Rather than try to impose our message on a our target that’s not engaged with the payment cards category and likely to tune out anything we tell them directly, we aimed to make MasterCard fit more naturally in the context of their life and interests.

To do that, we enlisted the help of some of the biggest personalities in social to talk about how MasterCard benefits Android Pay users like themselves.

The benefit is that MasterCard gives time back to people—it’s so seamless that you have time to do whatever you want, especially if you are a cashier.

So each influencer played a cashier with more time to play, and shared the priceless things they would do with the time they can now have thanks to MasterCard and Android Pay.

Each of the three influencers created content, in which they played a cashier with more time to play, and pursue their passions and interests thanks to MasterCard and Android Pay.

Video content from each influencers was made into Vine-style looped videos, long form videos, :30 non-skippable, and :30 skippable videos. These were distributed through YouTube, Zefr, and several other video distribution channels to strike a balance between high-visibility and high-relevance placement.

Our influencers’ posts were distributed through YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Vine.

Over the time period our Android Pay campaign was in market, MasterCard saw strong double digit increase in transactions and a greater than 50% increase in spend in Android Pay versus previous period.

Clearly, the campaign succeeded in grabbing Android Pay users’ attention and making them see the value in selecting MasterCard, having clocked over 55 Million video views so far, with 45.6MM video completions.

The campaign also generated $530K worth of free engagement.

These results prove that MasterCard found the right way to connect with a set of consumers who (until now) didn’t care about payment cards.

This PR campaign helped MasterCard connect with a segment that payment card brands typically struggle to engage.

MasterCard overcome a lack of engagement by enlisting the help of some of the biggest personalities in social to talk about how MasterCard benefits Android Pay users like themselves.

Influencers brought the product benefit of quick, seamless payment to life in their own unique way through entertaining video content.

The PR campaign has earned significant earned impressions and engagement, with 55MM video views and $530m in free engagement to date.

Brand relevance, campaign elements, audience, approach

Android Pay users tend to be sociable 23-30 year olds living in America’s 25 largest cities. They’re tech-friendly, aspiring, curious and optimistic. They’re not a group that particularly cares about payment cards.

This group would much rather hear about the benefits of MasterCard and Android Pay from someone they relate to. So we chose to deliver the “more time to play” idea collaboratively, encouraging influencers to embrace the concept in their own unique way and deliver the message with authentic humor and personality.

Each of the stories is inspired by a moment where people often use MasterCard and Android Pay. Given that it’s used to purchase everyday essentials, we invited Arielle Vandenberg to play a cashier in a Walgreen’s. Flula Borg played a cashier in an entertainment store where it’s used for purchases like games, movies and music. Harley Morenstein was a cashier in a food truck.

Millennials have almost no involvement when it comes to their payment card. It’s something they do not care about, as long as it works.

So when Google launched Android Pay, a technology that allows Android users to make contactless payments using their NFC-enabled smartphone at over a million retailers nationally, it was clear from the outset that we’d need a clever way to connect with their young base of users.

Our objective was to make them select MasterCard as their default payment card when setting up Android Pay for the first time. It’s an important goal for MasterCard, because people transact more often and spend more money with the default payment card in their digital wallet.