Mastercard’s VP of Marketing and Communications also spoke about cybersecurity and the use of artificial intelligence in marketing.
One of the most powerful slogans in world advertising, Priceless turns 25 and brings an evolution of Mastercard’s positioning to the present day. Vice-president of marketing and communication, Sarah Buchwitz says that now the brand’s objective is to understand what is priceless to people.
Our brand look is to understand the differences. Today our positioning aims to look at the individual. And this reflects in everything from the way the brand communicates to the way we work with experiences, she points out.
In this interview, among other subjects, the executive talks about cybersecurity, contactless payments and the use of artificial intelligence in marketing, including media buying. We have our own engineering to read the data and the main trends and, with that, send the most personalized message.
What are Mastercard’s expectations for the second half?
We have very positive expectations. We come from this hangover from the pandemic, from years that were difficult for everyday life, but Mastercard’s business continued to grow during the pandemic, mainly with the digitization of means of payment and the increase in the penetration of contactless payments. Last year, the war in Russia had a huge impact on our global revenue and we had this year to recover. And now, 2023 is a year to reap some fruits of digitization with the pandemic. The global scenario is super complicated, with inflation, but there is good growth in our core business. And Mastercard is also investing in other service companies that go beyond the card business. This also means that we guarantee an extra income.
What companies are these?
Mastercard has a strategy called Beyond card which is Beyond card. Over the past five years, Mastercard has invested $5 billion buying companies ranging from cybersecurity solutions, from AI, loyalty solutions to data analytics. We thought about the entire payment method ecosystem and what are the points in the ecosystem where we could add more value. Cybersecurity is one of the points in which we invest a lot. Today we already have these services available in Brazil for our customers. Services are an important part of our revenue.
You mentioned the approach payment issue, how is this movement in Brazil?
It seems like such an old thing, but Mastercard effectively launched contactless payments on a scale in 2018. The pandemic accelerated this. The numbers show more than 300% growth in penetration of contactless payments and today it is a reality. It has already become a habit for people. Those who have it, both on their cell phones, digital wallets or even plastic cards, use contactless payments. That was a big accelerator. We had other innovations, such as WhatsApp Pay, which was launched last year and is now available for small entrepreneurs, with payment via WhatsApp.
And do you have figures on the use of contactless payments?
We passed numbers from Abecs (Brazilian Association of Credit Card and Services Companies). In the 1st quarter of 2023, there were 3.6 billion transactions using contactless cards, a growth of 77.7% compared to the 1st quarter of 2022. More than 44% of face-to-face purchases with contactless cards are already carried out. In March 2023, the number of purchases with cards and other contactless devices now represents 44.3% of total payments in person. In March 2021, two years ago, this participation was 8%, which demonstrates the rapid popularization of the modality, given the benefits generated for users and merchants (agility, convenience and security, among others). Today, Mastercard is the market leader, with over 53% market share. So, market data reflects a lot of company data.
What is the brand positioning?
Mastercard’s positioning is a continuation of a 25-year positioning. We continue to be the brand of what is priceless. obvious, evolving year by year. Priceless was launched 25 years ago when society was much more monetary. We evolved towards experience and then, in the pre-pandemic period, we put the consumer at the center with Start what is priceless. And today our positioning, still in the Priceless seal, is to understand what is priceless for you. Our brand look is to understand the differences. Today our positioning aims to look at the individual. And this reflects in everything from the way the brand communicates to the way we work with experiences. The priceless.com platform has experiences in over 50 countries, from a restaurant experience cooking with a chef to a luxury hotel discount. Priceless continues as a platform, of experiences, benefits, discounts and communication as well.
Who created Priceless?
Global McCann. Here in Brazil we are attended by WMcCann and, globally, it continues to be McCann. We also work with MRM for CRM and the JeffreyGroup for communications.
Is brand positioning closely linked to experiences?
Yes, the experiences and evolution towards a brand that we call multisensorial. In the last ten years, there has been a huge acceleration of digitization and less and less people use the physical card. And so we thought: how to ensure that Mastercard remains in the consumer’s mind and day to day in ways other than just holding our card with each transaction. With that, five years ago, it began to change and evolve some elements of the brand. The first was the logo, which became much simpler. We simplified the circles and took out the word Mastercard. And it was very positive because the consumer already had a very high recognition, we didn’t lose brand recall. On the contrary, it has improved our brand awareness, because visualization, especially on digital channels, has improved a lot. And then we move on to the development of a sound brand, sonic branding. Sonic branding has a melody of acceptance when swiping the card. In Brazil, almost 30 million points of sale have sonic branding, between physical points and digital wallets. Mastercard uses sound in all of its advertising, in communications. Today, we have a repository with more than 100 songs, created from this melody. Again, always thinking about how we manage to connect with the consumer in all spheres. Recently, Mastercard launched a perfume globally under the name Priceless. The fragrance has not yet arrived in Brazil. The circles are optimism and passion. Passion red and optimism yellow. And, in Brazil, the great materialization of the multisensory strategy is the Priceless restaurant (located on the rooftop of Shopping Light, in downtown So Paulo), considered the best Brazilian food restaurant in the country.
And regarding sponsorships, what has Mastercard been doing?
We are sponsors of the CBF, of all Brazilian teams, of the Copa América Feminina, of Libertadores, men’s and women’s, and of the UEFA Champions League. These are our main football sponsorships. We also have League of Legends. Our sponsorship strategy is driven by passion. We always have this thought of what is priceless. What is priceless for people is what moves them emotionally. Therefore, our sponsorship strategy is built on pillars of passion, such as sports, art, gastronomy and entertainment. And we always try to bring stories that are priceless or impactful.
Like what, for example?
Last year, for example, for League of Legends we brought the campaign called Unknown legends. We are talking about unsung heroes within League of Legends, mainly minority groups, players who have no visibility within the game. Mastercard tries to make this mix of diversity and inclusion guidelines with our sponsorships. Also last year, we created the Elas em campo program for women’s soccer. There were two actions, one was a web series that showed 11 women who worked for the national team, that is, who was behind it. And we made a partnership with the CBF Academy and the women had a 10% discount on the courses, because they are quite expensive courses for professional football. We gave visibility to inspiring stories, but we had an action to change the ecosystem.
And what are the main business challenges for the brand?
I think our main marketing challenge is to continue consistency and relevance for the consumer, and build an image of a B2B payment technology company. show decision makers that Mastercard is more than just a card. Today, Mastercard positions itself as a technology, services and payment solutions company. In this world with so much going on, so many stimuli, how do you stay relevant? The way we believe in using technology, all the tools available and never forgetting the emotional part, which is what connects and differentiates us. And the connection with society, always working in some cause, with purpose. The trip purpose, clear positioning and use of technologies is what makes Mastercard remain relevant to the consumer.
How is Brazil’s relevance to the global operation?
Brazil is very relevant for Mastercard, it is among the top three or largest countries in the entire operation.
Read the full interview in the July 10, 2023 issue of propmark
