Grand Ole Opry:
Dolly Week
The brief
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Get country music fans
Who have an affinity for Dolly Parton
To develop a greater interest in the Opry
By turning the performer’s 50th anniversary as an Opry member into a can’t-miss event
The idea
Two legends inextricably linked. The Grand Ole Opry, the long-running and revered country music variety show, has played host to one of the most decorated music artists of all time since the formative days of her career. In 2019, the show that made country music famous welcomed home Dolly Parton for her 50th anniversary as an Opry member, a title extended only to a select few.
Leveraging buzz around her sold-out anniversary shows, the Grand Ole Opry offered additional ways fans could celebrate the milestone, including a pop-up exhibit displaying Parton’s iconic fashion. In addition to writing blog posts and other digital marketing copy for the Dolly Week campaign, I oversaw the editorial direction of the exhibit and crafted copy that wove a thoughtful narrative about the cultural significance of her fashion choices.
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The wins
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“50 Reasons Why We Will Always Love Dolly Parton” blog post saw a 38.6% email click-through rate, more than double the Opry’s average click-through rate of 15%.
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“50 Reasons” was the top-performing post across all Opry social media channels in 2019, generating more than 600,000 organic impressions. The blog post was shared on Parton’s own Twitter account without the prompting of the Opry team. When the content was re-shared on her birthday in January 2020, a single Facebook post generated more than 20,000 organic engagements.
Pull-up banner snippet from pop-up fashion exhibit:
"Like a butterfly emerging from her chrysalis, Dolly left The Porter Wagoner Show in 1974 to forge an independent career. She came into her own in the 1970s, drawing large Opry crowds during the show’s tenure at Ryman Auditorium and then the newly opened Grand Ole Opry House. The bold motifs and statement pieces she began to wear signaled to the world the consummate performer Dolly was becoming."
