Advertiser: MASTERCARD WORLDWIDE
Agency: UM
Category: Financial Products & Services
Group Account Director: Chris Beaumont
Regional Media Lead - Europe: Guillaume Conteville (Mastercard)
Senior Business Leader/Us Marketing: Seema Chibber (Mastercard)
Business Leader/Regional Media Marketing – Latin America/Caribbean: Virginia Pereira (Mastercard)
Client Manager Partner: Xavier Mantilla
Group Head/Global Media: Ben Jankowski (Mastercard)
Senior Business Leader/Global Media: Joanne Jackson (Mastercard)
VP/Group Strategy Director: Kara Cooney
Account Director: Shawna Burtscher (Octagon)
VP/Group Managing Director: Troy Kelley (R/GA)
Regional Business Director/Asia Pacific: Vinitra Chaudhuri
EVP/Global Client Business Partner: Barbara Pelham
SVP/Group Dir Strategy Planning: Kevin Nelson (McCann Erickson)
SVP/Managing Director: Michael Bolt
EVP/Ww Group Accnt Dir: Richard O’leary (McCann Erickson)
EVP/Global Head Of Strategy: Will Wiseman
Effectiveness
By year end 2012, Priceless Cities was in 11 markets and had been live in 3 markets for a full year.Results:1.Unaided awareness increased an average of 17% in targeted cities. Net Promoter Score increased an average of 8 points.2.MasterCard GDV (revenue minus fees) increased 35% YOY among consumers who experienced a Priceless New York event/offer.3.We used media to create the product: 25 media partners created 110 custom experiences that were the heart of the Priceless Cities value proposition.
Strategy
Affluent consumers account for a majority of card revenues, but MasterCard wasn’t getting their fair share. Amex owned the affluent. The real question was how to make a dent in Amex’s business and do it quick. The answer: pick just the right fight. Research revealed that a majority of affluents lived in the world’s great cities. Many of them carried a MasterCard but few understood what it could do.Thus, we crafted a plan to target affluents locally – engaging them through their love of their cities, and fostering love of MasterCard in the process.Ethnographies taught us that people loved the endless stream of cultural experiences city life provided. Their frustration was that new discoveries were getting harder and harder to come by.We rallied behind a simple strategy: Spark Local Discoveries. MasterCard would act as a provocateur and curator of inspiring local experiences.Priceless Cities was born.
Execution
We didn’t create a media plan. We created an experience plan.Our activation formula was simple:1. Bespoke Experiences with Local Curators.We created inspiring moments in food, fashion, music and the arts that helped people connect with city culture on a deeper level (e.g., intimate dinners with up-and-coming chefs, private museum tours with an acclaimed art critic). The only way to access them was with your MasterCard.2. Local Lifestyle Conversations.We introduced Cities through the local conversations that set the cultural agenda for affluents. Through partners such as The New Yorker, TimeOut, Le Monde, Sydney Morning Herald our message spread organically through the daily lifestyle beat.3. Owning Affluent, On-the-Go Media. We wanted to own the most targeted, local, and affluent media of them all. We partnered with leading smartphone providers (e.g., Jeipang in Beijing) and negotiated exclusive sponsorships of local lifestyle apps with partners such as TimeOut.