New Marketing Initiatives Set Up a Winning Season for MasterCard® PayPass™

Football and Priceless.com Efforts Offer Fresh Takes on Consumer Benefits

Speed and convenience—the two primary benefits that MasterCard® PayPass™offers consumers. As concepts, they sound worthwhile enough, but when they are spelled out in concrete situations that consumers can relate to, the value of PayPass really hits home.

This fall, MasterCard is launching two new U.S. PayPass marketing initiatives that will deliver real-life scenarios in engaging, humorous presentations to highlight PayPass advantages. One will kick off in the 10 PayPass-enabled football stadiums around the country, and the other will launch on Priceless.com. Both feature new approaches that promise to capture consumers’ attention.

“The main objective for our PayPass marketing efforts is to highlight the speed and convenience that PayPass offers consumers,” says Antonella Alaimo, vice president, U.S. Brand Marketing, MasterCard Worldwide.

Game-Changing Moments

A trip to the concessions stand can satisfy a football fan’s thirst or hunger, but it can also turn into an interminable wait as one customer after another fumbles for cash to pay the bill. Meanwhile, the game-changing moment can come and go on the field.

“There are a couple of relevant situations that our agency of record, McCann Worldwide, created that really strike a chord with football fans,” says Alaimo. “They’ve developed three entertaining print ads and an animated Jumbotron vignette that communicate the message.”

The three print ads—“The Priceless Interception,” “The Priceless Hit,” and “The Priceless Comeback”—tell the story of the game-changing moment on the field in cartoon panels. Unfortunately, the climactic moment is missing, replaced by a scene of the fan waiting in line and missing the action. The Jumbotron presentation animates “The Priceless Interception,” complete with play-by-play announcer.

The local team’s MasterCard card, along with the tagline “For a faster way to get back to the game just Tap & Go™,” appears at the bottom of each print ad. The animation shows a generic MasterCard PayPass card in action with a similar voice-over tag.

All four executions will run throughout the football season at PayPass-enabled stadiums, with the print ads appearing in the game program.

Everyday Moments

New creative to support PayPass on Priceless.com, launched in early September, outlines how speedy and convenient PayPass can be in everyday situations, highlighting when, where, and how it can be used.

“The creative is a new approach for us, combining video and illustration,” says Kai Horan, program manager, Global Digital Marketing, MasterCard Worldwide. “We are highlighting five of our key categories—quick-service restaurants, convenience stores, pharmacies, taxis, and stadiums.”

“For each of them, we have a situational video vignette in which the people are lifelike, and the environment is illustrated,” she says. “We’re looking to engage the consumer, educating them on how to use PayPass and making them aware of our categories. They’re definitely a little tongue-in-cheek, enjoyable to watch.”

In the taxi vignette, for example, Grandma and her grandson, who represents the ad’s target audience, share a cab. Grandma wants to pay. While she is fumbling with purse and cash, Grandson swoops in and executes a Tap & Go transaction. “What will they think of next?” Grandma wonders.

The content also has an educational component beyond the vignette. “We have a section where the viewers can actually interact with different PayPass form factors, using their mouse to pick up a watch or card or key fob and tap it on a reader,” says Horan. “We really want to engage them and reinforce the tap action.”

The content also links to a list of PayPass-enabled merchants, as well as an acquisition component that allows consumers to find a convenient issuer.

“We expect these vignettes to capture the imagination of consumers and help us make PayPass an everyday event for everyone,” says Horan.

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