In the UAE, shopping online is dominant. But paying online is not. Also since Mastercard has taken out its name out of the logo, concerns about brand awareness had to be addressed and at the same time people rely on cash-on-delivery.
So, to grow its share, Mastercard has to find new ways to encourage shoppers to move away from a cash-on-delivery system, and to embrace and trust online payment solutions. All this while building brand love.
The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)
With brand preference not being as high in the Middle East, Mastercard removing its name from its logo, hasn’t helped.
So, we needed to make the most of the new logo by making the logo synonymous with benefits for people having that in their wallets.
To improve preference and usage, a Mastercard card needs to be the card-on-file i.e. the registered card on online and e-commerce platforms by users on those platforms.
So, with most consumers in the UAE having both cards in their wallet, replacing the competitors' cards as the card-on-file was essential.
The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)
A SOLAR ECLIPSE WOULD CREATE A MASTERCARD LOGO IN THE SKY (TWICE!):
On December 26, 2019, there would be a rare solar eclipse in skies around the world. It was, especially, a rare occurrence across the UAE, one that was 172 years in the making.
THE PERIOD OF THE ECLIPSE WAS A DEAD RETAIL SEASON:
Historical data proves that the period from December 26 to January 2, right after the Christmas holiday and shopping bonanzas across the UAE (and a month before the Dubai Shopping Festival dominated by VISA) tends to be the slowest retail season.
Everyone has shopped for the year, exhausting their shopping budgets, with very little remaining in their wallets for shopping.
BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGY:
We saw an opportunity to put the Mastercard brand where EVERYONE would be looking!
The Creative Idea (20% of vote)
For a natural phenomenon like the solar eclipse that happens once in a century, we created the sale of the century, giving shoppers amazing rewards and benefits if they used their Mastercard during the eclipse.
INTRODUCING THE ASTRONOMICAL SALES.
We got Mastercard to partner with Noon.com, the biggest e-commerce retailer in the UAE, and built a unique activation and promotion tied to the eclipse.
Before the eclipse, through a transmedia content strategy, across social, digital, mobile, on-ground and PR, we created UAE-wide buzz..
Thousands of people gathered with their phones in hand, tracking the eclipse to get the best prices.
When the eclipse started, so did the sale.
As people tuned in online, as the sun diminished, so did the prices, reaching discounts of 97%, and returning gradually to full price.
For those who purchased at the exact moment the eclipse formed the Mastercard logo, priceless surprises were rewarded.
The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)
Astronomical Sales helped Mastercard win attention, share-of-wallet and grow users. At the same time, it built trust by trial in a predominantly cash-on-delivery shopping culture:
+116% increase on engagement levels vs. industry benchmark
18,000 new registered Mastercard users on Noon.com.
All products promoted were sold out during the eclipse – a record for e-commerce in the UAE.
15 times higher than usual in the banner click through rate on Noon.com’s homepage.
Says Faraz Khalid, Noon.com CEO: “A vast majority of customers use cash-on-delivery as a payment method upon checkout. So, what was effective about this campaign was that the window that this campaign ran in, very rarely do credit cards become the dominant mode for payment. This is unique not just for Noon.com but also for e-commerce in our region. This has helped create awareness among customers to come online and that’s the real success of this campaign for us.”
Please tell us about the challenger brand and how your campaign challenged / was different from your competitors
Every year, the UAE witnesses a major shopping event called the Dubai Shopping Festival.
Mastercard’s main competitor in the payment solutions industry, is a partner and main sponsor of the Dubai Shopping Festival. And has significantly bigger marketing budgets than Mastercard in general (+70% more media coverage).
Therefore, during the Dubai Shopping Festival, that competitor benefits from media priority, free media space and other advantages that come with cross-promotions.
So, we had the opportunity to hijack the buzz that would typically feature the competitor, causing a serious dent in their expected business. And get people to register their Mastercards, as card-on-file, instead of the competitors' cards.
And we challenged them through an irresistible activation that won people's share-of-wallets towards Mastercard, through owning the sky painting the Mastercard logo in the sky.