Cindy Watts of The Tennessean interviewed Steve Buchanan, president of Opry Entertainment Group, at EAMC in Nashville. (VT Photo)
REPORTING FROM NASHVILLE — When Steve Buchanan started with the Grand Ole Opry here in 1985, it had no marketing person or marketing budget. Twenty-one years later, it has a 10-person marketing department and has been instrumental in branding Nashville as a music-oriented boomtown.
Buchanan, who is president of the Opry Entertainment Group, told his story at the Event & Arena Marketing Conference here June 1-4. The conference drew a record 380 participants and is set to play Tulsa, Okla., next year. SMG’s BOK Center management even lassoed Garth Brooks into a video promoting the next June 14-17, 2017 gathering, branding Tulsa (as Buchanan did Nashville) as a music city.
In those early years, Buchanan was dealing with an organization fearful of change. He was hired to help bring new talent into the mix, which started with Foster & Lloyd, considered edgy at the time, he said with a laugh.
Fast forward to the flood of 2010, and things changed dramatically at The Grand Ole Opry. The $22-million renovation made necessary because of water damage has resulted in a whole new experience for fans and artists both. Trace Adkins reopened the venue Sept. 28, 2010 and said if he’d known it would be this nice, he would have wished it flooded a long time ago, Buchanan said.
Some things haven’t changed, such as the fact the Opry is a two-hour radio show with 8-14 members performing on every show in a fast-moving format with 60 seconds between acts, he said. New artists who come into the fold “need to have a relationship with the community of the Opry, which is about the artist,” Buchanan said.
The Opry community loves playing a part in helping newer acts, like Carrie Underwood’s first performance there after she won on TV’s American Idol. In the early days, Opry members had to perform there every Saturday night. Their careers revolved around the Opry. That commitment has changed to 26 nights a year.
As Nashville has boomed, Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry, has become “a cornerstone of the insanity happening now on lower Broadway,” Buchanan continued. “In the last 5-10 years, downtown has taken on a new personality.”
Venues like the Ryman and Bridgestone Arena and Tennessee Performing Arts Center help define the town’s identity, which arena marketers can bank on. Buchanan pointed out that the Ryman used to be a church, so the seats are pews, the balcony juts too far forward and the stage used to be the pulpit. Through the years, major improvements have added a proscenium stage and air conditioning, but the ‘hillbilly dust’ is still there, as is the original wood. “It has the most amazing acoustics,” he said.
Radio and television are another way a town is defined. In 1983, The Nashville Network was a major driver in drawing people to Nashville, and when that went away, becoming Spike TV in 2003, it had a devastating and immediate impact on tourism.
“We had to create our own demand,” Buchanan said. “You have to shake things up. What is your brand?”
For the Grand Ole Opry, it was about outreach and engaging the fan with the music community. Employees were empowered to help people engage. “People have emotional, personal experiences,” Buchanan said. “We maximize that.”
That was the first big shift he saw in the music community at the Opry and in Nashville. It’s about longevity and prosperity; it’s a business. But it needs a heart.
The television show, “Nashville” has also had a big impact on the city dynamic. Buchanan, who is executive producer of the show, recalled that in 2010 he started talking to CAA about a period piece, a movie or musical, based on Nashville (“we’re still working on it,” he said), which morphed into a scripted TV show along the lines of “Glee,” featuring live performance without being a variety or competition show.
“Nashville has a specific personality,” Buchanan said of the show, which has now completed four seasons. Its impact has been international. The original notion it would help revive tourism has proven true beyond anyone’s projections, but it has done even more. “More people are interested in living here. That was unexpected,” Buchanan said. “There are those [in town] who blame me for the traffic.”
So much of marketing a show, a venue or a town is about one-to-one interaction, and is up to individuals, Buchanan said. “It’s about how knowledgeable people are and their own passion for what they are doing.”
At the Grand Ole Opry, he strives to make sure employees from the front lines to back of house feel empowered and appreciated. It’s gratifying to Buchanan that “people talk about the passion our people have for the experience.”
Interviewed for this story: Steve Buchanan, (615) 316-6090