MasterCard, Coca-Cola Team Up for Card Promo

MasterCard International and Coca-Cola USA have added some fizz to a summer promotion.

The Purchase, N.Y.-based card association has teamed up with the global beverage company to reward consumers who buy Coca-Cola products with ATM Money Cards.

The cards, which come in increments of $20, $40, and $100, can be redeemed at automated teller machines bearing MasterCard's Cirrus logo.

"The promotion is primarily targeted to teens and young adults," said Scott Jacobson, spokesman for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola. The company wanted to tie in the mind-set of summer as a time of fun and freedom with an innovative cash reward, he added.

MasterCard is no stranger to prepaid card promotions.

Last month, NationsBank began issuing a prepaid MasterCard worth $700 in gasoline to sway consumers to buy or lease a Chevrolet Lumina.

Also Maritz, a St. Louis-based card program developer, has developed several prepaid MasterCard-branded card programs as employee incentives for companies such as Hewlett Packard.

However, "this is the first time that MasterCard has used an ATM card in a promotion," said Marianne Fulgenzi, a spokeswoman for MasterCard.

The cards will be issued by First Chicago NBD Corp.

"We are seeing many more requests for card-based payroll and incentive award systems as opposed to traditional paper-based services," said Paul Visnaw, first vice president of First Chicago.

MasterCard turned to First Chicago for help with the promotion because the bank owns its own full-scale credit card, merchant, debit card processing system, and it was able to produce the ATM cards quickly, said Mr. Visnaw.

Cards will be available in random 12- and 24-packs of Coca-Cola Classic, caffeine-free Coca-Cola Classic, and Cherry Coke.

More than $10 million of the $50 million in prizes will be offered as cash through the ATM cards.

Prizes will also be revealed under selected caps of one-liter, two- liter, three-liter, and 20-ounce bottles of Coca-Cola Classic, caffeine- free Coca-Cola Classic, and Cherry Coke.

Each bottle will have details on how to claim the prize of an ATM card or a free 20-ounce Coca-Cola product.

"This is a unique type of card," said Jerry Ballard, president of the board of the American Credit Card Collectors Society, Lansing, Mich. "But most people who win them will have no knowledge that they are collectible and will throw these cards away," after they get their cash.

Mr. Ballard added, "There may be 15,000 to 20,000 cards that people collect, and although this year the value won't be that much, in time-five or 10 years from now-those cards could be pretty valuable."

The promotion will run from June to Aug. 28, and the cards will expire Jan. 31, 1998.

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In related news, MasterCard International elected a former Coca-Cola executive, Weldon H. Johnson, to its Latin American and Caribbean regional board of directors.

Mr. Johnson recently retired as president of Coca-Cola's Latin America group in December, a position he held for 10 years.

This is the first time MasterCard has reached beyond its member banks to elect a director to one of its regional or global boards.

Mr. Johnson began his career with Coca-Cola in 1965 and worked in a number of positions before being named director of marketing and executive vice president of Coca-Cola Japan in 1982. He was named president of the unit in 1983.

Mr. Johnson is also a director of Coca-Cola Femsa, Pan-American Beverages, and North American Energy Corp.

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