When the World Cup came to the US for the first time, Shepard helped negotiate and develop the marketing strategies for AA’s involvement. He helped position American as the “airline who knows America best,” creating awareness in international markets about AA’s scope of service in the US. Shepard was instrumental in developing and implementing two key programs for AA. A media tour for global journalists visiting all stadia in the US proved very successful in identifying AA’s US coverage. In conjunction with this program, Shepard developed the AA ALL Time World Cup Team, voted on by journalists around the world.