MasterCard is making a bold move to capture what's often considered a dull part of the marketplace-corporate payment products, upping its spending in the area by 46 percent in 2005. With volume growth in corporate cards estimated at 20 percent, MasterCard executives say it's not only a smart way to spend precious ad dollars, it's a long-term strategic imperative.
"The corporate payments side is a vast segment of the global marketplace and MasterCard has identified it as a key corporate priority; the goal is to grow faster than the overall marketplace," says Amy Fuller, group head of Americas brand marketing, who declined to provide the exact size of the ad budget. "We need to increase awareness that MasterCard is a player in this space."
The new U.S. print advertising campaign, which targets firms with $500 million or more in revenues, spotlights the suite of MasterCard Corporate Payment Solutions designed to help companies optimize their card programs to achieve greater efficiency and cost savings. It's an important area of future growth, Fuller notes, especially given the single-digit growth predicted in the larger and more saturated consumer area.
The new campaign features the tagline, "Helping you find profits in new places," alluding to the financial savings that increased cost controls can generate. The ad copy argues that compared to many of the time-consuming, costly, paper-based processes often used by large companies, MasterCard's payments products provides enhanced information and seamless integration into existing systems. This allows corporate customers to streamline procurement processes, eliminate paperwork, track spending and analyze financial data.
One ad, focusing broadly on MasterCard's commercial-payments product, features the headline, "Bean Counter. Number Cruncher. Penny-Pincher. Tightwad. What They Really Mean Is: Thanks." The body of the ad offers information about MasterCard's commercial cards, and its Web-based reporting and expense management product, MasterCard Smart Data Online, all of which help companies track spending and control expenditures efficiently. The idea, explains Fuller, is to demonstrate to executives that MasterCard "gets it. And that the company understands that "payments are strategic and in many ways the unsung heroes of the business cycle," he says. "We understand what it's like to be in this position."
The ad spotlighting MasterCard's Corporate Purchasing Card features the headline, "Imagine How It'll Feel Eliminating All That Process From Your Purchasing Process." The answer, "Pure Bliss." The copy describes how the card and MasterCard's proprietary-analysis tool, Purchase Logic, allows companies to control spending. A third advertisement focusing on the firm's corporate card and travel and entertainment software is expected to debut this summer.
Marcie Verdin, head of the large-market segment for MasterCard corporate payment solutions, says timing of the ads is key. "Ninety percent of the companies in the Fortune 1000 have a commercial-payments solution," she says. The software is reviewed every three to five years, and "one goal of the ad campaign, she says, is to get executives thinking, 'Am I getting everything out of my program that I want? If you're not happy, come talk to us.'"
She acknowledges that Amex is a leader in the space, but she's not convinced each of its corporate customers is satisfied. "Not everyone knows about MasterCard-but we have all these tools, and these tools drive program optimization," she says. So far, says Verdin, the campaign is surpassing expectations. Typically the goal of this sort of print campaign is to simply grow brand awareness. But several hundred executives at target market firms have actually visited the URL mentioned in the ad and provided contact information. "Usually you just get awareness, but we're actually getting leads," she says. "CEOs are typing in their information, and that's got me really excited."
Verdin says that a European version of the ad campaign is slated to roll out in the third or fourth quarter, with some Asian and Latin American advertising possible in 2006. The new print ads have appeared in The Economist, Fortune and Purchasing. Versions will also appear in BusinessWeek, CFO, and Treasury & Risk Management, as well as various on-line sites such as CFO.com, Google, WashingtonPost.com and WallStreetJournal.com.
