Wagner chatted with Digital Journal about the core business of the company — and by the sounds of it, they have ambitious plans for Country music fandom in New York.
“NYCountry Swag is a special events and clothing brand that supports country music in the New York City/Metro Area and beyond,” Wagner said. “Since our launch, we have developed into a marketing platform for country music in the New York market. We operate in three parts: Special Events, where we have planned and executed many unique and successful country music events from Country Brunch to Country Night on the Water at different venues throughout NYC. With rising stars like Russell Dickerson, Jackie Lee, Brandon Ray, Carter Winter, our goal is to keep each event unique while spotlighting new artists.
“Second, merchandise. Our online store consists of a line of shirts, hats, flannels, sporting our logo and country music related sayings. We also recently launched our ‘Hero Collection’ which is made up of clothing items inspired by the Blue Line (Police Department) and Red Line (Fire Department). Each month we add new items to the collection and donate a portion of all sales to different charities that support our heroes.
“Third, marketing. Our ‘Weekly Round-Up’ is our e-mail newsletter, which goes out every Tuesday to our list of over 10,000 subscribers. We include all country music related events coming up in the area plus contests, and ticket giveaways. In addition, we focus a lot of our time on our social media channels to help promote country music in NYC. We attend shows and industry events to promote the culture and share experiences with our audience.”
Regarding the idea for NYCountry Swag, Wagner said, “This is a tough question for me, because I do not think there was ever really a pivotal moment when the idea just kind of dawned on me. Instead, it was more of a mix of different happenings. Since 2012, I worked as a special events coordinator for In Good Company Hospitality. During the summer of 2014, I curated our first ‘Country Night’ at one of In Good Company’s popular outdoor restaurants, Bungalow Bar in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York. The event was extremely successful and a night I was really proud of.
“For months after that, I continued to plan and executive several different events for In Good Company, but personally I knew there was something missing for me. For a while, I toyed with the idea of moving to Nashville. A part of me knew that I wanted to work in entertainment and more specifically, country music. I found myself constantly coming up with excuses of why I wouldn’t go. To be honest, one of the reasons was how much I really did love my job with In Good Company and how much I loved being in New York City. A few months later, we did another country night and again, it was another success. Months after that the idea of doing a Country Brunch at another one of the group’s locations, Libation, came about.
“At this point I started thinking, ‘how we do we get that same crowd who loved Bungalow Country Nights to come to Libation?’ After all, it was two different venues. I remember thinking to myself that I wished there was a clear way for people to know that the same person planning the Libation event was the same person who planned Bungalow’s, obviously besides people ho knew me directly. That’s the first time it really hit me that this was a sort of an untapped market in New York City. There is a huge country music fan base here, but there’s really no ‘go-to’ for your country music fix. I started getting the idea, what if there was a company to follow who was going to all of these shows, producing these events, bringing new artists into the mix, etc and that’s really how it all began.
“I launched the website in December 2015 and we produced our first event in January 2016, Country Brunch ft. Russell Dickerson at Libation NYC. Since the launch, my bosses at In Good Company saw what I was doing with NYCountry Swag and invested in my company. This allowed me to leave my position with them and work full time on NYCountry Swag. The main idea of the company is special events, we added a shop to help push the brand as well as our marketing side which helps us to promote the culture.”
As founder of NYCountry Swag, your job description is quite extensive. “We are still very new, so a lot of the days, I am doing this by myself. In a days work, I am the one posting on social media, packaging the days orders from our website, curating details for our next events, putting promos and giveaways together, writing our Weekly Round-Up, searching for new talent, creating new merchandise ideas, heading to shows to scope out artists and create content for our site or doing a pop-up to sell merchandise at local events. I’m a firm believer in ‘Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’ and that’s what this company is for me, but I couldn’t do it without the support of my friends and family and, of course, my partners at In Good Company Hospitality. I can count on help when I need it whether it’s just advice, ideas, working events with me or even just sporting our merchandise at shows. I could not do this without the people around me, so I feel very, very lucky to have them.”
When asked how she uses technology in her daily life, she responded, “I don’t think this company could exist without technology! We are a very grassroots brand, so pretty much everything we do is done organically. Our social media platforms started at zero and today we have over 10,000 followers. The majority of our merchandise is sold through our website and every event we host, we sell tickets through digital promotions. Most of the artists we work with are located in Nashville, so technology makes it super-easy to communicate where we can work together while being in two different states. A lot of our content is very time sensitive as well, technology helps us to get the quick answers we need to get things done. I’m also constantly on the go, so having the ability to do the majority of my work right from my phone is what keeps this company afloat. To be quite honest, I can’t think of a single thing that we don’t use technology for.”
On the digital transformation of the music industry, Wagner said, “I think technology gives many artists the ability to really be themselves and that’s a pretty cool thing to witness. Fans want to feel like they know the artist personally, not just by some article that was posted about them. They want to see what the artist is like off the stage, they want to see their goofy side or their loving side. When artists can interact directly with fans on their social media platforms and really make fans feel like they are a part of their lives, this can do more for an artists’ career than any simple interview ever could. I think over the past few years, the tables have sort of turned in the music industry.
“Thanks to technology and social media, the fans have more power now. A prime example of this is rising country star, Kane Brown. Just about two years ago, Brown was sitting at home posting covers of popular songs, when one day, one of those covers went viral. He then released a version of his own single, ‘Used To Love You Sober’ on YouTube. The video got 11 million views before he even scored a record deal! Kane is super-talented and I am a huge fan, but it is a truly amazing story and one that would not have happened, in the way that it did, years ago without technology.”
On her plans for the future with NYCountry Swag, she said, “This has been an incredible ride and I am excited every day to continue to watch our brand grow. As for the future, I would like to get more artists involved with our merchandise, especially our Hero Collection. Spotlighting charities each month that support our heroes has been a very rewarding experience and I’d love to continue to watch that leg of our company grow. I’m also excited about some of the ideas we have for future events and artists we will be working with. For me, personally, my goal is to be the ‘go-to’ when any country music related event is coming to New York. Being supported by In Good Company Hospitality and having the background of a special events coordinator in NYC gives us a lot of great resources and opportunities to produce unique events here in the big apple. Down the road, I’d like to be the person curating the album release parties, listening events, pop-up shows and so on.”
To learn more about NYCountry Swag, check out their official homepage, and Facebook page.