31 YEARS CELEBRATING THE POWER OF IDEAS
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SELECT WINNERS YEAR
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Corporate Name of Sponsoring Client: MLB Urban Youth Academy
Media Company: VML, Kansas City
PR / Marketing Company: VML, Kansas City
PR / Marketing Executive: Bill Patterson
Agency: VML, Kansas City
Global Chief Creative Officer: Debbi Vandeven
Executive Creative Directors: John Godsey/Tony Snethen
Group Creative Directors: Derek Clark/Glen Scott
Copywriter: Robert Abasolo
Art Directors: Jeff Schroer/Jaclyn Co/Zac Greason
Brand Strategist: Ian Davidson
Social Media Strategist: Laura Brand
Technical Developer: Matt Belll
Technical Director: Nathan Welch
Director, Baseball Administration / The Kansas City Royals: Kyle Vena
President / CBIZ: Carolyn Watley
Special Asst. for Public Affairs / Office of Mayor Sly James, City of Kansas City:
Hilary Stuver
Senior Account Manager: Chadwick Andrews
Senior Copywriter: Ryan Simpson
Chief Technology Officer: Jeff Geheb
Non-Profit Companies: The Kansas City Sports Commission, Kansas City/
The Kansas City Royals, Kansas City/MLB Urban Youth Academy, Kansas City/
Sandlot Goods, Kansas City
To support Major League Baseball’s Urban Youth Academy, we tapped into the most anticipated moment of the year for baseball fans–the Opening Day first pitch. Taking over the streets of an entire city, we invited everyone to join the world’s longest Opening Day first pitch. We called it “Relay the Way.” On the day the local Major League Baseball team opened its season, fans lined up by the thousands to relay the ceremonial first pitch, person-to-person, over 9.5 miles through the very neighborhoods the academy would serve. For more than five hours, fans caught and threw the ball all the way to the stadium where it was then used to begin the reigning championship team’s season. Youth ballplayers finished the relay on the field at the stadium in front of a national television audience where it crossed home plate and into baseball history.