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What Is The NCM's 5 Year Plan? | National Corvette Museum | CORVETTE TODAY #234
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May 9, 2025
Hi! We're excited to have you here for an insightful discussion on what is the NCM's 5 year plan and the National Corvette Museum, featured on Corvette Today. This video covers what is the NCM's 5 year plan and discusses the following subjects: - NCM plans to increase its social media presence - How will NCM attract young Corvette enthusiasts? - How the NCM plans to obtain accreditation ******************* 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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[Music] welcome to Corvette today the show that
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around the world you know so many times you hear people in business say have you got a Five-Year Plan well at the
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National Corvette Museum they get that same question here back on Corvette today to talk about that 5-year plan for
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the National Corvette Museum and take a look at the future is the director of marketing for the NCM Ryan Iker Ryan
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welcome back to Corvette today buddy thanks Steve thanks for having me on again an absolutely exciting topic as we
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think ahead absolutely right I'm looking forward to this because I want to know what's coming down the pike in 5 years
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for the museum first off Ryan talk to me about how the museum is thinking about the future well the future for us is so
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important several years back the board gathered with the key leadership team here at the National Corvette Muse Museum and mapped out our road to 2028
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now this is a 5-year strategic plan that encompasses several different elements of the museum but really gives us that
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road map to get to 2028 and hit the marks that we need to make sure that we're delivering everything from a
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existing guest and member standpoint but also growing the museum much like Chevrolet is doing with the popularity
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of the ca Corvette gotcha now walk me through the 2028 strategic plan then
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yeah absolutely so it really is houss around six key pillars the first one is the advancement of the American Alliance
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of museums accreditation you've probably heard us mention this before and in shortening this is aam accreditation and
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really this allows us to be on the same playing field as other museums like the
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Henry Ford the Auburn cor duening Museum or the stud Baker Museum those are actually the only a accredited car
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museums in the US so that's pillar number one the second is becoming a cherished Community Asset we know how
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important Corvette and the National Corvette Museum is to Bowling Green in the surrounding area so how do we make
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sure that we really push that forward and work with the community to let them know that the National Corvette Museum
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we're a big part of the success of this part of Kentucky yeah the next one would be continued growth of diverse earned
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and contributed revenue streams certainly want to make sure that we have a financially healthy Museum so that we
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can continue to push forward with that really important mission that we have and really put education around the
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Corvette front and center and you can't do that without growth of diverse ear earned and contributed revenue streams
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the next one the one that excites me the most is acquisition of new and younger generation of Corvette enthusiasts you
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know to Future proof the museum we need to make sure that we're bringing in new automotive and Corvette fans telling
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them the history of the Corvette but telling them it on their terms the fifth point is intentional collections growth
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making sure that we have a kind of dream list of Corvettes to round out the collection and thinking about what
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future exhibits could look like to make 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
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that have been to the National Corvette Museum it's Master campus growth right we know that this space and the museum
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itself really sits on this Collective Corvette campus and how do we make sure that we grow that campus to not only
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protect us from what could be other businesses that may want to try to take advantage of where the museum is but
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also making sure that we're future proofing and thinking ahead to any potential larger grounds for more events
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or something like that so those are really those six pillars for this 5year strategic plan for growth that's really
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cool and it sounds really really good the accreditation thing I get it totally how do you develop a plan like that well
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the accreditation from the American Alliance of museums well it is not the easiest for us to accomplish because it
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requires so much and and when I say so much this is everything around making sure that we've outlined and have the
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highest Professional Standards within the museum ethical practices ongoing Improvement in operations and services
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but even all the way to the point of how we're maintaining the collection so AMA accreditation ends up being a little bit
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of a checklist that you go through that Auditors come in and kind of map against your progress there so well it is
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probably the largest task for us it is one that has some very clear kpis that we need to meet yeah and that's
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something that's in progress for us even as I speak today how do you measure a plan like that when you put it together
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well there's a variety of kpis so key performance indicators okay that we have put against each of these pillars now
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some are going to be a little bit more defined than others when you think of becoming a cherish 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 metric-based one when you look at acquisition of newer younger generation of Corvette Enthusiast that's
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going to be a longer tale that's going to be a longer plan for us because I'm able to measure that and that's one that I get really excited when we think about
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what we're doing from a digital and a social media perspective but then I have to go and compare that with actual gate
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Admissions and who we're seeing coming through the museum so again there's a fair amount of metrics and data that
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comes into this as we kind of set the kpis some of them are a little bit more clear like we have with the American
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Alliance and Museum accreditation others become more set by us in terms of you
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know even when you think about continued Master campus growth we certainly have a set footprint right now but what does it
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look like as that continues to expand and grow and there's other things that determine that right other businesses
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around us what they're doing where the opportunity lies man buddy that sounds really aggressive
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I like the plan if anybody can pull it off it's you leading the charge we hope
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we hope we hope but you know again it's just so important to think ahead we're working with Corvettes they're moving
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fast the pace is quick and sometimes with that quick Pace it can be easy to not pause and think about what
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something's going to look like in two years four years five years So the plan is so helpful for us too because it
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allows us to really be kind of a litmus test for anything we're doing in the museum or any decision that we're making
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is it tying back to this fiveyear plan for strategic growth very cool I like it buddy let's take our first break when we
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come back we'll talk more about the five-year plan for the National Corvette Museum with Ryan Iker the director of
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docomo Steve Garrett with me is my buddy Ryan Iker the director of marketing for the National Corvette Museum we are
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talking about The Five-Year Plan looking out to 2028 Ryan let's talk more about one of the Strategic pillars growing the
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younger audience because I think that's really really important how do you do that as the National Corvette Museum yes
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Steve so certainly one area that really excites me and that's that acquisition of new and younger generation of
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Corvette enthusiasts it excites me for a couple reasons number one well this is quite a daunting task for any brand or
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organization in 2024 when you have the power of Corvette behind you it can be a
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little easier and I look right now at a lot of the work that we're doing on our digital and social channels I encourage
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all your listeners make sure you're following the National Corvette Museum on X Tik Tock YouTube Facebook and
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Instagram as well as LinkedIn so we are active on all those channels we've identified a very robust content
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strategy that probably no surprise to your listeners it puts the Corvette first people want to see the Corvettes
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they want to learn the stories of Corvette whether you're indoctrinated into the Corvette World or not so that
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content plan and making sure that we're really making the car the star and what we're doing at the Museum the star has
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resulted in a 5% audience growth across all those channels every month nearly
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for the last year so we're starting to get to a point with a lot of our social channels where we're getting large
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enough that we're starting to actually reach new people we had a very simple example here we did a quick Instagram
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reel reels are extremely popular right now you know this is short form video content disappears fairly quickly from
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Instagram we did one that highlighted all of the Corvette logos it was emblems of all the Corvettes in the collection
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all the various Generations this was really one of the first viral pieces of content that the museum created as I
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looked at the data we reached 130,000 people on Instagram that did not follow the museum wow that's through the
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use of tags and tagging so you're reaching other people that like cars that are automotive enthusiasts but just
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knowing the audience on Instagram that is a younger audience that's that next generation of Corvette fans so creating
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that content that reaches those fans that aren't our followers it brings them into follow our channels but it exposes them to the National Corvette Museum and
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hopefully gets them to think hey you know what this is a place that I either need to visit or I want to get more involved with or maybe become a member
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of so that really excites me and then you know again we have the power of Corvette we have the history 71 years of
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Corvette so there is so much storytelling to do that again it gives us such a great Runway ahead of us to be
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able to continue to grow those audiences and really acquire those new and younger generation of Corvette enthusiasts
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fantastic and the hashtag for the NCM is Corvette Museum I use the hashtag for
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all of our social media for Corvette today just go to Hash Corvette Museum you can see everything there as well
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that's a beautiful aggregator you got it absolutely yes sir also let's talk about some of these examples that are already
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in place Ryan yeah so again social and digital and then I would also say so much of the important work that we're
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doing that really ties back to the core mission of the museum around educating worldwide audience of the evolution of
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the Corvette well that education can begin here at the National Corvette Museum with our McMichael education
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Gallery you know that was new opened in April of 2023 has been so successful for
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us not only for guests coming through the museum it has something for all ages whether you're a kid or not but it does
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such an incredible job of really inspiring the Next Generation not only of Corvette enthusiasts but Automotive
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enthusiasts Automotive designers it could be the next generation of Bowling Green assembly plan staff yeah because
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there is so many things in there for younger generations to really kind of wrap their head around whether it be
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designing what their vision of a new Corvette could be to learning about 3D modeling and prototyping all the way
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down to being able to feel and touch the different services that would be in a new ca Corvette everything from a brake
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pedal to a leather interior seat so when we look at acquiring that new and
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younger generation of Corvette enthusiasts I looked at Social and digital but then I looked at what we're doing with our education team and
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specifically that MCM education Gallery you can see it on the smiles of the kids faces as they're walking out you know
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that that's somebody that maybe had not thought about either a career in automotive design or technology or even
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what the future of Corvette could look like and maybe that's a flying Corvette some of the designs that we see are just
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absolutely out of this world so it's elements like that that really excite us and give us more fuel to keep pushing
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that mission forward but knowing how closely that mission ties with our road to 2028 5year plan that's cool and and
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all aligns with the Corvette brand which is awesome absolutely and we know we've seen specifically with C8 really
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Chevrolet and Corvette being very pointed in reaching out and trying to bring in new audiences to realize this
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is not only America sports car this is America Supercar so when I see some of the work that they're doing with YouTube
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and Instagram influencers to have younger audiences take a look at the C8 a little differently that's amazing and
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dovetails so nicely in what we're trying to do so our work starts to compliment what the Corvette brand is doing to
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reach new younger audiences and then let's not forget too you know the the museum itself not only do we have this
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5year strategic plan but we do have a variety of core values and one of those values is advancing and strengthening
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the symbiotic relationship with General Motors not only the Bowling Green assembly plant across the street here
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but really that Corvette brand overall is we look to see them kind of skew younger and younger as well just to
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appeal to more people right it is an amazing car every generation is but you know really kind of waking up folks to
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understand that you know the C8 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
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well if the car is the entry then we need people to also to realize that the Corvette Museum and the 71 years of
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Corvette history that's here is your way to get more context on that car that you just made a purchase of so it really
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does work hand inand with Corvette and Chevrolet as well absolutely now this is a great plan bringing new people in and
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infusing new blood into the Corvette brand how do balance that with the other audiences another really really fun
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place for us again could be daunting we look at as fun and we really look at it every day as a challenge because I've
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talked a lot about the acquisition of new and younger generation of Corvette enthusiasts but I realize we have 71
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years of History the National Corvette Museum has 30 years of History it is our
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members past guests and stakeholders that have got us to this point so in no way are we trying to only look forward
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right we need to make sure that anything we do we land on an exhibit a Communications plan a marketing plant
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that's really going to reach so many different audiences and demographics I was talking to one of my key leadership
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team colleagues here Mandy Thomas who oversees business operations and human resources and she reminded me that this
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is the first time in history that you will have six Generations working under
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the same roof that's National Labor data right so you have six Generations that could be working at the Museum well at
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the same time I'm communicating to our staff here and that's Crossing six Generations the same goes for any
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potential guest coming through the door right we know it's that broad of an aperture so that's why you'll see this
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continued focus on social and digital as we try to reach that younger generation but at the same time we're not walking
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away from some of those tried andrue kind of Storytelling vehicles that we have and that's everything from making
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sure that our exhibits are always going to tell that incredible story on Corvette but at the same time making
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sure that things like America sports car you know our quarterly magazine that we produce for all of our members y making
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sure that that continues to stay fresh with content telling different stories because we know that that reaches a
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little different audience so there's a little bit of this all sprinkled throughout but it's a fun fun challenge for us never want to get to a place
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where we feel like we're alienating one group or another we're always going to be communicating the same thing saying Mission Centric it's just that
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communication may look different for somebody who's been a member of the museum for 30 years versus somebody that
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is potentially getting interested in joining the Corvette Community through a C4 or something like that that's really
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cool that's amazing six Generations wow six Generations working under the same roof again first time in really modern
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history but at the same time you know you need to look at that as your audiences as well so we at any point could have people from six Generations
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walking through the door as a guest so making sure that we communicate and having everybody understand that we're all tied together for this passion and
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love for the car and all are welcome whether you are a hardcore Corvette fan
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or somebody that is into the manufacturing process of C rolled aluminum you know yeah we have something
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for everybody that's pretty darn incredible buddy well let's take our final break and when we come back Ryan
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we'll talk a little bit more about the 5-year plan for the National Corvette Museum I've got Ryan Iker the director
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docomo Steve Garrett with me is my buddy Ryan Iker Ryan is the director of marketing for the National Corvette
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Museum we are talking about the 5-year plan looking forward for the museum buddy you mentioned the aam
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certification that kind of fascinates me tell me a little bit more about that yeah so am again the American Alliance
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of museums so the a is really a professional organization that represents Museum and Museum
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Professionals in the US it provides services and resources to support museums and their mission to educate
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engage and Inspire the public there's right around 33,000 museums in the
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United States wow and only 3,000 of them are am accredited and then when you
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start to boil it down even more current accredited museums in Kentucky it's seven it includes the University of
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Kentucky Art Museum and the speed art museum and then when you boil it down even farther to am accredited car
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museums it is the Henry Ford the Auburn core dusenberg Museum and the stud Baker National Museum nice it is very rarified
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air for an Automotive Museum to be accredited with the American Alliance of museums but it comes with so many
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benefits not only is it really a prestigious Mark of Excellence within the museum field it really is a proof
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point that an accredited museum is committed to those highest Professional Standards ethical practices and ongoing
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Improvement of his operations and services now once you reach that accreditation where it benefits the
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National Corvette Museum and ultimately all of our guests and our members is it helps our reputation it helps secure
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funding not only from donors but also from Grants and then also helps build trust with communities and stakeholders
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a simple example here I was speaking with Robert maxheimer our director of territorial Affairs who I know was just
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recently on the show yes once you reach that aam certification let's say a
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situation where you're going to open up a new exhibit and we wanted to pull in a display or something from the Smithsonian when you reach out to a
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fellow accredited Museum it's a lot easier to get from point A to point B
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because they understand if they're going to be loaning you an artifact a car a small artifact they realize that you're
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following and adhering to those a principles and that means that we're going to be protecting that item just
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like we protect our collection so that's temperature controls the proper security around it whether it be in storage or on
28:06
display so it really does open up a whole new world of collaboration with other am accredited museums and really
28:13
puts you on this High Plateau that just commands more reputation and respect within the Museum Industry I mean again
28:20
opens up the doors for so many more things I can see why that's so important so how's progress coming on that
28:25
accreditation progress on accreditation is on ongoing one area that we continue
28:30
to work hard on is understanding and documenting everything in our collection
28:36
you know of course 30 years of History here at the Museum so making sure that we're fully up to date and that
28:41
basically every item that we have every artifact that we have in the collection we have an understanding of its
28:47
relevance to Corvette history yeah and all of the pieces that go along with it so that ultimately will be the heaviest
28:53
lift for us is just making sure that we have an understanding of all of the items in the collection and then from
28:58
there for anybody that visits the museum you'll see increased access points so we have a new security system that
29:05
basically tracks everyone that is moving through every single door wow we all have transponders and that's how you get
29:11
into various elements of the museum so it's really Access Control to make sure that people are in and around the cars
29:17
in the collection who need to be so a lot of those enhancements are in place it is a work in progress as we work to
29:23
get that accreditation yeah boy that's a huge undertaking I can see why that's so important
29:28
yeah it goes all the way down to proving Financial stability with facilities and risk management further collection
29:35
stewardship leadership and organizational structure they're even looking at that for accreditation and
29:41
again which is why you see that only about 10% of us museums have that accreditation because it is quite a
29:46
process but again one that is absolutely worth it and I would think for myself and I think for you and for all of us
29:52
that are in this Corvette and National Corvette Museum world it's all about the car and the stories of the car so by us
30:00
going through this accreditation process we're ultimately giving the most respect possible to the Corvette the brand
30:07
itself so I think you know everyone can kind of clearly see why there's a need to do this and the opportunities that it
30:12
opens up for us yeah it really puts the collection front and center and you can see that in the exhibits too thank you
30:18
for bringing that up yeah it's interesting it's a little bit of a flip of what you would expect I think your listeners that hadn't been through the
30:24
museum in say the last five years and have been through this year you almost see a less is more approach being much
30:31
more purposeful about the cars that are on display and giving them some room to breathe so the car becomes the star nice
30:38
and also rotating cars out you know any of the cars in our collection from time to time you know you want to rotate them
30:45
out from display because even when it's out from display you know we have light meters we're checking the light
30:50
certainly some of the Interiors of the Corvettes can be a little delicate so that's a reason why you want to cycle it
30:55
out of being on exhibitor display so you can protect it from those elements even if it's behind stanions there's still
31:02
other atmospheric things that could potentially affect the condition of that car so you want to always make sure that you're rotating it again you may see
31:08
different cars on a more regular basis being rotated out because we don't want a Corvette to be sit it out on display
31:14
for two years because of the potential effect that that could have on the vehicle itself yeah and it's a good
31:20
thing because when you go to the museum you want to see something different every time you enter the building and
31:25
that is exactly what you're talking about that's the other win so the collection and the Corvettes are winning because we're rotating those out but yes
31:32
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 that makes sense all
31:44
right buddy so give me a little preview what's coming up on the horizon for the National Corvette Museum oh very very
31:50
exciting and this is something that I think is going to be thrilling for everybody you know last year we celebrated 70 years of Corvette with an
31:56
American love affair was the name of the exhibit we're continuing that but with a little bit of a fun pop culture twist to
32:03
it so opening on October 18th is going to be pop culture in Corvette and American love affairs we're going to
32:09
lean even further into Corvette's connection to music movies celebrities
32:15
entertainment this is going to include everything from some of those very famous astronaut Corvettes nice all the
32:21
way down to some of the Corvettes that were used in the Transformers it'll take up primary residents in the Skydome with
32:28
a complete new exhibit that again connects Corvettes and pop culture like you've never seen before we really began
32:35
this transition with our Museum Gateway so when you first enter into the museum right now you're greeted by this
32:40
incredible collection of previous generation zr1's we felt like the cultural Zeitgeist was so high around
32:47
the reveal of this new ZR1 that it was a great way for us to jump start and bring in some of the other ZR ones that we
32:52
have un loaning in the collection to really begin that story around pop culture in the Gateway and then continue
32:58
it almost really all the way through the museum with the peak being in the Sky Dome of course now we have the skywall
33:03
that 9 and 1/2t Tall 300t video wall that surrounds the room oh yeah so of course when you think of Prince singing
33:10
about Little Red Corvette you got to have that playing in the backdrop absolutely we'll be pulling in some
33:15
really really fun clips of Corvettes throughout TV and movies throughout those seven decades and featuring that
33:22
behind some of the Cs that become the Stars buddy that's a great way to do it the wall is fantastic but just sitting
33:28
here talking to you today I'm excited about the 5-year plan this is awesome thank you Steve again for your time here
33:35
all of your support for the National 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 fiveyear
33:56
strategic plan that's awesome buddy thank you so much for taking the time to be back on Corvette today you come on
34:02
anytime you want with some good news about the National Corvette Museum love it and we will thank you Steve thanks
34:08
again for listening and watching Corvette today and be sure to tell your family friends and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today's
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