streetcars, and Lucasfilm to Google. The video concludes with, “If it changes everything in an instant. Well, then chances are, it was dreamt up and built up, here in San Francisco. And the best is yet to come.”
“San Francisco is a place of possibility and promise and a beacon for forward thinkers, change makers, icons and iconoclasts,” said Rich Silverstein, co-founder and co-chairman of GS&P. “From Levi’s to Jerry Garcia to OpenAI, many of the world’s greatest companies, innovators, artists and musicians all come to San Francisco seeking a culture where fearlessness and innovation collide. This is a pro-business effort to remind dreamers and entrepreneurs that if you have an idea and you want to start something that’s never been done, come to San Francisco.”
San Francisco–based streetwear designer Benny Gold, who is now design director at GS&P, created the campaign logo, which takes its inspiration from the city’s classic street signs and intersections like Haight at Ashbury, and subtly reinforces the diverse intersections of culture, commerce, and innovation that define the city.
The campaign also spotlights the Bay Area’s business vitality and its potential for growth. In fact, between 2020 and 2022, 18 of the 27 venture-backed companies that had an IPO,SPAC, or direct listing valued over $10 billion were headquartered in the Bay Area. Additionally, more than half of the private companies in the IPO pipeline valued over $5 billion have a Bay Area headquarters (45 of 79).
