Up until very recently, MasterCard, like its core competitor Visa, relied on an archaic advertising model to reach its end-consumers with no access to data on the very consumer using their cards. We have tasked ourselves with building superior value for our business by utilising the Engine process.

Our partners at HDFC Bank were excited to work with us at this time of year to increase card transactions during the Independence Day shopping period.

Our objectives were simple:

Drive active consumer engagement with the campaign, generating lift in activation rates and usage. This would be measured by the relationships built with the audience and the number of leads we generated to our eCommerce transaction partners (such as Hotels.com, Starwood Hotels and eBay).

Phase 1 of the campaign drives reach with exclusive celebrity content. Once we have achieved a critical mass of engagement we work with partners to segment and then re-message qualified audiences who have seen the content with our exclusive offers. Our tests show that this increases consumer response to our offers.

For Phase 2 we worked with Facebook to develop tactics and targeting strategies that can drive performance. We implemented the innovative Ad Sequencing buying which enabled us to improve storytelling and increase consumer response to our offers by 186% and drive cost efficiencies by 200%.

We leveraged new formats including Carousels which enabled us to showcase many merchant offers in 1 unit and ultimately drive up our consumer response rate by 200% above the industry average.

Ongoing optimisations as part of the Engine model ensure that we constantly optimise investments and audiences to deliver best results possible.