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CORVETTE TODAY #234-NCM Director Of Marketing, Ryan Eichler, Talk About The NCM 5-Year Plan
Jul 12, 2025
So many times in business, you hear talk about "their 5 year plan". The National Corvette Museum also has a 5 year plan. Ryan Eichler, the Director of Marketing for the NCM, joins your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, to lay out that 5 year plan. You'll learn how the NCM plans to increase their Social Media presence, how they plan to attract the next generation of Corvette enthusiasts and how the NCM plans to get accreditation. Trust us...you'll learn a lot about your National Corvette Museum on this episode of CORVETTE TODAY.
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world. You know, so many times you hear people in business say, "Have you got a 5-year plan?" Well, at the National
3:52
Corvette Museum, they get that same question. Here back on Corvette today to talk about that five-year plan for the
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National Corvette Museum and take a look at the future is the director of marketing for the NCM, Ryan Ikler. Ryan,
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welcome back to Corvette today, buddy. Thanks, Steve. Thanks for having me on again and absolutely exciting topic as
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we think ahead. Absolutely right. I'm looking forward to this because I want to know what's coming down the pike in 5 years for the
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museum. First off, Ryan, talk to me about how the museum is thinking about the future. Well, the future for us is
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so important. Several years back, the board gathered with the key leadership team here at the National Corvette
4:29
Museum and mapped out our road to 2028. Now, this is a five-year strategic plan
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that encompasses several different elements of the museum, but really gives us that roadmap to get to 2028 and hit
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the marks that we need to make sure that we're delivering everything from a existing guest and member standpoint,
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but also growing the museum much like Chevrolet is doing with the popularity of the CA Corvette.
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Gotcha. Now, walk me through the 2028 strategic plan then. Yeah, absolutely. So, it really is
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housed around six key pillars. The first one is the advancement of the American Alliance of Museums accreditation.
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You've probably heard us mention this before and in shortening this is a AAM accreditation and really this allows us
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to be on the same playing field as other museums like the Henry Ford, the Auburn
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Core Ducen Museum or the Studebaker Museum. Got it. Those are actually the only AAM accredited car museums in the
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US. So that's pillar number one. The second is becoming a cherished community asset. We know how important Corvette
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and the National Corvette Museum is to Bowling Green and the surrounding area. So, how do we make sure that we really
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push that forward and work with the community to let them know that the National Corvette Museum, we're a big part of the success of this part of
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Kentucky. Yeah. The next one would be continued growth of diverse, earned, and contributed revenue streams. Certainly
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want to make sure that we have a financially healthy museum so that we can continue to push forward with that
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really important mission that we have and really put education around the Corvette front and center. And you can't do that without growth of diverse earned
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and contributed revenue streams. The next one, the one that excites me the most is acquisition of new and younger
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generation of Corvette enthusiasts. You know, to futureproof the museum, we need to make sure that we're bringing in new
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automotive and Corvette fans, telling them the history of the Corvette, but telling them it on their terms. The
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fifth point is intentional collections growth. making sure that we have a kind
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of dream list of Corvettes to round out the collection and thinking about what future exhibits could look like to make
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sure that we have the right Corvettes to be able to bring those to life. And then the last one is and for all the folks that have been to the National Corvette
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Museum, it's master campus growth, right? We know that this space and the museum itself really sits on this
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collective corvette campus and how do we make sure that we grow that campus to not only protect us from what could be
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other businesses that may want to try to take advantage of where the museum is, but also making sure that we're future
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proofing and thinking ahead to any potential larger grounds for more events or something like that. So, those are
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really those six pillars for this 5year strategic plan for growth. That's really cool. And it sounds really, really good. The accreditation
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thing, I get it totally. How do you develop a plan like that? Well, the accreditation from the
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American Alliance of Museums, while it is not the easiest for us to accomplish because it requires so much and and when
7:17
I say so much, this is everything around making sure that we've outlined and have the highest professional standards
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within the museum, ethical practices, ongoing improvement in operations and services, but even all the way to the
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point of how we're maintaining the collection. So AMA accreditation ends up being a little bit of a checklist that
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you go through that auditors come in and kind of map against your progress there. So while it is probably the largest task
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force, it is one that has some very clear KPIs that we need to meet and that's something that's in progress for
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us even as I speak today. How do you measure a plan like that when you put it together? Well, there's a
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variety of KPIs, so key performance indicators, okay, that we have put against each of these pillars. Now, some
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are going to be a little bit more defined than others. When you think of becoming a cherished community asset, what we're always looking at is how many
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places and spaces is the museum showing up in the region and in the area. And that's everything from large events that
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Bowling Green may have where we'll show up with one of our fleet cars and talk about our education mission all the way
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down to making sure that we're extending those island branches into the community and supporting other educational
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entities and other elements. So that becomes more of a tactical approach where you can actually go back and measure we went to this many events in
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2023, we've been able to grow it into 2024. Where do we go for 2025? So that
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becomes more of a metricbased one. When you look at acquisition of newer, younger generation of Corvette
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enthusiasts, that's going to be a longer tale. That's going to be a longer plan for us because I'm able to measure that
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and that's one that I get really excited when we think about what we're doing from a digital and a social media perspective. But then I have to go and
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compare that with actual gate admissions and who we're seeing coming through the museum. So again, there's a fair amount
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of metrics and data that comes into this as we kind of set the KPIs. Some of them are a little bit more clear like we have
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with the American Alliance and Museum Accreditation. Mh. Others become more set by us in terms
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of, you know, even when you think about continued master campus growth. We certainly have a set footprint right
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now, but what does it look like as that continues to expand and grow? And there's other things that determine
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that, right? Other businesses around us, what they're doing, where the opportunity lies. Man, buddy, that sounds really
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aggressive. I like the plan. If anybody can pull it off, it's you leading the charge.
9:34
We hope. We hope. We hope. But, you know, again, it's just so important to think ahead. We're working with Corvettes. They're moving fast. The pace
9:41
is quick. And sometimes with that quick pace, it can be easy to not pause and think about what something's going to
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look like in two years, four years, 5 years. So, the plan is so helpful for us, too, because it allows us to really
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be kind of a litmus test for anything we're doing in the museum or any decision that we're making. Is it tying
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back to this 5year plan for strategic growth? Very cool. I like it, buddy. Let's take our first break. When we come back,
10:04
we'll talk more about the 5-year plan for the National Corvette Museum with Ryan Ikler, the director of marketing at
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And now back to Corvette Today with your host and my husband Steve Garrett.
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I'm your host, Steve Garrett. With me is my buddy Ryan Ikler, the director of marketing for the National Corvette
13:50
Museum. We are talking about the five-year plan looking out to 2028. Ryan, let's talk more about one of the
13:56
strategic pillars, growing the younger audience, because I think that's really, really important. How do you do that as
14:02
the National Corvette Museum? Yes, Steve. So, certainly one area that really excites me and that's that
14:08
acquisition of new and younger generation of Corvette enthusiasts. It excites me for a couple reasons. Number
14:14
one, well, this is quite a daunting task for any brand or organization in 2024.
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When you have the power of Corvette behind you, it can be a little easier. And I look right now at a lot of the
14:26
work that we're doing on our digital and social channels. I encourage all your listeners, make sure you're following the National Corvette Museum on X, Tik
14:33
Tok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as LinkedIn. So, we are active
14:38
on all those channels. We've identified a very robust content strategy that
14:43
probably no surprise to your listeners. It puts the Corvette first. People want to see the Corvettes. They want to learn
14:49
the stories of Corvette, whether you're indoctrinated into the Corvette world or not. So, that content plan and making
14:55
sure that we're really making the car the star and what we're doing at the museum the star has resulted in a 5%
15:02
audience growth across all those channels every month nearly for the last
15:07
year. So, we're starting to get to a point with a lot of our social channels where we're getting large enough that
15:12
we're starting to actually reach new people. We had a very simple example here. We did a quick Instagram reel.
15:19
Reels are extremely popular right now. You know, this is short form video content. Disappears fairly quickly from
15:24
Instagram. We did one that highlighted all of the Corvette logos. It was emblems of all the Corvettes in the
15:30
collection, all the various generations. This was really one of the first viral pieces of content that the museum
15:36
created. As I looked at the data, we reached 130,000 people on Instagram that
15:41
did not follow the museum. Wow. That's through the use of tags and tagging. So, you're reaching other people that like
15:48
cars that are automotive enthusiasts, but just knowing the audience on Instagram that is a younger audience.
15:54
That's that next generation of Corvette fans. So, creating that content that reaches those fans that aren't our
15:59
followers, it brings them into follow our channels, but it exposes them to the National Corvette Museum and hopefully gets them to think, hey, you know what?
16:05
this is a place that I either need to visit or I want to get more involved with her, maybe become a member of. So,
16:10
that really excites me. And then, you know, again, we have the power of Corvette. We have the history, 71 years
16:17
of Corvette. So, there is so much storytelling to do that, again, it gives us such a great runway ahead of us to be
16:23
able to continue to grow those audiences and really acquire those new and younger generation of Corvette enthusiasts.
16:28
Fantastic. And the hashtag for the NCM is Corvette Museum. I use the hashtag
16:34
for all of our social media for Corvette today. Just go to hash corvette museum.
16:39
You can see everything there as well. That's a beautiful aggregator. You got it. Absolutely. Yes, sir. Also, let's talk
16:45
about some of these examples that are already in place, Ryan. Yeah. So, again, social and digital. And
16:50
then I would also say so much of the important work that we're doing that really ties back to the core mission of
16:56
the museum around educating worldwide audiences of the evolution of the Corvette. Well, that education can begin
17:02
here at the National Corvette Museum with our Mcichael Education Gallery. You know, that was new, opened in April of
17:08
2023, has been so successful for us, not only for guests coming through the museum. It has something for all ages,
17:15
whether you're a kid or not, but it does such an incredible job of really inspiring the next generation, not only
17:21
of Corvette enthusiasts, but automotive enthusiasts, automotive designers. It
17:27
could be the next generation of Bowling Green assembly plant staff. Yeah. Because there is so many things in there
17:32
for younger generations to really kind of wrap their head around. Whether it be designing what their vision of a new
17:37
Corvette could be to learning about 3D modeling and prototyping all the way down to being able to feel and touch the
17:44
different services that would be in a new C8 Corvette. Everything from a brake pedal to a leather interior seat. So
17:50
when we look at acquiring that new and younger generation of Corvette enthusiasts, I look to social and
17:56
digital, but then I look to what we're doing with our education team and specifically that Mcichael education gallery. You can see it on the smiles of
18:02
the kids' faces as they're walking out. You know that that's somebody that maybe had not thought about either a career in
18:08
automotive design or technology or even what the future of Corvette could look like and maybe that's a flying Corvette.
18:14
Some of the designs that we see are just absolutely out of this world. So, it's elements like that that really excite us
18:20
and give us more fuel to keep pushing that mission forward, but knowing how closely that mission ties with our road
18:25
to 2028 5-year plan. That's cool. And it all aligns with the Corvette brand, which is awesome.
18:31
Absolutely. And we know we've seen specifically with C8 really Chevrolet and Corvette being very pointed in
18:38
reaching out and trying to bring in new audiences to realize this is not only America's sports car, this is America's
18:45
supercar. So when I see some of the work that they're doing with YouTube and Instagram influencers to have younger
18:51
audiences take a look at the C8 a little differently, that's amazing and dovetales so nicely in what we're trying
18:57
to do. So our work starts to complement what the Corvette brand is doing to reach new younger audiences. And then
19:02
let's not forget too, you know, the the museum itself, not only do we have this 5-year strategic plan, but we do have a
19:08
variety of core values. And one of those values is advancing and strengthening the symbiotic relationship with General
19:14
Motors. not only the Bowling Green assembly plant across the street here, but really that Corvette brand overall
19:20
as we look to see them kind of skew younger and younger as well, just to appeal to more people, right? It is an
19:26
amazing car. Every generation is, but you know, really kind of waking up folks to understand that, you know, the C8
19:32
that could be a daily driver for you if you're young and you want the look, you want the power, you want the performance. Well, if the car is the
19:38
entry, then we need people to also to realize that the Corvette Museum and the 71 years of Corvette history that's here
19:44
is your way to get more context on that car that you just made a purchase of. So, it really does work handinhand with
19:50
Corvette and Chevrolet as well. Absolutely. Now, this is a great plan bringing new people in and infusing new
19:56
blood into the Corvette brand. How do you balance that with the other audiences? Another really, really fun place for us.
20:03
Again, could be daunting. We look at it as fun and we really look at it every day as a challenge because I've talked a
20:09
lot about the acquisition of new and younger generation of Corvette enthusiasts. But I realize we have 71
20:14
years of history. The National Corvette Museum has 30 years of history. It is our members, past guests, and
20:21
stakeholders that have got us to this point. So in no way are we trying to only look forward, right? We need to
20:27
make sure that anything that we do, we land on an exhibit, a communications plan, a marketing plan that's really
20:33
going to reach so many different audiences and demographics. I was talking to one of my key leadership team
20:39
colleagues here, Mandy Thomas, who oversees business operations and human resources. And she reminded me that this
20:44
is the first time in history that you will have six generations working under the same roof. That's national labor
20:51
data, right? So, you have six generations that could be working at the museum. Well, at the same time, I'm communicating to our staff here, and
20:57
that's crossing six generations. The same goes for any potential guest coming through the door, right? We know it's
21:03
that broad of an aperture. So, that's why you'll see this continued focus on social and digital as we try to reach
21:08
that younger generation, but at the same time, we're not walking away from some of those triedand-true kind of
21:14
storytelling vehicles that we have. And that's everything from making sure that our exhibits are always going to tell
21:19
that incredible story on Corvette, but at the same time making sure that things like America Sports Car, you know, our
21:25
quarterly magazine that we produce for all of our members, making sure that that continues to stay fresh with
21:31
content, telling different stories because we know that that reaches a little different audience. So, there's a little bit of this all sprinkled
21:37
throughout, but it's a fun fun challenge for us. Never want to get to a place where we feel like we're alienating one
21:42
group or another. We're always going to be communicating the same thing, same mission centric. It's just that
21:47
communication may look different for somebody who's been a member of the museum for 30 years versus somebody that
21:53
is potentially getting interested in joining the Corvette community through a C4 or something like that.
21:58
That's really cool. That's amazing. Six generations. Wow. Six generations working under the same
22:04
roof. Again, first time in really modern history. But at the same time, you know, you need to look at that as your audiences as well.
22:10
at any point could have six generations walking through the door as a guest. So, making sure that we communicate and
22:16
having everybody understand that we're all tied together for this passion and love for the car and all are welcome.
22:22
Whether you are a hardcore Corvette fan or somebody that is into the manufacturing process of cold rolled
22:29
aluminum, you know, yeah, we have something for everybody. That's pretty darn incredible, buddy. Well, let's take our final break and
22:36
when we come back, Ryan, we'll talk a little bit more about the 5-year plan for the National Corvette Museum. I've
22:41
got Ryan Ikler, the director marketing for the MCM here on Corvette Today.
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is my buddy Ryan Ikller. Ryan is the director of marketing for the National
25:50
Corvette Museum. We are talking about the five-year plan looking forward for the museum. Buddy, you mentioned the AAM
25:57
certification. That kind of fascinates me. Tell me a little bit more about that. Yeah, so AM again the American Alliance
26:04
of Museums. So the AM is really a professional organization that represents museum and museum
26:09
professionals in the US. It provides services and resources to support museums in their mission to educate,
26:16
engage, and inspire the public. There's right around 33,000 museums in the
26:21
United States. Wow. And only 3,000 of them are AAM accredited. And then when you start to
26:27
boil it down even more, current accredited museums in Kentucky, it's seven. It includes the University of
26:33
Kentucky Art Museum and the Speed Art Museum. And then when you boil it down even farther to AAM accredited car museums,
26:40
it is the Henry Ford, the Auburn Corps, Duesenberg Museum, and the Studebaker National Museum. Nice. It is very rarified air for an
26:48
automotive museum to be accredited with the American Alliance of Museums, but it comes with so many benefits. Not only is
26:55
it really a prestigious mark of excellence within the museum field, it really is a proof point that an
27:00
accredited museum is committed to those highest professional standards, ethical practices, and ongoing improvement of
27:06
its operations and services. Now, once you reach that accreditation, where it benefits the National Corvette Museum
27:12
and ultimately all of our guests and our members is it helps our reputation, it helps secure funding not only from
27:19
donors but also from grants and then also helps build trust with communities and stakeholders. A simple example here,
27:26
I was speaking with Robert Maximer, our director of curatorial affairs, who I know was just recently on the show.
27:31
Yes. Once you reach that AAM certification, let's say a situation where you're going to open up a new
27:36
exhibit and we wanted to pull in a display or something from the Smithsonian. When you reach out to a fellow accredited museum, it's a lot
27:44
easier to get from point A to point B because they understand if they're going to be loaning you an artifact, a car, a
27:50
small artifact, they realize that you're following and adhering to those AAM principles and that means that we're
27:57
going to be protecting that item just like we protect our collection. So that's temperature controls, the proper
28:03
security around it, whether it be in storage or on display. So it really does open up a whole new world of
28:10
collaboration with other AM accredited museums and really puts you on this high plateau that just commands more
28:16
reputation and respect within the museum industry and again opens up the doors for so many more things.
28:22
I can see why that's so important. So how's progress coming on that accreditation? Progress on accreditation is ongoing.
28:28
One area that we continue to work hard on is understanding and documenting
28:34
everything in our collection. You know, of course, 30 years of history here at the museum. So, making sure that we're
28:40
fully up to date and that basically every item that we have, every artifact that we have in the collection, we have
28:46
an understanding of its relevance to Corvette history and all of the pieces that go along with it. So, that
28:51
ultimately will be the heaviest lift for us is just making sure that we have an understanding of all of the items in the
28:57
collection. And then from there, for anybody that visits the museum, you'll see increased access points. So, we have
29:03
a new security system that basically tracks everyone that is moving through every single door. Wow.
29:09
We all have transponders and that's how you get into various elements of the museum. So, it's really access control
29:15
to make sure that people are in and around the cars and the collection who need to be. So, a lot of those
29:20
enhancements are in place. It is a work in progress as we work to get that accreditation. Yeah. Boy, that's a huge undertaking. I
29:27
can see why that's so important. Yeah, it goes all the way down to proving financial stability with
29:32
facilities and risk management, further collection stewardship, leadership and organizational structure. They're even
29:39
looking at that for accreditation. And again, which is why you see that only about 10% of US museums have that
29:45
accreditation because it is quite a process. But again, one that is absolutely worth it. And I would think
29:50
for myself and I think for you and for all of us that are in this Corvette and National Corvette Museum world, it's all
29:56
about the car and the stories of the car. So by us going through this accreditation process, we're ultimately
30:02
giving the most respect possible to the Corvette, the brand itself. So I think,
30:08
you know, everyone can kind of clearly see why there's a need to do this and the opportunities that it opens up for
30:13
us. Yeah, it really puts the collection front and center and you can see that in the exhibits, too. Thank you for
30:19
bringing that up. Yeah, it's interesting. It's a little bit of a flip of what you would expect. I think for your listeners that hadn't been
30:24
through the museum in say the last 5 years and have been through this year, you almost see a less is more approach.
30:30
Being much more purposeful about the cars that are on display and giving them some room to breathe so the car becomes
30:37
the star. Nice. And also rotating cars out. you know, any of the cars in our collection from
30:43
time to time, you know, you want to rotate them out from display because even when it's out from display, you
30:48
know, we have light meters, we're checking the light. Certainly, some of the interiors of the Corvettes can be a little delicate. So, that's a reason why
30:54
you want to cycle it out of being on exhibit or display so you can protect it from those elements. Even if it's behind
31:01
stansions, there's still other atmospheric things that could potentially affect the condition of that car. So, you want to always make sure
31:06
that you're rotating it. Again, you may see different cars on a more regular basis being rotated out because we don't
31:12
want a Corvette to be sitting out on display for 2 years because of the potential effect that that could have on
31:18
the vehicle itself. Yeah. And it's a good thing because when you go to the museum, you want to see something different every time you enter
31:24
the building. And that is exactly what you're talking about. That's the other win. So, the collection and the Corvettes are winning because
31:30
we're rotating those out. But yes, absolutely. our guests, our members are winning because you're seeing something new and something fresh really within
31:37
our schedule that we really work hard to get to is about every six months to be rolling out something new from an exhibit perspective.
31:43
That makes sense. All right, buddy. So, give me a little preview. What's coming up on the horizon for the National Corvette Museum?
31:49
Oh, very, very exciting. And this is something that I think is going to be thrilling for everybody. You know, last
31:54
year we celebrated 70 years of Corvette with an American love affair was the name of the exhibit. We're continuing
32:00
that, but with a little bit of a fun pop culture twist to it. So, opening on October 18th is going to be pop culture
32:07
and Corvette and American Love Affairs. We're going to lean even further into Corvette's connection to music, movies,
32:14
celebrities, entertainment. This is going to include everything from some of those very famous astronaut Corvettes.
32:21
Nice. All the way down to some of the Corvettes that were used in the Transformers. It'll take up primary
32:27
residence in the Sky Dome with a complete new exhibit that again connects Corvettes and pop culture like you've
32:32
never seen before. We really began this transition with our museum gateway. So when you first enter into the museum
32:39
right now, you're greeted by this incredible collection of previous generation ZR1s. We felt like the
32:44
cultural zeitgeist was so high around the reveal of this new ZR1. Oh, yeah. That it was a great way for us to jump
32:50
start and bring in some of the other ZR1s that we have on loan and in the collection to really begin that story around pop culture in the gateway and
32:57
then continue it almost really all the way through the museum with the peak being in the sky dome. Of course, now we
33:02
have the skywall, that 9 and 1/2 ft tall, 300 ft video wall that surrounds the room. Oh yeah. So, of course, when
33:08
you think of Prince singing about Little Red Corvette, you got to have that playing in the backdrop.
33:14
Absolutely. We'll be pulling in some really, really fun clips of Corvettes throughout TV and
33:19
movies throughout those seven decades and featuring that behind some of the cars that become the stars.
33:24
Buddy, that's a great way to do it. The wall is fantastic. But just sitting here talking to you today, I'm excited about
33:30
the 5-year plan. This is awesome. Thank you, Steve, again for your time here, but all of your support for the National
33:37
Corvette Museum and really everything around the Corvette community. It's important for us to keep looking forward
33:43
to make sure that we give ourselves again that runway to have exhibits like a pop culture and Corvette exhibit that
33:50
is well thought out, tells a great story. And to do that, it all needs to tie back to that road to 2028 and that
33:56
5-year strategic plan. That's awesome, buddy. Thank you so much for taking the time to be back on Corvette today. You come on anytime you
34:03
want with some good news about the National Corvette Museum. Love it. And we will. Thank you, Steve. Thanks again for listening and watching
34:09
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