As life expectancy grows and people spend more time watching screens, vision loss is set to increase by 55% worldwide over the next 30 years, making visual impairments a growing global problem. To create a standardized design with which people with visual impairments can distinguish their payment cards, Mastercard developed Touch Card. The solution was extensively tested with target audiences, endorsed by VISIONS in the US, the Royal National Institute of Blind People in the UK and the Dutch Eye association, and confirmed by global ATM manufacturers. Mastercard aims for Touch Card to become the global standard.

The briefing was to create a PR-worthy introduction that introduces Touch Card in the Netherlands, bearing in mind that visually impaired people can mainly be reached by hearing, while not excluding the larger audience.

The objectives were to:

1) create broad awareness for Touch Card.

2) increase partner interest to implement Touch Card.

To tailor our news update to people with visual impairments and elevate it beyond computer-narrating, we asked spoken word artist Elten Kiene for a translation using the art of voice. Spoken word is a way to convey more than information: by using poetry, intonation and beat, it conveys a feeling. The words are paired melodiously with Mastercard’s sonic branding, for audio recognition of the brand. This resulted in the first of its kind spoken word press release.

As Kiene explains through rhyming and timing what Touch Card entails, he conveys the feeling of togetherness: of mattering even though you are a smaller group, of feeling empowered and independent as you go through life.

This creative idea prioritizes auditory accessibility for people with visual impairments, while aiming to generate as much earned media interest as possible to inform broader audiences about the solution and convince partners to implement it as well.

Two insights were central: the main user audience of visually impaired people can mainly be reached by hearing. Secondly, as a ‘touching' spoken word press release is new, it likely generates earned media attention.

The key message focused not solely on people with a visual impairment but includes all: for Mastercard, everyone should feel empowered and independent to pay.

The main user audience of the invested solution is people with visual impairments, but we aimed to inform all Dutch card holders about minority inclusion and convince partners to implement it as well.

All assets (written press release, spoken word press release, video, visuals) were created in collaboration with the Dutch Eye Association, our campaign partner. Thus, we ensured that assets used the right wording and conveyed the right feeling for people with visual impairments. Assets were distributed through an earned media strategy, owned and paid social strategy and an event.

In two months, Mastercard, issuing bank ING and spoken word artist Elten Kiene developed a spoken word press release that was launched on March 4. Earned media interest was maximized by intensely pitching interviews on this special minority topic and special approach, the spoken word press release and the written press release at online and print media, radio and television in the week leading up to the launch date.

Impact was amplified through a paid social media strategy on Meta (Facebook + Instagram) and owned social media strategy (co-post Mastercard, ING, Elten Kiene on Meta (Facebook + Instagram) and organic LinkedIn posts by Mastercard and ING employees).

The spoken word press release was also showed at one of the largest Dutch payment conferences “Future of Payments” on March 7, where Mastercard presented Touch Card to the -blindfolded- visitors together with the Dutch Eye Association.

• Impressive earned media reach: We achieved in the Netherlands 66 publications, including 15 in print, 11 online, 13 radio features, and 16 TV mentions with a total combined reach of 18.486.296, which is more than the entire Dutch population.

• Above-benchmark social media engagement and impact: Our organic co-post with Mastercard & ING & Elten Kiene performed strongly across several platforms, receiving a total of 26.789 impressions. Also, the paid social campaign was highly successful and received 1.328.595 impressions and got more than 214.868 people to completely watch the spoken word video on the Mastercard NL Touch Card website, +50.000 over benchmark.

• Keynote speaker at large payment conference: At "The Future of Payments", we presented Touch Card together with the Dutch Eye Association, our partner in this campaign. We connected the room by experiencing together how to find your payment cards blindfolded by touch alone, emphasizing the need for a solution.

• Partner and issuer interest: Several other banks and card issuing organizations have reached out to Mastercard to discuss the introduction of Touch Card as well. A grand commercial and purpose goal for Mastercard to make Touch Card the new international standard.