Mayor's Team:
Sly James - Kansas City Mayor
James Roberts - Director of Communications
Morgan Franklin - Business Development Officer at EDC
Barkley:
Katy Hornaday - EVP / Executive Creative Director
Berk Wasserman - VP / Group Creative Director
Chris Cardetti - VP / Group Strategy Director
Jimmy Keown - Strategy Director
Howard Laubscher - VP / Strategy Director
Matt Pruett - Creative Director
Joe DeSalvo - Associate Creative Director
Jeremy Gilberto - Associate Creative Director
Jordan Breindel - Associate Creative Director
Justin Smith - Writer
Jim Howard - Senior Writer
Megan Adams - Art Director
Alissa Funk - Writer
Tifany Wrzesinski - Senior Project Manager
Dustin Schirer - Creative Production Director
Nick Stout - Creative Producer / Camera 1
Griffin Davis - Creative Producer / Camera 2
Melany Esfeld - Executive Producer
Tashia Neuhaus - Associate Producer
Lauren Alexander - Integrated Production Manager
Luke Hurd - Technical Director
John Hornaday - VP / Account Director
Lindsey Ingram - Engagement Director
Bailey Grover - Content Director
Shannon Scribner - Content Producer
Synopsis:
Cities throughout America are getting fierce and funny in their attempts to get Amazon to pick them as its second headquarters—and to land the 50,000 jobs that come with it. Kansas City’s social-media savvy mayor Sly James is making his pitch for KC in the language the Amazon retailer understands best: product reviews for a thousand Amazon purchases.
In an idea that originated from Kansas City local agency Barkley, Mayor James and his staff purchased 1,000 items on Amazon.com and used the product reviews to evangelize the many benefits of his city. Barkley worked closely with Mayor James and his staff to create a list of products to buy, review, and ultimately donate to charity. A team of writers taking on the voice of Mayor James wrote more than a hundred informative and off-kilter reviews for all thousand products ordered. (In some cases, he bought as many as 25 of each item.)
In one review, Mayor James gives the deserving art students of Kansas City their very own 3D-simulated horse backpack, “It looks like the stallion is charging right at you if you were to look over your back and at a mirror at the same time. I bought one for myself and one for all the art students in Kansas City, which ranks third-most in participation per capita in the country.”
In another, he extols his love of high-fiber and high-tech: “We have a saying in my hometown that ‘you can never have too much Fiber,’” he says in a review for cereal. “That’s how we keep things moving here in Kansas City, home to some of the fastest internet connections on the planet thanks to more fiber per capita than anywhere else in the US. Except for maybe inside this box of Fiber One, which also really keeps me moving.”