Nashville-based ground transportation company Grand Avenue announced today it has launched “The It City” — an advertising, marketing and social media campaign focused on Nashville’s history and future as a cultural, civic and business center.

The campaign, a cost for which is not being disclosed, will include billboard, print and online ads highlighted by retro art work and a custom logo. It comes as ABC unveils its new drama Nashville tonight at 9 p.m.

“Everyone and everything in Nashville is clicking on all cylinders right now — from the restaurants and retailers to the tourism industry,” Grand Avenue President and CEO Carl Haley said in a release. “We can feel it everywhere we go — and, in our business, we go everywhere.”

The “My It City” social media contest is designed to spur locals to photograph themselves in front of their favorite Nashville hot spots and attractions and submit their photos via ItCityNashville.com. Grand Avenue will select one winning photo each month, and winners will receive prizes including tickets to top Nashville attractions. The “My It City” contest will run throughout the life of the campaign, a timetable for which has not been disclosed.

October's contest winner will receive two tickets to the Grammy nominations award show, to be held at Bridgestone Arena on Dec. 5.
 

The buzz around tonight's premiere of ABC's Nashville is now truly reaching manic proportions. That has gotten Blake Farmer some airtime on the Marketplace Morning Report, in which Butch Spyridon says it's the best marketing campaign he's never put together.

“There are billboards and posters and signs all over LA and New York that just say ‘Nashville,’” says Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau. “I mean, I couldn’t buy it.”

The drumbeat that has in recent months been elevating Nashville's national profile continued Saturday in the Wall Street Journal's Concierge section, which delivered an insider's guide to Nashville — sigh for the subhead, though — with input from Lee Ann Womack, Manuel and others.

Nashville's dozen or so commercial neighborhoods are spread out and interspersed with spurts of suburbia, parks and old plantation estates, so it helps to have a car. Besides, you'll likely want to take a day trip, as any resident will tell you one of the best parts of living there is the proximity to nature. On the small country roads that lie just beyond major highways, you'll see lush green hills, cow-bedecked pastures and signs for the many local farms whose produce features at the top restaurants in town.

Dave Kloeppel, who will step down as president of the new Ryman Hospitality Resources at the end of this month, sold more than a sixth of his remaining stock holdings this week. Kloeppel's latest sales put an extra $470,000 and change in his bank account.

SEE ALSO: Kloeppel's golden parachute tops $6M

Nashville International Airport will soon be connected to the regional airport in Athens, Ga., by two daily trips. Federal Aviation Administration officials have chosen SeaPort Airlines to connect the two cities and the airline says it can get going very soon.

[T]he DOT rejected an option presented by SeaPort that would have offered 12 weekly round trips to Charlotte and six weekly round trips to Nashville, with a subsidy of slightly more than $1.6 million in the first year and a subsidy of almost $1.7 million in the second year. In explaining that decision, the DOT notes in its announcement of the EAS subsidy award that the “core objective of the EAS program is to connect smaller communities to the national transportation system, and SeaPort’s two round trips a day to Nashville fully meet that objective.”

Dave Kloeppel will leave Gaylord Entertainment and its successor, Ryman Hospitality, anything but empty-handed when he puts in his last day a month from now. Among other things, the 42-year-old leader of Gaylord's hotel operations group will get a severance payment of almost $4 million and will see $2.1 million worth of restricted stock units vest immediately. On top of that, another 81,000 options will vest and Kloeppel will receive another 36,500 restricted stock units by early 2015 if Gaylord's hotels hit performance targets under the management of Marriott International. Check out the full separation agreement here.

A day after signing his exit papers last week, Kloeppel started cashing in his Gaylord chips: On Wednesday and Thursday, he sold almost $1.8 million worth of his Gaylord shares. He still owns another $2.7 million worth.