Latest / WOI Unfiltered / Full Throttle: How Storytelling Fuels the Corvette Legacy with Ryan Eichler
Transcript
- Jenna: Good morning, Emily Fisher: Good morning, Jenna. How you doing? look, I feel like we Jenna: Did I catch you off guard today? Emily Fisher: I guess so. But I also feel like we should in like have an intro with Little Red Corvette by Prince because of our guest today, which is very exciting. Jenna: Mm-hmm. Emily Fisher: so I'm just gonna jump right into it 'cause we're pretty Ryan: You Emily Fisher: pumped. It's another old friend from our agency days. so today we have Ryan Eichler. He is a senior marketing and communications exec with more than twenty years of experience. I feel like we're always dating ourselves with all the experience, but he spends his time I'm right now as the director of marketing and communications at the National Corvette Museum, where he leads enterprise wide strategy across 19 business units, helping drive audience growth, revenue, membership, donor engagement, and the continued evolution of one of America's most iconic automotive institutions, which we're gonna learn about today. Can't wait. Before his role at the museum, Ryan advised a ton of major brands across automotive, sports, entertainment, and tech. So we Have you know, a little bit of different content today with automotive and motor motor motorsports. So this will be exciting. And I I want to just say Ryan, he's like the lightning in a bottle combination of strategy, creative leadership, execution, and he's just a bright and fun personality. And he brings that fun to everything he does. So welcome, Ryan: You Emily Fisher: Ryan. How are you? Ryan: Emily, thank you for that great intro. I am doing fantastic. And I'm so glad that you kicked off with Little Red Corvette because Emily Fisher: What? Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: actually the number one selling color Corvette was white with a red interior. That was the color of the first Corvette in 1953. But when that song dropped in 1983, it actually propelled red to be the number one selling color for Corvette, which it still maintains today. About 25 % of Corvettes are torch red, which is the little red Corvette color. Jenna: I love that. Emily Fisher: the power of Prince Ray. Seriously. It's like it's like how Jeff Spicoli brought Vans back and like saved the brand. Culture has the power to do that. Ryan: Well, and the time that that song came out, can get into Corvette history, but Corvette needed a little bit of extra positivity. We were in the mid-80s, we're a time where there just wasn't a lot of powerful cars, and Corvette was chasing Ferrari, chasing Porsche, and that song, plus the new Corvette model, really propelled Corvette to where we are today in terms of it being a world leader. Emily Fisher: Wow, that's so cool. Well, so this is why we're so excited to have you on, Ray. Ryan: Hehe. Emily Fisher: I wanna I wanna back up just a touch and talk about your journey to basically get here because your book of experience includes in-house at Harley Davidson, 15 years at Weber Shanwick, which is the agency we intersected, where you Ryan: Mm-hmm. Emily Fisher: worked with brands like MM's Racing, you led the motorsports practice there, and now you're marketing one of America's most iconic automotive institutions at the national. Corvette Museum. So I gotta ask, what drew you to motorsports and auto marketing in the first place and and how has that evolved? Ryan: You know, it's interesting because I didn't necessarily wake up one day and say, I'm going to get into automotive marketing. I would say that as a kid, I spent my days with my dad at car shows. If you cut me out, would joke that I bled gas and oil. And when you realize that you can actually go and work and support the brands or categories that you're interested in, it does make work a lot easier for you. one thing that's just been really special for me. I actually was inspired to go into public relations and realize that automotive was a category you could work on by taking a tour of the National Corvette Museum and the Corvette plant back in 1994 when everything opened. And the tour guides at the plant were actually PR interns from the local university. that really got my mind thinking that this could be like a viable career choice for me. And then of course, love Weber-Shanwick, loved working with you, Jenna, the entire team there. But I think as we all know in the agency world, you know, it's a lot of big city people, big city marketers who don't always, you know, even have driver's licenses in cars. So I think part of the ability that Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: I had is just being somebody that understood these, you know, products and services and really, you know, consumed all the media outside of working hours. And then just also a little bit of right time and right place and of course the team behind it. Now, how it's evolved has been really quite amazing. You know, when I think of really when I started in this, a lot of our work in automotive PR, I'll say in general, was Emily Fisher: Yeah. Ryan: loaning products to editors. So when I worked at Harley-Davidson, I managed a press fleet. We had one in Southern California, we had one in Milwaukee. We would loan out motorcycles all the time to a variety of different motorcycle magazines. They'd write about them, they'd come back. Did the same thing for General Motors. Now fast forward, you know, don't have the size of automotive writers, motorcycle writers. I Emily Fisher: Yeah. Ryan: mean, a lot of the automotive magazines have actually been shuttered, gone out of business. We know that Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: the finances for a lot isn't good. So it has really shifted to be much more consumer first and creator driven. And I would say things that are Emily Fisher: Sure. Ryan: created across your own channels versus... relying so heavily on EARN. Now EARN still plays a huge role in identifying writers that can cover your products and services, but they aren't necessarily that specific automotive byline anymore. Jenna: you've made such a full circle journey. Being inspired to start off with by the Ryan: Hahaha Jenna: Corvette Museum and then ending up working there is just it's a really cool journey. can you start off by just telling us a little bit more about the National Corvette Museum, its mission to educate and preserve the legacy of America Sports Car and kind of what you do there every day. Ryan: Yeah, well, so the museum opened in 1994 and it's in Bowling Green, Kentucky, because that's where the Corvette plant is. Every Corvette has been made in Bowling Green since 1981. We, you know, see about 160,000 guests, 180,000 guests a year. So it's a, it's a formidable business, but we are a 501c3 foundation. education is core to our mission. So of course, celebrating the Corvette, it's a car that has a huge fan base. but then inspiring the next generation. And that next generation isn't necessarily even people that are going to go and buy Corvettes. mean, yes, that's awesome. And General Motors loves that. But it's inspiring Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: the next generation of automotive designers, engineers, staff, and technicians at automotive plants. So that is really a big part of everything that we do is making sure that that mission of educating, whether it be, you know, current generation. future generation is really front and center and you know we have a we have a variety of steam programming and and other elements to do that and then from a day-to-day perspective again with all the lines of business that we have which include everything from an e-commerce and brick-and-mortar store to a restaurant to our collections to development you know you never know it much like the agency world you never know what is going to Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: you never know what's gonna land in your lap I also oversee sponsorship for the museum so we have some tier one sponsors and then so again it's a little bit of a catch-all and but it's a lot of fun and it's always centered around our mission and telling those great stories to inspire people to learn more about Corvette. Jenna: Can you just give us a a little bit t to make us feel like we're there? Like what what are who are the people who are coming to the museum? Is it a lot of families? Is it a lot of kids? Is it a lot of people who have grown up loving cars and want to kind of relive that and and get into Ryan: Mm-hmm Jenna: the nostalgia? Like who who comes to the museum? Ryan: Yeah, so what I'll do is I'm going give you our summertime numbers because like any attraction, you know, we have our busy season and our shoulder season. So during the summertime, 70 % of our guests have never been to the museum before. They all do have some connection to, I'll say cars, whether that be, and this is all, we have some automated surveys that go out to everybody that visits the museum. So I'm able to compile all that data. So 70 % new, again, have some connection to cars, whether it be an interest, someone in their family owned a Corvette. We see a lot of people that just love American cars. So we have Mustang fans, Viper fans, know, those are all kind of this high performance American car family. We do see a significant amount of families. And in fact, our placer data, which is based off of cell phone use, always interested to see where we pull this from, has our number one demographic actually being high income households with two or more children. making over $150,000 a year. So it's an affluent person that is coming through, but of course that's not everybody, right? We are a big attraction to the local Bowling Green community, so we certainly have a fair amount of local people that are coming through the museum. We'll see anywhere from 5,000 6,000 kids and students come through the museum every year, again, a big part of the mission around educating that future generation. And then... The other 30 % is an interesting group because since the museum's been around since 1994, we have this fantastic group of members of the museum. Over 45,000 people are members of the museum. So that 30 % ends up being people that are close to the museum, part of the museum, kind of ecosystem, and do see us more often. We also see that guests have indicated that they will come back and visit the museum again anytime between six months and a year from when they went through. So that's great and that's based on their experience. Out of five stars were 4.9 in terms of our guest survey ratings and that covers Google as well as our own survey. So it's a more of an affluent guest but again we are a I'd say a travel based attraction. Our location right out of Interstate 65. Myself, my team, we work very hard to market the museum but our number one marketing vehicle is being located right on I-65. being that main north-south artery. As you follow the guests, you can see people coming from Minneapolis all the way down, Chicago big market for us, Milwaukee big market for us, Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, Huntsville, Atlanta, and then a lot of guests and visitors from Texas and Florida, just because those are markets where you do have an older, I think an older guest that's living there part-time, but also places where you can drive Corvette seat around. Emily Fisher: And Rye, you have a decent amount of international visitors too. What's what's the appeal there? I I guess it's not surprising because I I imagine, you know, your footprint's huge, the exhibitions change. Tell us a little bit about what's driving international biz. Ryan: Yeah, we actually just had a hit in a German media placement in a German media outlet, Der Spiegel. So good to see our Emily Fisher: yeah. The only one I know. Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: coverage going far and wide. Corvettes are sold around the world, Emily Fisher: Yeah. Ryan: so you do have a pretty significant international fan base. We also do see we're very fortunate. Kentucky, probably better known for bourbon. Right? And there has been an explosion in interest in bourbon specifically from places like India and Asia. So there are large groups of people traveling from those parts of the world that are coming to do bourbon tours, the Bourbon Trail. And we're not too far from that. So then they're able to kind of loop themselves in as well. But we love our international guests. As I look through membership, I mean, we have people representing Australia. China, heavy presence in Europe. There's a great Corvette club in the United Kingdom with thousands of members. So it's pretty cool. Emily Fisher: And how do you sustain that community? I mean, so you talk about the membership, which I believe Ryan: Mm-hmm. Emily Fisher: you said was about 30% of your visitation. Ryan: Mm-hmm. Emily Fisher: since it's such an emotional product, right? It's not Ryan: Yeah. Emily Fisher: your you know, your run-of-the-mill just on the shelf products. People bring a lot of, you know, history. You even said how you got into this role because of your dad. Ryan: Mm-hmm. Emily Fisher: how do you maintain that community through emotional storytelling? Ryan: Yeah, well it's partly maintaining, right? And with that, we have over 125 Corvettes in our collection. The people that are really close to the museum and close to Corvette are so interested in the history of those cars, the history of their own car. You could have a 30 minute conversation on the torque that you need to tighten a lug nut on a 1987 Corvette. So we're absolutely able to satisfy that group. We have an entire curatorial team. that is going through our library and archives documenting all that. We do also provide a lot of resources if you own Corvette and you don't know much about it, we can help you out. We can actually get the build sheet if it was built after 1981 so you get the full specs on the car. So there is also some preservation work like that but then also storytelling to bring in new fans and bring in, people more interested in Corvette and I think really its role in American history and pop culture as well. Jenna: You mentioned at the start of this, talking about, you know, obviously the media landscape changing. a Ryan: Mm-hmm. Jenna: lot of those publications that that you read growing up, right? Have have Ryan: Yep. Jenna: since closed. How are you guys using influencers these days as well as your own social channels? How much of a driver are those for you? Ryan: Yeah, so a significant driver. I'll start with our owned social which all credit goes to Carrie Rich who is our senior digital marketing manager who and oversees all of our social channels. We have seen explosive growth in the two and a half years that I've been on board because we really changed our storytelling. Prior it was very focused on the staff at the museum because we have that 30 % of guests that are members and they feel this kind of personal connection to our staff because they're visiting the museum all the time. And there's a lot of other products and services that bring them through. So, you know, that was important, but of course, you guys know staff leave, people take new jobs, people move away. So when I started, was like, it's gotta be about the fiberglass or composite, which is what Corvettes are made of. we really made a complete shift in our tone and strategy to focus on. storytelling around the cars in our collection while also balancing all the other revenue generating programs that we have. Excited to say we were meta-verified for the first time just this past year, so got that little blue check mark which, you know, Emily Fisher: From Ryan: certainly helps your credibility with other partners, other museums. And just on Instagram alone, I think we, we had, they had maintained about 20,000 followers and we just crossed the 105,000 threshold. So. All our channels continue to grow Jenna: Amazing. Ryan: and grow and grow. And again, these are also, these are real followers. There are no spam, there are no bots. I see it in the comments. So, you know, really dialing all those pieces up and then from a creator standpoint, you know, that market has gotten so expensive to play in. We are a 501c3 nonprofit foundation and I do have a variety of different tactics to support. I would say our creator and influencer programs are much more reactive. So, Even today I have somebody who is coming through the museum 1.5 million followers on YouTube So for somebody like that, know, grant them obviously, you know Confid mission kind of give them a guide on what to talk about Make sure you tag us also follow the rules people want to get in the cars people want to climb on the cars Our cars are true museum pieces got to stay on the other side of the barrier So I would love to flex up and do more there I just don't think we're at a point to have the finances to be able to do that And then lastly, just geographics work against us. We're an hour north of Nashville and an hour and half south of Louisville. So it's just physically hard to get people to come through without some Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: dollar incentive. Jenna: Do you do anything with the track? Don't you have a track there? Ryan: Yeah, so we do have a 3.2 mile road course, the NCM Motorsports Park that's across the street. It's actually part of the shared services that I support for the museum. We also have an insurance company as well. But the track is fantastic. They have a brand new cart flex so you can race go-karts. They also have new Corvettes in a couple different trim levels, including the super high performance Z06. You can drive those cars, you can ride in those cars, you can rent the track out. That's been a really great business for us. I help kind of set the overall strategy and tone and then help with a lot of the tactics for them. I think they run into some of the similar situations that we have where just geography and location, you Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: know, you have people who, you know, have these huge followings that love cars, that go to racetracks, test cars all the time. But again, they're looking for a pretty big financial incentive to come and visit us just because of where we are. We try to take advantage of those when we can, but it ends up being fewer and farther between than what I would like, but something that I think we could stretch to. Jenna: Yeah. It seems like such a cool draw. Sorry, go ahead. Emily Fisher: Talk to us, right? totally. No, no, you're good. I I mean, I think on that note, also on the influencer note, talk to us a little bit, Ray, about how you're driving relevancy with new and younger audiences. I imagine the rising popularity of F1 and even the movie might have helped Corvette from a brand story. But is there anything you're doing specifically to make sure the brand is still top of mind with these rising generations? Ryan: Yeah, well, you know, the social work that I had talked about absolutely is helping us, especially the work on Instagram. You know, obviously that's a place of mine for, you know, younger people. We don't want to go too young. Of course, you know, we want people that can afford to come through the museum Emily Fisher: Sharp. Ryan: as well, which is a reason that we don't really flex up much on TikTok. But it's so heavy up there. then another place that really helps us is just the Corvette itself. So. We're on our eighth generation Corvette. Right now this is a mid-engine Corvette. Kind of looks like a fighter jet and is very different from previous generations. Now this Corvette though has actually reduced the average purchase age from 65 to 55. So you Emily Fisher: wow. Ryan: have a younger group that are buying it and then also it's the Corvette is considered to be a sports performance car. That's kind of the automotive category that it's in. And it's the number one selling sports performance car 35 and under right now. So, you know, the competition is going to be McLaren's, Porsche's, Ferrari's, you know, super high end like that. Now, how many people 35 and under can afford a 110, $115,000 Corvette? I'll leave that, you know, I'll leave those numbers to GM. But I think, Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: you know, between the work that we're doing to really, I would say, make the museum cool, focus on not just one thing, but a variety of things within the museum. And when I say things, it's Corvettes, different generations, just things that we can get people excited about. And then of course, just the overall direction that Corvette is going as a brand. Emily Fisher: And that makes total sense. What are some of the cool Corvettes that are in the museum right now? Ryan: Well, I don't have enough time to cover my favorites, but Emily Fisher: Yeah. Ryan: I would say right now we are very fortunate to have one of Michael Jordan's Corvettes on loan. It's a 1993 ZR1 40th anniversary edition. It was featured in the Last Dance. It has the period correct cell phone, the period correct wheels. Very, very cool. I actually talked to the salesperson that delivered the car to Michael two weeks ago. And I mean, know, Michael Jordan shows up in a Ferrari, didn't even know this is the Corvette that he wants. He orders it, it comes back two months later. And I mean, he needed to learn how the buttons worked and the CD player Emily Fisher: Yeah. Ryan: and everything. And he sat there for two hours and went through it. So that's a super special car for us. also have, there was a program in the sixties where General Motors wanted all of the astronauts, which, know, when you think about space travel and the astronauts in the sixties, they were the true rock stars. wanted them to drive their products. but did not necessarily want to give them cars because EGM is also a government supplier, right? You want to show any favoritism. So they worked with a dealer right outside of Titusville where the space center is named Jim Rathbun who had won the 8500 a couple of times. So Jim was leasing Corvettes and selling Corvettes to astronauts. The leases were for a dollar. So. Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: We're very fortunate we have a couple of astronaut Corvettes, but one that's really special is we actually have Neil Armstrong's 1967 Stingray. It is in original condition Jenna: that is cool. Ryan: and just an amazing, amazing car. And then we also have a very unique Corvette. So again, Corvette is a history and story of generations, run our eighth generation now. The fourth generation Corvette. Came out in 1984 they produced 45 in 1983 that were pre-production prototypes They realized they couldn't get the finish fit and finish right so they scrapped them all but one and we do have that one and only 1983 Corvette on display as well So talk about a time capsule in a very cool kind of moment in time So I'd say those are those are gonna be your top three for right now, but we do rotate our cars quite often Again, we do have our guests indicating they're going to come back and see us within six months to a year. So want to make sure that they're seeing something new, whether it be Corvettes or the exhibitions themselves. Jenna: Alright, Ryan, I gotta ask you 'cause Emily Fisher: I was thinking about Neil riding around in a Corvette. Neil Armstrong, right? Like it's very cool. Ryan: Yeah, it's so cool, right? Jenna: I was gonna say you you're like a wealth of information and you know more about this than anybody I would imag I just I can't believe the volume of information you have here. So real question is, how much of this did you know before you even started working at the museum? Ryan: That's great question. I would say the majority of it. know, some of the specific Jenna: Mm. Ryan: stories of the cars that come in are fascinating to learn about. But just in terms of kind of general Corvette history and how to talk about Corvettes, that's just something that's been ingrained in me really since I... My first ride in a Corvette was the first Corvette that my father purchased. It was in 1980. He bought it in 1984. My sister and I rode, you know, they're two seaters, we rode in the back in the luggage compartment on the humps above where the tires were. So that was Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: my first ride. So it's really been very close to it. But the piece that's been so exciting for me is, you know, our backgrounds are really primarily earned media, content creation, storytelling like that. You know, I get to touch every type of marketing channel. Email is huge for the museum. know when I was at Weber, was like, what are these emails? No. Email drives so much revenue for us with this legacy audience. In Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: fact, sometimes I get worried that we're also, you know, verging a little bit on spam. Billboards, I never bought or designed out of home before. That is a very polarizing tactic and one that, you know, we don't do a lot of because there isn't a huge return. Obviously, you know, the organic social something that we know very well. do a lot of paid social as well. do paid Google. So a variety of different things that I've been able to really get my hands into. And I think positively affect as we look at museum business, which is really, really strong for 2026. Jenna: I so it's so funny that you're talking about this because I think and I as boutique agency owners now have seen so much more of this, of these tactics that we never really considered, you know, working on just the big Ryan: Mm-hmm. Jenna: brands and we can see now firsthand how much of an impact Ryan: Mm-hmm. Jenna: these kind of smaller tactics that we maybe even turned our noses up at before Ryan: Mm-hmm. Jenna: really work. I mean, those are the ways to get People to buy products or into a museum Emily Fisher: I love that, a couple quick hitters for you. Since you've been at the museum, what Ryan: Yeah. Emily Fisher: has been the favorite, the favored marketing campaign that you've run? Ryan: Well, so somewhat of a marketing campaign. know you asked for quick, but this one is really important. So when I started our ticketing Emily Fisher: I love it. Ryan: platform, you know, to purchase tickets was based on a CRM system that we use called BlackBot, which is highly used in the museum business. The process to purchase tickets honestly looked like you were giving your data to somebody and it was spam and it was a scam. So brought in a new partner, completely rethought our ticketing platform. And since we've implemented this new ticketing platform that again has all of the additional pieces that we need, including, you know, connectivity to our tech stack to be able to do advanced emails to, you know, get people excited to spend more money when they come to the museum or post guest surveys. Also just some scheduling things that we weren't able to do before. We've seen our online ticket purchase go from 5 % in 2023. to 25 % in 2026. Now, I still don't like 25 % because in 2026, it should be 75 % of our guests are buying their tickets online in advance, but that has Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: been a pretty significant gain for us. And again, it all works together because now the SEO on the website is fueling those ticket purchases. I could not do that prior in this old system. So it allows us to also offer new bundles. and be a lot more creative. that has been a, that was a huge, a huge win for us and one that will continue to continue to pay off. And I think even more important is it kind of gave everyone within the museum, the mindset of like, okay, online ticket sales matter and can make a difference versus, you know, we do have a lot of guests and we do have staff that are like, well, I need to be by the telephone because people aren't going to call me for this. And that's great. Emily Fisher: Yeah. Yeah. Ryan: And if people want to show up and buy their ticket on spot, that's great. But like, we got to try to put everything to the digital because that's where I can actually prove out the ROI. So very Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: long answer I apologize but we're really proud of the flow that we have and the look and the feel of it and is completely a 180 from when I started. Emily Fisher: That's incredible though. I mean, it's not often that you can point to a five to twenty-five percent jump and something that's Ryan: Yeah. Emily Fisher: truly measurable and and drive sales impact. And I think it also Ryan: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Emily Fisher: goes into yeah, you're digitizing to maybe attract some of those, you know, Ryan: Mm-hmm. Emily Fisher: younger but can still afford interest in Corvette that way. so that's I mean, it's it's primo for a campaign. Ryan: Yeah. And then two, just think about it from a guest experience standpoint and a revenue standpoint. I want people to spend their $100 buying their admission tickets two months in advance because we do find that people are planning their trip anywhere from two weeks to two months in advance. Part with your money in advance because then when you come for the museum, you're more interested in purchasing the t-shirts. Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: And we have a simulator program that's wildly popular. We have the restaurant. Emily Fisher: That's right. Ryan: You you kind of forget, hey, I bought the admission already. That was a long time ago. So let me go ahead and add on guided tours, you know, elements like that. So it's been a lot of fun to watch those numbers grow and very excited to see, you know, where that goes for the future. Jenna: That is such a great point. I I just at every museum or experience like that I go to with my kids, if I have bought it in advance, I am much more likely to do those add-ons. If I just shelled out Ryan: It... Yeah. Emily Fisher: Sure. Jenna: a hundred dollars or two hundred dollars and just admissions, I'm like, no, no, you don't need that. No, no. It's a great point. do you have any campaigns that are coming up? or or anything even in in the world of, you know, automotive marketing that you're seeing that you're really excited about right now? Ryan: Yeah, know, campaigns from a museum standpoint, one piece that we're really excited about is we will open a new 66,000 square foot collections facility in just about three weeks. yeah, so the museum, we Emily Fisher: Round. Ryan: have 125 Corvettes in our collection, but at any given time when you tour the museum, only about 30 of those Corvettes are on display from our collection. We also have cars that are on loan to us from GM as well as cars are loaned to us from private donors. So. what we wanted to offer was kind of that behind the scenes vault for a lack of a better word tour. And then also at the same time have the proper protections for our car. So, you know, in 2026, really, really happy to say that we've funded $4 million of this program through donations, a lot of that driven through earned media and social. And once that facility opens, you'll be able to see our full collection. And then additional revenue driver because we'll be able to you know sell those tickets starting in January 2026 to do those tours So from a museum perspective very very excited for that I think from an overall Automotive media perspective kind of think what you're seeing happen in the marketplace What I love is the continued Collaborations that we're seeing so you know brands like Porsche partnering with other brands Ford has a very very high-end bespoke outdoor partnership right now So, you know a lot of the stuff that we got so excited about, know I was so fortunate to work on Pringles and Cheez-Its and Cheez-It and wine, right? I mean everybody knows that so, Emily Fisher: Right. Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: you know It's a little harder to do when it's a car that you have to engineer sometimes four years in advance but we're seeing some of that change and then also just as the the high-end so, you know when you think about automotive sales the most profit is in the higher end price tag car. So that would be, you know, the higher end Corvette, the higher end Chevy Silverado, Suburban, whatever. So as you see that, then you just see a little bit more focus on things looking more luxury, I think, and things just being leveled up even more, which I love. mean, car photography, you can get lost for hours and hours, right? And just to see it get, you know, sharper and sharper and sharper and be able to turn it around even quicker. is awesome. will say the one watch out is going to be AI there because I've been Jenna: Yeah. Emily Fisher: Yeah. Ryan: seeing lots of mistakes that are happening and you know people really do need to pay attention to what they're doing because that is a quick surefire way for people to lose interest immediately especially car people because there was a manufacturer that put a competitor's product on their shirt for the America 250 campaign. Emily Fisher: Yeah. Ryan: It was not their product, it was a competitor's and that somehow made it all the way through approval and was being Jenna: Wow. Ryan: sold. So, again, I think people need to pay attention to that because that's a quick way to lose interest and consumer trust, I think across the board, but specifically in Jenna: Yeah, that's a big fumble. Ryan: Yeah, yeah. Emily Fisher: In terms of partnerships, Rye, you do this a lot. I was thinking, did I have a brandchild with maybe bourbon and Corvette? Or maybe not, 'cause of drinking and driving. Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: You know, it could be interesting. We do offer Emily Fisher: Ha ha. Ryan: local bourbon in our brick and mortar retail store. We do go to Emily Fisher: Perfect. Ryan: some distilleries on some of, we do road tours. We have an entire events department, one of our lines of revenue. But I don't think we do anything more sophisticated just for that reason. Emily Fisher: Okay, fair. Jenna: Yeah. It might be a little bit of a crisis issue coming up. Emily Fisher: Does any Corvette fit more than Exactly, Ryan: Yeah. Emily Fisher: we don't want that. Does any Corvette fit more than two people? Ryan: There's been a few prototype Corvettes, but nothing Emily Fisher: Okay. Ryan: that's actually been saleable to people now. for a long time, the promotion of Corvette was around the chance to put two sets of golf clubs in the back so you could have a little bit more room for your gear. Emily Fisher: I love that. Jenna: All right, well, Ryan, as we wrap up, first thing we have to ask you is just give us a give us a little bit of a peek into you. Obviously we know that cars are a huge passion of yours, but have you been out there on the track? Have you done any racing Ryan: Yeah, well, so I learned very quickly racing is a wealthy man's sport. I learned that actually, as I think about this, Road America is my home track that's in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. And I'm originally from Wisconsin. Beautiful track, road course, rolling hills of Wisconsin. Great food, by the way. There's a sausage vendor around every corner. But there's a very tricky Emily Fisher: Yeah. Ryan: corner that are called Canada Corner. and back when i thought i could be an amateur racer actually put my car in the the sand trap gravel trap there because i went off the track had to ride home in the tow truck and then about a four thousand dollar bill for my daily driver this is not my race car so that's kinda what i realized that i'd probably can afford to be a race car driver but i have had the chance to turn laps at you know the national corvette museum ncm motorsports park as well as a variety of nascar courses and have gone through Probably my favorite time on the track has been some of the thrill rides that I've gone with some of the professional drivers. So there's nothing like going around Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 160 miles an hour with Max Pappas behind the wheel who is an Indy 500 and sports car driver. And I'm sitting shotgun, he pulls out his cell phone and he's like, Jimmy Johnson, who's also a very famous NASCAR driver, he would love this photo. So we're going 160, he's steering with one wheel, taking photos. Yeah, it was amazing. And you Jenna: my god. Emily Fisher: Don't text and drive. Ryan: know, I, At first I'm trying to talk to him about it and then I mean the G-forces start hitting you and I've just like pinned against the wall and this is average time for him. So lot of experiences like that but you know anytime on a racetrack or behind a cool car is fun for me. Emily Fisher: we wrap this with every episode for our guests, Ryan. It's what's what has Ryan: Mm-hmm. Emily Fisher: been your impact this week? It can be big, small, personal, professional. Ryan: Well, you know, I always make an impact every day, but I would say this would be personal. And I love short love sports, love Chicago sports. But the impact that I've made over the past week is my wife is actually from the East Coast and is a huge New York Yankees fan. So we went to see the New York Yankees. Play both Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs a couple of times last week. So as a Chicago sports Emily Fisher: Okay. Ryan: fan, you know, I'm sitting next to a diehard Yankee fan. it's awesome wins and losses for them but she really enjoyed it and you know anytime you're at the ballpark is a good time Jenna: Well, thank you so much for joining us. This was such a fun conversation. I will tell you, Emily Fisher: So much fun. Jenna: I so I have three kids, ages four, six, and eight. The two younger are boys. And I told my middle child, Will, that I was chatting with you and and where you worked. And his first question was, my god, when can we go there? That sounds like the coolest place ever. So I have promised a trip at some point. Emily Fisher: Yeah, you've recruited a couple of families here into the fold. Ryan: I hope Jenna: Yeah. Ryan: to see you guys come through. Yeah, we're right off Interstate 65. I encourage everybody to go to CorvetteMuseum.org. You can see times, exhibitions, offerings, and definitely come by and see us. It's a lot of fun. just a moment, we kind of jumped into all this, but just congratulations to you, Jenna, and you, Emily, in terms of what you guys are doing. You know, going out on your own is never easy, but I know you guys are crushing it, and I can tell you're having a lot of fun while you're doing it. So, very cool. Congrats. Emily Fisher: Thanks, Ryan. Jenna: Thank you, Ryan. Thank you. Appreciate you taking the time. I'm excited to Emily Fisher: This has been great. Jenna: learn about this. And we will certainly be visiting you at some point in the near future. Ryan: I hope so. I hope so. I'll hold you to it. Okay. Thanks guys. Jenna: All right. Thanks, Ryan.