EW YORK, NY -- 11/06/09 -- Last night, Billboard magazine bestowed KC Masterpiece® barbecue sauce and Kingsford® charcoal with the music industry's premier marketing honor -- Billboard magazine's annual Concert Marketing and Promotion Award -- for firing up the Keith Urban Escape Together World Tour. In sponsoring the tour, the barbecue brands encouraged friends and families to get together and grill in their own backyard, something Urban and his band identify with during their hectic tour schedules. The award recognized the brand's willingness to change the rules of traditional sponsorship and make a powerful business impact.

Announced last night at the Billboard Touring Awards at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, the Award confirmed that the traditional sponsorship model is rapidly evolving, with increasing emphasis being placed on the natural fit between artist and brand as well as the role of online community and mobile technology in reaching and engaging fans and consumers. The Concert Marketing & Promotion Award recognizes a sponsorship or promotion that benefited the concert industry at large by stimulating attendance to live events, providing value to fans, and promoting the artist and brands involved. This year's program received hundreds of submissions crossing every genre, narrowed down to seven finalists by Billboard's editorial team and then voted on by the public to ultimately select the winner.

Throughout the summer of 2009, KC Masterpiece® and Kingsford® Charcoal worked together with one of the world's hottest artists, Keith Urban, whose Escape Together World Tour reached audiences across North America. Together the barbecue brands and the chart-topping country artist inspired Americans to "Turn Up the Music and Fire Up the Grill." As part of the sponsorship, KC Masterpiece® and Kingsford® hosted the Keith Urban Backstage Barbecue Experience, VIP pre-show events at which attendees enjoyed a menu of delicious grilled foods, an intimate acoustic performance by Keith Urban as well as a group photo opportunity with him.