On February 6th, at 3 p.m., Derek Gwaltney, founder of Atlas Experiences, has a moment to himself. He is in the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The sunlight filters through the iconic stained-glass windows, casting vibrant reds and golds on the age-worn floors. For Gwaltney, today is the culmination of three years of risk, hard work, collaboration and perseverance. Today, Luke Combs plays for 400 lottery players, executives, and media.
After his brief respite, Gwaltney heads back to the hotel where his team is ready, catering to the winners of the Living Lucky with Luke Combs national promotion. The winners are from 19 U.S. and Canadian lotteries. Before the concert, they’re experiencing a Beer Garden-ensue private dinner in the hotel, complete with Tennessee brewers and a whiskey tasting. For an event centered around the man who wrote the song “Beer Never Broke My Heart,” the theme is perfect. The Atlas team’s meticulous attention to detail flowed into every aspect of the event, from the red carpet taking a green camouflage look to the drink tokens being in the form of guitar picks, all branded with the Living Lucky with Luke Combs logo.
Representatives from seven lotteries are here to engage directly with their winners and gain insight into the efforts of the Atlas team. “Derek doesn’t spare an inch. He goes all out. He does it right,” Cindy Polzin, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Lottery, comments. One of the things I see that is genius is Derek giving everyone branded hats. Oh my gosh, when all the winners walk down Broadway, it looks like it is taken over by Living Lucky with Luke Combs!”
The Atlas Experiences team keeps the lottery executives 30 minutes ahead of wherever the players will be. As the winners arrive at the theater, lotteries take pictures as they walk down the not-so-red carpet. It is a perfect opportunity to capture the start of a winner’s experience. “This whole week, I’m just feeding content to my social team, and they’re putting it up in the moment,” adds Josh Whiteside, Director of Marketing at SCEL. “A lot of times, people don’t believe the lottery is real and that players don’t win. But I’m able to show my winners to everyone in South Carolina in real time. It reminds them people do win money-can’t-buy prizes.”
From there, they take their seats in the Ryman. Before the concert, Gwaltney runs out on stage. Ever the showman, he immediately injects energy into the venue. It also helps that he gives away $10,000 cash to each state’s winners. Regardless of whether there was one name or 20, Gwaltney made a show of stirring the bag to excite the crowd. It works. A cheer from the audience accompanies every announcement. “I have a lot of support from the Wyoming Lottery. They’ve been wonderful,” Jane, one of the winners, says. “Since I was the only one from Wyoming, I thought no one would cheer for me when I won, but the Wyoming Lottery team does just that for me.”
The lottery executives again take picture after picture. Rose Hudson, CEO of the Louisiana Lottery, and Polzin use their phones to capture every winning moment. Adam Owens, Communications Manager at the North Carolina Education Lottery, brings out his camera and telescopic lens to record the announcement of their $10,000 winner. Hudson must leave the festivities at one point to bring out her iPad. “I have to send all this content to my social media team!”
No matter how loud the crowd roars when winners are announced, it pales compared to when Luke Combs takes the stage. From the minute he gets on stage, Luke shines. His everyman charisma, crowd banter, and range are enrapturing.
For example, he doesn’t have a predetermined setlist. Instead, he has a general list of songs he wants to sing. It doesn’t take long before he starts taking requests from the audience. They want him to sing “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman, which he had just performed with her at the GRAMMYs a few days before this event. Then the crowd asks him to play “I Should’ve Been a Cowboy” by Toby Keith. He can’t remember the lyrics, so he pulls out his phone and sings the entire song without missing a beat.
At the song’s end, he turns around and takes a selfie, which he posts to his 6.1 million-follower Instagram account. (It is still on his Instagram’s front page). Luke isn’t the only one posting either, as one might expect. The winners’ phones are out the whole time. Hundreds of pictures and videos are posted using the #livingluckywithlukecombs on personal Instagram pages.
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“It’s incredible getting to watch our winners experience something like this,” Robin Medina, COO, Wyoming Lottery, says. “The Atlas team is amazing. They keep telling us, ‘You’re a winner, too!’ It is so true.”
In such an intimate venue, being so close to the stage, there is no need to stand. Yet, by the middle of every song, everyone is up on their feet again. Even the opening act, The Castellows, comes out to join the audience sitting only a few rows behind the lotteries, and cheers with everyone else.
For the grand finale, Derek and Luke Combs appear on stage together to announce the $500,000 winner. When a Texan wins the grand prize, you might expect a more subdued response, given it means 166 people just lost. It is quite the opposite. Whether it is the bonhomie developed over a week, the euphoria from a once-in-lifetime experience, or simply one last chance to give Luke a standing ovation, the crowd erupts again.
The defining moment of the event occurs a few minutes before though. During the last song, a winner screams, “I am just so happy to be here!” Since the crowd is so small, Luke Comb looks directly at the man and replies, “So am I.” It is a sentiment seemingly shared by everyone in attendance.
