This succinct ad rolled out in 1969 and in the almost fifty years since, it has become one of the most iconic marketing campaigns of all time with numerous awards, museum inclusions, and hall of fame inductions. It has given Virginia a concrete identity that will far outlive its inventive creators and has helped spark many aspects of the state economy by concisely advertising what we have in store for potential tourists. This year, Virginia Tourism wants to take that slogan just a bit further, with a focus on a specific lover they believe Virginia is truly for: Music Lovers.
“Virginia Is For Lovers.”
This succinct ad rolled out in 1969 and in the almost fifty years since, it has become one of the most iconic marketing campaigns of all time with numerous awards, museum inclusions, and hall of fame inductions. It has given Virginia a concrete identity that will far outlive its inventive creators and has helped spark many aspects of the state economy by concisely advertising what we have in store for potential tourists. This year, Virginia Tourism wants to take that slogan just a bit further, with a focus on a specific lover they believe Virginia is truly for: Music Lovers.
This article was featured in RVAMag #26: Fall 2016. You can read all of issue #26 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now.
For people who live for concerts and new music, a focus on the music of our state is the definition of a great idea, even though it might be the most daunting thing Virginia Tourism has ever attempted. Think about it. How do you even begin to scratch the surface of Virginia music? Let’s ignore the fact that Virginia is well-known for its diverse styles, from the punk music of Central Virginia to the hip-hop hub that covers the Hampton Roads area to the sweet Americana still coming out of the rural Southwest; how would one team cover the sheer volume of musicians Old Dominion has to offer? On top of that, think about how quickly that number of musicians grows and changes with new artists moving in and new bands forming every day. Seriously, where do you even start with music in Virginia? Well, Virginia Tourism figured it out: You start with one of the biggest musical cheerleaders you’ll ever find, a man by the name of Andrew Cothern.
Cothern made his name in town as the founder and editor of RVA Playlist, a local blog that tirelessly documented Richmond’s growing scene with equal time dedicated to bands and artists of all shapes and sizes. If there was a show in town, chances are Cothern not only wrote about it, but guilted a few dozen people into going and attended it himself. His work earned the attention of various publications around the country who hailed his blog as a “must-read” guide for any music fan visiting Richmond, and also made him something of a minor celebrity in town. Beloved and respected for his dedication and candor, it was a sad day in the local scene when Cothern decided to close the blog earlier this year leaving a hole that still hasn’t been filled. But Cothern wasn’t hanging up his music boots at all — he was only taking his local support to the next level over at Virginia Tourism.
“When I first came into Virginia Tourism, I was known as the music guy. Shocker, right?” jokes Cothern, who first joined the company back in 2014. Now holding the title of Communications Manager, he admits his first thoughts upon joining were how to expand their musical coverage to include all Virginia had to offer, Richmond included. “One of my goals off the bat was to focus on current music more, especially festivals and venues,” he explains. “When you think of music in Virginia, it’s mostly Americana and bluegrass and I covered that a lot at first. When I came on, the biggest push at the time was for the Crooked Road in the Southwest along with the opening of the new country music museum and the Orthophonic Joy project they helped launch. It was great and that sound is still doing well down there, but there’s a lot of other great things happening in Virginia too. I just really wanted to focus on contemporary bands and styles and show that it’s just as notable.”
Cothern wouldn’t have to wait long to begin working on this goal. In early 2016, Virginia Tourism created a new campaign focusing on music of all sorts within Virginia and tasked Cothern with overseeing it, alongside Emily Wyman, the Locations Manager for the Virginia Film Office. “We had this big staff meeting at the beginning of the year,” Cothern remembers, “and Chris Canfield [Vice President, Partnership Marketing] gave Emily and I this project to make whatever we could out of it.” Though part of a separate department, Wyman and Cothern were well-acquainted by this point. “Film and tourism are just so intertwined,” he explains. “We’re not just isolated in cubicles and it was well-known that me and Emily were the two big music people there.” Much like Cothern, Wyman had been labelled as the “music person” in the film department when first arriving. “I guess I was the token indie girl,” she laughs. “I mean, I had done college radio before and I love the Harrisonburg music scene probably as much as Andrew loves the Richmond scene. Everyone in charge there really wants people to be able to pursue their passion, so Chris Canfield made the natural call to put us together on this project.”
The two went to work on establishing the campaign, one that quickly became a high priority for Virginia Tourism. By March, they had a team of ten under them and a marketing plan in place, one that focused on partnering with festivals and venues in state in order to offer them the support they need, and give the campaign the awareness it needed in the beginning stages. It seemed concrete enough, though the two admit it was hard to finalize. “Obviously you want to promote all these bands you love,” reasons Wyman, “but you really can’t play favorites with artists. There’s also this very fine line you need to walk because we could quickly become band promoters which would not be beneficial to our goals at all.” But that doesn’t rule out the possibility of working with a Virginia musician in getting the word out. Soon after the campaign planning began, they reached out to Lucy Dacus to become an unofficial ambassador for Virginia Tourism. “It just made sense to partner with her,” Cothern explains. “Her momentum was only growing and she ended up going on all of these interviews wearing a Virginia Is For Lovers shirt or drinking out of the coffee mug while talking about how great Richmond’s music scene is. It was a perfect fit even though working with specific artists wasn’t a priority of ours.”
Though focusing on artists isn’t the goal for this campaign, it’s definitely not off the table. “For some of the bigger names out of Virginia, we’d love to work with them,” states Wyman. “Unfortunately, there is just a lot of red tape to deal with when talking to bands of a higher status and it’s just not something we have the means for right now, especially for what we outlined in partnering with festivals and venues.” The first attempt at partnering came in early May when Virginia Is For Music Lovers had its launch party at The Broadberry, where a crowd cheered virtually every aspect of the new campaign from the branded trucker hats to the logo painted on a beam right near the entrance to the venue. “Working with The Broadberry was great,” Cothern highlights. “The local partners we’ve made in the state have been incredible and it all started with Lucas [Fritz, Broadberry co-owner] who really bent over backwards for us and helped us get off on the right foot.”
With performances by Richmond bands No BS! and Avers, and Galax country musician Dori Freeman, the launch party allowed Virginia Tourism to give an audience a good sampler of the talent in Virginia, and the diversity it contains. “It was really nice to have No BS! and Avers play, but it was also really important to have Dori Freeman there,” Cothern states. “Virginia is well-known for that style and the region she comes from, but it’s really nice to have a fresh new artist to remind you that it still has this bright future like anything else in town. It was just great to be able to show how hip-hop, rock, and country all had this equal place within our state at the party.” Wyman confirms this focus, adding that these local partnerships help them showcase just that. “We want to be able to show the diversity of Virginia’s music scene,” she comments. “Covering music more genre by genre is going to be great for this town and the venues are the perfect place for that since a lot of them have so many different acts come through the doors. Go into The Broadberry now and you can see our logo. Bands and fans are going to see that. They’re going to get curious. They’re going to look into it and hopefully spread the word about the music here.”
In addition to The Broadberry, Virginia Is For Music Lovers has stopped by to support festivals like Harrisonburg’s MACRoCk and Richmond’s Mozart Festival, and even found great success this past August at Lock’n in Arrington, an event with big name recognition that helped the campaign double-down on music fans. “They were putting things up that told people what they could do in the area before or after the festival,” boasts Cothern. “It was a huge deal. They bring so many people in from out of state so it was great to have them do that and have our presence be known at the festival. Hopefully people came in from New York to see Phish or Ween, and then decided they wanted to see what was going on in Virginia too.”
Hoping out-of-town visitors will stick around or pay more attention to what’s going on in-state isn’t an idealistic daydream though — the pair reveal that they’re already starting to see a return on the investment Virginia Tourism has made. “Our numbers have definitely increased,” Wyman says. “We have our own research department that deals with the facts and figures, but so far, all of our metrics are performing well and the higher-ups are pleased. Chris Canfield has been a big supporter of ours and has made sure we’ve gotten anything we’ve needed. We’ve only really started too so we still have a lot to accomplish here.” Cothern himself is fully aware of what’s left to accomplish, something that might not be as easily measured as attendance or clicks. “Our main goal is to make people want to come to Virginia for music,” he states. “Everything else is important too, but it’s all there to make that goal an actual reality.”
Having a presence at a festival like Lock’n will surely bolster the idea of Virginia as a musical destination, but to really achieve that goal, the campaign will have to change the reputation of Virginia as a state too. “When you mention Virginia, people think of history,” Wyman clarifies. “It’s just the way it is, but we’ll have to change that with this project to be a success because what’s going on now is just as important and interesting.” Wyman is completely right and that historical significance is something the tourism department is well versed in by now. “We focus on it, but we also push how it relates to contemporary things,” Cothern adds. “We would do the same for music. If you’re really into punk music, you can check out Wonderland or Strange Matter for some great history. You can go on the Crooked Road to learn about bluegrass and Americana, but also hear what’s happening with Dori Freeman and The Church Sisters. It’s a line we walk where we wanted to focus on contemporary things, while still mentioning the history that Virginia is so known for.”
Changing the perception of Virginia is not all Cothern and Wyman would like to accomplish though. “We want Richmond to become the next Austin,” proclaims Wyman in a statement that shouldn’t surprise any fan of the local scene here. “It’s the next big music city,” Cothern continues. ”We want to help that along any way we can because it’s going to mean more for the state, for the musicians, for the economy, and for the people. We all know the talent is here. We just need the awareness and recognition. Telling people that Virginia is really for music lovers will go a long way in achieving that and as Richmond’s stature grows, the rest of the state will too.”
