Background
Corvette Museum delivery project…an oldie, absolute goodie. Ray Ehly Jr. (now a good friend) reached out to me via an IT buddy with a dream I couldn’t resist: help him celebrate the Corvette’s (and his own!) 50th Birthday—by custom-ordering a top-of-the-line Z06, taking museum delivery in Bowling Green, KY (home to both the plant and the museum), and then hitting every state in the union…one big loop. (Air and sea for Hawaii and Alaska, then back behind the wheel.) The car even spent two weeks on the museum floor before he picked it up.
The Situation
Total soup-to-nuts. Ray needed more than a site—he needed a brand. Brass Ring created the logo, launched the website, and cranked out swag (t-shirts, hats, mugs, magnets, stickers, keychains). He turned it into rolling word-of-mouth, handing gear to car clubs, auto shows, and anyone he met on the road. The trip also needed IT support, so Brass Ring advised on a laptop and camera so Ray could document everything. We stayed in daily contact, and I published blog entries as he traveled—well illustrated with the photos he captured along the way.
Challenges Involved
“Make it trackable.” Great idea—years before Google Maps made that easy. I created a static route map (deliberately fuzzy for security) and hand-updated Ray’s position in Photoshop so fans could ride shotgun. Sixty-three days, zero automation—old-school, all manual.
And unlike most projects where launching the website meant the heavy lifting was over (remember this was long before the advanced Hub-and-Spokes approach that defines Brass Ring today), this one was a daily challenge…for months (a fun one, though!). A fun task was when I got join the West Coast part of the trip. Ray picked me up at my La Jolla home (we even swooped past my daughter’s elementary school to show off “All 50” and give Amethyst a little joy ride around the neighborhood) and I rode with him to Los Angeles where the car was prepped and packed into a cargo jet for its 4 hr. visit to Honolulu.
The Solution – How We Helped
- Brand from zero: Named and designed the logo; built a clean site to anchor the project.
- Swag engine: Produced t-shirts, hats, mugs, magnets, stickers, and keychains for on-the-road outreach.
- Content pipeline: Set up laptop/camera, stayed in daily contact, and published photo-rich blog entries.
- Tracking the journey: Created a static “advance route” map and manually updated progress so fans could follow along.
- Ongoing support: Kept the site fresh throughout the 63-day run—hands-on, every day.
Outcome
The site did its job: it turned a solo road dream into a shared experience. Over 63 days, traffic and subscriptions climbed steadily, fans followed the map updates, and swag seeded word-of-mouth at every stop. Ray picked up sponsor interest, press mentions, and a growing community around the “All 50 Corvette” idea—cementing the story as a small but memorable chapter in the Corvette 50th celebration.
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