Priceless Music

The total number of debit cards in the Australian market was near 4.3m. Given that Visa Debit accounted for some 3.1m of those, MasterCard had some serious ground to make up.

As with most brands, the youth market was a key audience for MasterCard to target. Dubbed “Generation Y”, this was the consumer group that MasterCard identified as most open to the idea of online transactions, and replacing cash with debit cards. Recognising that Generation Y was over-marketed to as an audience, so MasterCard needed to find a new platform to engage this youth market and turn Gen Y into new MasterCard loyalists.

Consumer insight revealed that Gen Y rarely paid for music, unless it was live. Social media had put music artists and fans closer in touch than ever before, creating intimate relationships between the two.

MasterCard decided to facilitate this relationship with a series of small and intimate live concerts. Under the tagline “Money Can’t buy music experiences”, MasterCard presented popular bands in unusual locations. Amongst others, Bloc Party played the Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Veronicas played the Oxford Arts Factory. The series ended with Robbie Williams playing the Sydney Metro in his first Australian concert in three years.

MasterCard promoted the events on TV, driving viewers to register online and purchase tickets with the Debit MasterCard.  Tickets sold out within minutes of going on sale.

The concerts succeeded in creating a huge demand. MasterCard now have over 3 million Debit Cards in the Australian market.  The card usage gap between MasterCard Debit and Visa Debit has reduced from 15% to 0%. The strategy has proven so successful that MasterCard is looking to implement the strategy on a global basis in 2010.