The Plum Card campaign launched a new charge card specifically designed for small business. Plum brought a new color to American Express OPEN, and created a new category of card: trade terms. The campaign highlighted these powerful terms and the iconic color. And in a crowded marketplace of 1.5 billion cards, the launch was purposely limited to just 10,000 cards, to create desire. The campaign also positioned American Express OPEN as a fan of small business owners, and a company dedicated to creating innovative tools for them.

The launch had multiple phases. First, the Card was previewed to small business owners, generating word-of-mouth buzz. Next, anticipation was created for the application, with work counting down to the release date. Then, when the apps were released, the focus shifted to “Who’s getting one?”. Finally, the businesses were announced, and Charter Members were spotlighted in the work. This reinforced OPEN’s commitment to small business and gave the Plum Card Members some well-deserved fame of their own. Channels included microsite, newspaper, journals, national print, news coverage in mass media, online, non-traditional 3-D OOH, and TV.