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Nashville Promoting Itself


Nashvegas06

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I guess this is a Question to the Condo Developers and The Chamber of Commerce. Why is there no push in to advertise in national and airline magazines? Traveling every week on Southwest, American and Delta, I have yet to see one ad for anything about Nashville condo development. I see Las Vegas, Miami, Dallas Houston, Austin, Atlanta and Charlotte ads on thier new condo development. I don't understand why the silence...Speaking of Austin nad not to start city bashing, but I don't get it about Austin. Yes they have a couple of cool streets downtown that have a cool vibe, but the city has no density and a highway system that makes ours look state of the art.

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I guess this is a Question to the Condo Developers and The Chamber of Commerce. Why is there no push in to advertise in national and airline magazines? Traveling every week on Southwest, American and Delta, I have yet to see one ad for anything about Nashville condo development. I see Las Vegas, Miami, Dallas Houston, Austin, Atlanta and Charlotte ads on thier new condo development. I don't understand why the silence...Speaking of Austin nad not to start city bashing, but I don't get it about Austin. Yes they have a couple of cool streets downtown that have a cool vibe, but the city has no density and a highway system that makes ours look state of the art.
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Have either of you been to Austin? It is a liberal Nashville. My brother-in-law lives there. Nice City, very birkenstock and solar power like! He owns a Prius sells energy from his solar panels back to the city and works in the dot.com world. Home to Whole Foods, is the Capital of the Largest State in the US and Lance Armstrong, need I say more...

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Have either of you been to Austin? It is a liberal Nashville. My brother-in-law lives there. Nice City, very birkenstock and solar power like! He owns a Prius sells energy from his solar panels back to the city and works in the dot.com world. Home to Whole Foods, is the Capital of the Largest State in the US and Lance Armstrong, need I say more...
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I travel to Austin once to twice a month for extended periods of time. I know that they are that it is not a conservative city by any means. And that is not my issue with the city in fact I feel their liberal slant gives the city it's life. I am sure there are nice parts but I still don't get it about the city. Why does it always rank so high high in "places best" rankings? I know Nashville does well itself but Austin is always a top fiver. I think that there has to be some liberal media bias to Austin. As I stated little density and a horrible highway system.

Please don't make this a Austin vs Nashville thread. I will take the blame for starting it in my earlier post. I agree it is a nice place and should give them credit for promoting themselves more than we are nationally. Now let's discuss NASHVILLE!

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I find it interesting that Nashville doesn't promote itself as well. I read the Wall Street Journal every day, and I have never seen an ad for any community or building in Nashville or Nashville MSA. I seriously thought that I might see an ad for the Siggie in there at some point, but I never have. Personally, I think when citys bill themselves as 'resurgent' it makes them look like there was something wrong with them before, and I don't know that Nashville would nessecarily deserve that (Detroit, on the other hand, would be the perfect place to use the word 'resurgent' assuming that happened). I hope to see more articles/ads in the future as Nashville grows into a larger urban community and picks up more national attention, but I'll make sure to mention it if I read something in the WSJ.

PS I had no idea that Whiska's was HQ'd in Nashville! I was riding home from the Billy Joel concert on Wednesday (yes, I know I'm the oldest teenager in the world) and I saw a billboard from Whiskas (the cat food) saying 'Proud to Call Nashville Home' and I suddenly wanted to buy a cat so I could support a Nashville- based business. Have any of you seen that billboard, and since when are they HQ'd here? I knew they bought Doane Petcare but I had no idea that Whiska's moved here.

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I don't think Nashville has ever been on the ball with marketing the city. People who have not been here think of Nashville as a Hee Haw kind of town. I know people that have said they would rather live in the slums in NYC than in Nashville. They think we are backward, toothless, and uneducated. We can thank our media for that somewhat in that anytime a local is interviewed they find the dumbest cluck in town to talk to.

Nashville really screwed up by ignoring the music biz and pushing them to Branson, MO. Yes, we have our honky tonks, but really, where are the night after night club venues? With all the stars that live here you'd think we could have at least one venue that was Las Vegas style concerts almost every night with big names.

We miss small opportunities. When the Titans are on network TV at night, all the lights are turned out in the buildings, from the flyovers, you can barely tell the buildings are there even if you know where to look. Now with the Preds gaining attention, all the TV shows is Jacks BBQ. I love Jacks, but its not the only place in town. Is there no office of public relations that gets to the TV crews and gets them more/better images to promote? No one contacting building managers to say..leave the lights on tonight? If there is, fire them, and get someone ele.

We have also never developed a destination venue, like the River walk in San Antonio, or the Magnificient Mile in Chicago, or Broadway in NYC. We have nothing that sets us apart from anytown USA. At least nothing that the rest of the world sees. Fan Fair is the only exception, and what did they do? Changed the name to...something I can't recall. Never give up Brand name recognition. Bad move.

We have opportunities with July 4th or other festivals, but other than the 4th, most have been ruined by people complaining about this or that...case in point...Dancing in the District was great when it was DT/ free. Then they moved it, and moved it again..fenced it off...not nearly the cool thing it used to be. Is it even called dancing in the district anymore? I quit going when they moved it to the Titans parking lot. It was horrible. Or the Italian Street Festival...what happened to it? Someone complained about the crowd..is that right? And while I'm on a roll, we don't seem to understand how to keep people coming to events, and keep them happy. I recall coming to VU satdium for the Rolling Stones. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon, there were 50,000 people wandering around looking for an open restaurant. What were the restaurant owners thinking? Now again Metro has started an effort to ruin all events at Vanderbilt. With no parking at CP, I give up. After driving in circles for an hour- and all Vandy's lots are empty and blocked off...what are they thinking? I doubt I will be going back to any VU events, they have made it too hard.

So to summarize, no we don't market ourselves well, and anytime something starts to be a big deal, someone does their best to ruin it.

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Franktown makes a great point with resurgent. I have seen the "The Next Great Southern City" ported on Urban Planet for Nashville and that is all B.S... Tampa had a slogan the "The Next Great American City". That is a goal "you" or should I say a "city" never can or HAS to achieve. Nashville is a city of positive growth and has a life that many cities would love. That said the city did and still has many issues that need focus. Although when I read the responses on this site I believe that not only do we have the people to make the changes but the WILL to make it happen.

When I lived up north during my last 10 years I had thought many times about running for office and making changes to help the area, only to realize that they didn't really want changes. That leads to one of my favorite quotes " A country "or city" has the government they deserve".

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Growing up in Texas and being very familiar with the Austin area I can tell everyone this.... Nasville and Austin are one in the same - for the most part.

Making the move from Texas to Nashville.... honestly I feel like I din't miss a beat. If someone dropped me in the middle of Nashville blindfolded-being as I'm from Texas, my first guess would be that I was in Austin. Yes, Austin is a little more liberal but both my wife and I (who is also a Texan) feel the same way. The first year we were here eveyone asked, "so how do you like it here."

Our response. "It's just like Austin. We feel right at home."

Three other good friends of ours who are also fellow Texasns now Tennesseans all agree and make the comparison as well.

I agree 100%, Nasvhille needs to promote itself anywhere and everywhere.

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Again please let's not make this a Nashville vs Austin post. Yes I know it is my fault for starting it. I will look for more positives in Austin on my next visit. But please let us focus on Nashville and our lack of promotion! I know some major players are out there reading these post, so how about some responses?

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I think the majority of that spending money for things like advertising in a flight magazine is Chamber of Commerce driven or local business group driven. Perhaps sending them an email and asking what's up about that would work towards us understanding their motives. To be honest, there is no excuse, NON AT ALL, for us not to be in Southwest's magazine seeing that we are a Focus City for them. That is rediculous and inexcusable IMO. The same could be said for American Airlines as well.

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In two weeks I my company is having a leadship meeting here and everyone jokes that they are going to have to go out and buy cowboy hats and boots. The funny thing is they are all from Texas. My point is not to trash our music heritage, but we need new non musical slant promtion of Nashville. Something that promotes the cosmo and deversity of the city. Maybe instead of the statement "No Jacket Required", "No Cowboy Hat or Boots Required".

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The leaderships of both the city and the airport is great at certain things and almost comically stupid-retarded at others. I guess you take what you can get with them, but a little more openness would go a long way into helping both entities in the long run. Too much old politics and good 'ol boys though. And both are snail slow to do anything. How effin' long does it take to build up a cargo ramp that you have been working on since 9-11-01??? Jesus Christ! Sell it and they will come, set on it and they will pass you by!!

Sorry about that. Some of my rant that I spoke about in the airport thread started to surface.

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... People who have not been here think of Nashville as a Hee Haw kind of town. I know people that have said they would rather live in the slums in NYC than in Nashville. They think we are backward, toothless, and uneducated.

.... We have nothing that sets us apart from anytown USA. At least nothing that the rest of the world sees. ...

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I liked your rant and I want to give you my take on a couple points:

1) People do think of N-ville as some kind of backwards hick town, and I think that could be a strong point if we play it right. I think (in all seriousness - with only the slightest hint of maliciousness), that Dickerson road is one of the greatest cultural assets this town has. Nolensville Road is a close second. If nashville had some kind of trailer-park themed attraction - - - something to give tourists the chance to be trailer trash / white trash, then we would really have something. I think they should start an event called the "Trailer Trash Ho-Down Revival" and invite every person in the country with an RV of any kind (preferably homemade) to come to nashville. They should set them up in a big field or several big fields around town and have a week of trailer trash themed festivities. Now - this idea sounds incredibly crule or mean-spirited because we as nashvillians are overly-sensitive to this popular media misconception. But I'm telling you people - don't fight it, sell it. Sell it as an image that is already established and sell redneck/white trash culture as a sinful indulgence for outsiders who are looking to partake of the delightfully retarded joys of redneckdome/whitetrashyness. Isn't there at least part of you that would like to attach 500 moon rockets to a shopping cart and see if your toothless cousin can break the speed limit? Things like that - crazy crap that makes people laugh - thats key.

2) Something to make nashville unique? See point 1 above.

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I just find it a bit odd that the people I deal with daily, in Denver, L.A., Phoenix, NYC, Atlanta, etc. all seem to know nothing of this trailer park thing you guys keep ranting on. They understand stereotypes and that each part of the country has one and that one just happens to be one of ours. Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, etc. all have the problem as well as the other states in the continental U.S. I think our reality and realities of other places are much different. My experience tells me that if people, in 2007, have the perception that this is some backwoods, hicktown, they're not very well read and not very media saavy and really warrant none of my time or worry. People seem to be so quick to the defense of something that needs very little defending. I believe it, maybe it's time you all did too. It might help explain why UP is nothing much more than a quick read nowadays instead of the passion it once was.

Perhaps if many of you would stop believing these alleged stereotypical trashings and stop doing your best to continue the practice, it might just stop someday. My hip, trendy friends in all those hip, trendy places seem to think I live in the same kind of place (or better than) they do. They obviously know more about Nashville than you want to accept. You should get out more. This is a pretty cool place.

I think some of this hick stuff is not only outdated, but the result of a lack of acceptance on the part of some of our own citizens to see that the world that really matters doesn't think this way at all. Who really cares what the common folk think? They make no decisions of consequence when it comes to corporate relocations, infusion of capital, philanthropy and such. They just moan a lot.

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"Dickerson road is one of the greatest cultural assets this town has. Nolensville Road is a close second. If nashville had some kind of trailer-park themed attraction - - - something to give tourists the chance to be trailer trash / white trash, then we would really have something. I think they should start an event called the "Trailer Trash Ho-Down Revival"

LOL I think it could work!

"I think some of this hick stuff is not only outdated, but the result of a lack of acceptance on the part of some of our own citizens to see that the world that really matters doesn't think this way at all. Who really cares what the common folk think? They make no decisions of consequence when it comes to corporate relocations, infusion of capital, philanthropy and such. They just moan a lot."

Good for you that you travel in educated circles, but the "common folk" make up most of America, and if you want to bring in those dollars and up the ante, you have to get the Common Folk in NYC, Miami, Chicago, LA, Houston, etc. to begin to think of Nashville a a big city, not just a corn field with a radio station. No doubt you are well educated and present yourself well to the folks you know. But take you out of the picture and what do they have to form their opinions on? I promise you this is true...When I went to Washington DC and signed in at the hotel desk with a Nashville address, the man registering us looked over the counter at my feet to see if I had shoes on. He even said that's what he was doing...

My own cousin from LA came to visit, and when they saw high rise buildings, they thought they had made a wrong turn in Memphis, and was in St. Louis. She promptly went to our back door and asked where the outhouse was. I should have sent her out behind the tree, but I was not quick enough on my feet that day...I was so stunned.

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I just find all that hard to be taken seriously. People love to pull chains. Especially if they know they'll get a reaction.

People don't pull mine so much.

The old joke about shoes was around when I made my first trip to NY in 1968. Good to see people haven't written any new material lately.

We're doin' just fine. We can't be everything to everybody. That's a little much to ask. I'll just continue to live happily in my little bubble. I save a lot on Pepcid that way.

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