Mastercard’s challenge in Japan was not only to bring their brands back to life, but to target the right people with the right content, offers and experience at the zero moment of truth when they are online to drive Mastercard card usage and transactions in Japan.

The brand wanted to create an innovative business model using Mastercard’s assets and offers to reach people where they already spend their time – on social and digital channels. By understanding their behavior, we wanted their interest ultimately links with our brand.

However to do this we had to come up with brand-aligned breakthrough ideas, using revolutionary technology, and forward-thinking methods that are rooted in finding solutions to brand challenges.

We paired up the two ambassadors to deliver a series of videos to engage with the consumers. We leveraged the context of each ambassador's background and framed the videos' narative based on 'Lost in Translation' - where Keita was meant to help Gwen with the translations for Japanese audience and as it got closer to the marque events, Keita secretively engaged the consumers to plan a surprise for Gwen when she visited Japan. These events consisted of access to Fashion Week Tokyo, and Gwen's 1 night only private concert in Tokyo and many more.

To top up the hype, we put a twist at the end when one of our Japanese cardholders (who is a big fan of Gwen) was chosen for his idea on how to surprise her and turned out our two ambassadors had actually planned a Priceless Surprise for him.