In order to get the attention of NYC foodies, and get them to re-think the way they paid, MasterCard had to get their attention. For a limited time, MasterCard offered them the ultimate dining experience.

MasterCard built the world’s first restaurant on a billboard, 25 feet above the ground in the center of Times Square. Exquisite five-course meals were prepared on-site for diners by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson.

Booking for the table was promoted through the billboard itself as well as through a digital campaign with a unique partnership with OpenTable.

Seats were extremely limited, and sold out in minutes – and the billboard received massive buzz and coverage in TV, online, and print publications throughout the 3-week event.

The average foodie has 3.7 credit cards, spends 6 minutes choosing the meal, but only 5 seconds picking a card to pay. MasterCard needed to get diners to re-think the way they paid. MasterCard wanted to go from being an afterthought, to becoming the preferred dining partner.

Foodies don’t only care about the food – they crave an experience. To create the ultimate dining experience, MasterCard built the first restaurant in Times Square, 25 feet in the air atop a massive billboard. And as an added bonus, all proceeds from the table went to MasterCard’s favorite charity, Stand Up to Cancer.

Increasing market share is an extremely high bar for the payment category due to the fact that every percentage point equates to millions of transactions, millions of people. MasterCard however, was able to do it with this effort.

MasterCard cardholder spend grew 10.3% during the 8-week effort, versus the industry 3.9%.

(Source. MasterCard Clearing and PIN. Restaurant Industry data as reported by Spending Pulse.)

Credit cards companies don’t usually get the right kind of buzz. With this effort MasterCard was able to get good will and surpass previous years’ efforts:

• Earned media totaled more than 126MM impressions, over a 25% increase from our initial objectives

• MasterCard led with 30% social SOV compared to Visa 17%; Amex 28%; PayPal 24%

It even became national news. The Priceless Table got top-tier media coverage including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and ABC News.

MasterCard has always sought to create priceless experiences for their cardholders, and the Priceless Table was no different. MasterCard wanted to give foodies a reason to get excited about using their cards.

The activation ran for 3 weeks in July 2014, with social teasers and PR outreach beginning two weeks prior to the first dinner. Throughout the event, diners could post photos through the #PricelessCauses hashtag, and also admire hand-crafted food art posted to the MasterCard Instagram channel throughout the program.