Yamaha Entertainment Group – Local Supporting Local

We talked with Chris Gero of Yamaha Entertainment Group after learning of their involvement with the Super Bowl half-time show. Chris gave us some background on their facility and helped us understand their role in helping local business.

“Yamaha is the world leader in musical products manufacturing.  Yamaha Entertainment Group of America supports and develops the marketing initiatives of our global corporation and its subsidiaries through the management of endorsement relationships of over 3000 artists, musicians, and productions that use our products to earn a living,” said Chris. YEG is a boutique, one-stop-shop, record label. They partner with artists and give them a voice while promoting the artist’s brand.

Franklin was just the best choice shares Chris. “I chose Franklin even though other executives within our organization resisted for years, while I insisted that downtown Franklin was a superior choice to the only two locations on the table at the time: New York & Los Angeles.  After several years of negotiations the other executives came to Franklin and looked at my vision.  They agreed that indeed this community beat out either coast.”

YEG promotes the community through donating their building for dignitaries and artists for receptions, sponsoring local events, working with local artists and promoting music education in the Williamson County Schools. They got involved with the whole “Big Game” half-time show because Alicia Keys has been a loyal Yamaha endorsee for years. When her team reached out two weeks before the show asking for a C3-sized midi piano in silver, YEG made it happen.

There was no piano available in New Orleans so Nashville was closest. “Because we already have a strong relationship with Seale Keyworks and knew they had the space to do the project, it made the most sense to set up shop there. I had spoken with 12 Point Signworks over the summer to ask them about vinyl wrapping pianos and how that worked out of curiosity, so it made sense to check with them first. They were able to bring samples over the next day to let us select the color and then were ready to start as soon as we said the word. Because transporting a piano a long distance can be dangerous, expensive and sometimes hard to predict, we wanted to use our local trusted piano movers to handle the delivery as well as the tuning of the piano on-site.“

Out of the office in Franklin you might not realize that YEG has an international reach, backed by a global corporation and one of the most recognizable brand names on the planet. “We are a mega player globally out of our tiny office in Franklin, TN.,” said Chris. Find out more about Yamaha Entertainment Group at www.yamahaentertainmentgroup.com.