Kick the Cup wins a Platinum Award

Kelley & Associates Snags MarCom’s’ Highest Honor

We are proud to announce that Kelley & Associates has won a Platinum Marcom Award in the Mass Transit category! Administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), the MarCom Awards celebrate excellence in marketing and communication while recognizing the hard work, creativity and generosity of industry professionals.  

Kelley & Associates launched the winning campaign, “Kick the Cup,” after the Shelby County Health Department tasked us with developing and delivering a dynamic brand for their new anti-opiate initiative. The goal of the campaign was to reduce the rates of teens using “lean” —  or codeine cough syrup.

We needed to create a to-the-point message for out-of-home media. So we set out with a systematic approach to learn what had worked with the target audience in the past. And we brought together local and national best practices in a strategy that we knew would succeed. The campaign tagline, “Kick the Cup,” was inspired by a social media challenge started by a popular rapper, Mozzy. 

“Great creative looks effortless, but what sets our work apart is our intentionality,” said Kelley & Associates President and CEO Christi Kelley. “From benchmarking to brainstorming to wordsmithing, there is a purposeful process behind all of our work.”

Since its inception in 2004, MarCom has evolved into one of the largest, most respected creative competitions in the world. The Platinum Award is the competition’s highest honor! And the response from our industry has been matched by our community. The “Kick the Cup” bus wrap was officially unveiled in August 2019 to a group of key stakeholders — including the Mayor, youth and media of Memphis and Shelby County.

Please visit our portfolio to see more of our recent bus wraps!