Jan 16, 2012 at 11:46 PM
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MLB Club Shares Best Practices With MVP Awards (Most Valuable Partner)

Say goodbye to sponsor summits, the Arizona Diamondbacks may have found a better way to share best practices and motivate marketing partners. The team says it will hold its first annual Most Valuable Partner Awards to award and recognize team sponsors for achievements throughout the season. The inaugural event will come complete with a red carpet arrival and feature current D-backs players Ian Kennedy, Chris Young, Ryan Roberts and Paul Goldschmidt as well as D-backs legends Luis Gonzalez and Matt Williams, broadcasters Daron Sutton and Mark Grace and Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick. D-backs President & CEO Derrick Hall will serve as the emcee.


“A night like this will not only be beneficial to our partners but we expect it will provide entertainment like they’ve never seen before from a sports team,” said Hall. “We encourage everyone in our organization to be pioneers and we are hopeful that this event will break new ground in the area of corporate partnerships.”

D-backs partners will compete for the “DB” award in eight different categories: Brand Integration, Marketing Activation, Community Partnership, Fan/Customer Engagement, Rookie of the Year (first-year partnership), Lifetime Achievement and the Most Valuable Partner Award, which will be given out in two divisions – the Silver Slugger and the Gold Glove.

“We have been seeking a better platform to share marketing best practices and to motivate our corporate partners to use them,” said D-backs Executive Vice President Cullen Maxey. “With the creativity of our staff and our partners, we believe we’ve found just that.”

The awards show, which the clubs says is patterned after the Academy Awards, will be written and produced entirely by the D-backs multimedia department. It will include an opening musical number and monologue, a humorous Top 10 and numerous video components that will inject humor into the evening.

More than 300 guests are expected to be in attendance. Among the local and national D-backs partners expected to attend are Anheuser Busch, APS, CenturyLink, Chase, Chevrolet, Circle K, Cox Communications, Experian, Fry’s, Gila River Casinos, MillerCoors, Pepsi, Taco Bell, University of Phoenix and Waste Management.

For more on all the categories and stuff, check out the team press release. Hat tip: J.W. Cannon.

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