Branded entertainment is a buzz in this country. Despite this, most traditional advertisers haven’t entertained the idea of testing this space as it requires a fundamental shift of thinking from eyeballs to engagement.

Therefore, how do you show the value of dollars spent when compared to their traditional everyday activity?

Furthermore, branded entertainment is a challenge in that you have to the line between entertainment and advertising. When trying to take the 'Priceless' platform into a space that's far more local, we'd need to communicate to people on their own terms and in a local voice, rather than an advertiser's voice.

With that focus comes the challenge of ensuring the message is still around MasterCard enabling and delivering 'Priceless' locally famous offerings

Our campaign was built from a genuinely interesting insight around the fact that 'locals' could help unlock locally famous hidden gems for all of Sydney to experience.

To get the audience engaged, we wanted to tell the real human stories with a genuine lens so that it would be endorsed by the people who visit these hidden gems as well as the people exposed to this who don't.

To make the message as authentic and believable as possible, we used real customers who had a genuine love for their local icons.

Priceless Sydney was an outstanding success.

75,400 conversations were started about the program through our hairdresser influencer program (66% above target).

1 in 4 Sydneysiders saw the stories of local heroes through our content series.

But what really mattered was the number of people participating in the program and the brand perception scores.

The campaign smashed all expectations.

Merchant offer uptake grew to 3,349, that’s a massive 841% increase on the previous year.

Brand perception hit an all-time high with an unprecedented 144% increase in people considering MasterCard ‘engaging’ and a further 128% increase in people describing the brand as ‘exciting’.