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Years in business: 42. Cardholders worldwide: 935 million. Merchants accepting cards: 26 million. Maintaining a successfully consistent marketing campaign for more than 10 years: Priceless.
MasterCard Worldwide's storied "Priceless" marketing effort, developed by New York's McCann-Erickson advertising agency, started as a television spot in 1997 showing a father and son attending a baseball game. Soon, the campaign burgeoned into a comprehensive platform for delivering the MasterCard message that includes print, television, radio and online marketing.
The most recent efforts have been adding debit to the taglines and resurrecting "Saturday Night Live's" Mr. Bill character along with playing to the U.S. Hispanic market. And the evolution is likely to continue, unlike the many marketing efforts with a limited shelf life, such as the Taco Bell dog or the ongoing rotation of McDonald's commercials.
"'Priceless' is a brand campaign that has gotten enveloped into the cultural lexicon," says Megan Bramlette, managing associate of Westbury, N.Y.-based Aureimma Consulting Group, noting the concept has become something bigger than just ads. "The fact that 'Priceless' has stuck around so long is testament that the company's efforts are incredibly successful."
"Priceless" emerged from consumer research on what was important to MasterCard cardholders and how to keep them loyal to the brand.
"We were looking to improve the connection with the consumer," Chris Jogis, MasterCard vice president of U.S. brand development, says of the early days of developing the campaign. "We did a bunch of global research and found that there was a change in how consumers were looking at what they defined as success."
Many Americans focused on wealth and accumulation of material goods in the 1980s, Jogis notes. The decade yielded such slogans as, "He who dies with the most toys wins" and such movies as "Wall Street" with the line "greed, for lack of a better word, is good."
MasterCard's research data indicated those sentiments were falling out of favor in the '90s, replaced with a yearning for more internal and less tangible rewards. Achieving a desirable quality of life began to outweigh amassing possessions.
"Based on that insight, which was a revolution at the time, we focused on the concept that consumers thought there were things more important than buying things," Jogis says. And so came the phrase, "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard."
The "Priceless" theme, centered on the idea that experiences mean more than a big car and a big house, has been copied endlessly in popular culture and has become almost an iconic phrase. The format already was entrenched when Ralph Nader "borrowed" it for a television ad in the 2000 presidential campaign. MasterCard sued but lost.
By now, the card brand has reconciled with the copycats. Among today's imitators are promos for the Adult Swim program on the Cartoon Network and a variety of knock-offs floating around YouTube.com. Jogis says imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The fact that "Priceless" has been engrained in society is testament to its long-term effectiveness, he says. "We do all sorts of testing [of] advertising, and it has become something more than a short-term campaign," says Jogis.
"Priceless" also has exploded on the Web. MasterCard launched its Priceless.com Web site in 2006, even giving consumers the chance to create their own "Priceless" videos. The site also features music and video downloads, along with travel information.
In the summer, the site was touting its latest "Roots of Rock" promotion, which will provide five winning U.S. cardholders with a chance to meet Jon Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton or Kenny Chesney where each artist got his start in music.
And the continuing evolution of "Priceless" has seen introductions of new products, such as the PayPass contactless card and a new focus on debit cards.
MasterCard in January introduced a new twist to the "Priceless" campaign. At the end of its latest TV spots, the MasterCard logo flips to showcase both credit and debit payment options, along with the narration: "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's credit or debit MasterCard."
"MasterCard is doing the right advertising campaign," says Tim Sloane, director of the debit advisory service at Waltham, Mass.-based Mercator Advisory Group Inc. "This campaign should help focus the [public] on debit in order to increase confidence in debit cards and awareness of the benefits associated with debit card usage."
Never short on creativity, MasterCard's latest incarnation of "Priceless" ads brings back a comedic character from the early sketches of "Saturday Night Live."
More than 30 years after the clay figure first appeared on NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live, with his trademark yelp, "Oh, noooo," Mr. Bill in June began appearing in "Priceless" ads focusing on debit. During regular appearances on the late-night television show for seven years, Mr. Bill was stabbed, set on fire, scalped, flattened and maimed—just to name a few of the indignities he endured. So why bring back the long-suffering star?
"Mr. Bill is an iconic character who is always on the receiving end of situations Mr. Hands bestows upon him," Jogis says. "In our new spot, we put a sunny twist on Mr. Bill's adventures. Knowing that right now WE'RE? in a challenging economy, we wanted to look for something that embodied the out-of-control way consumers are feeling, juxtaposed with how consumers can control their finances with debit," Jogis says of the message MasterCard is trying to convey with the Mr. Bill ads.
While Jogis focuses on the United States, he says "Priceless" also has translated well around the world. "The emotional connection with the consumer really transcends language," he says, noting MasterCard executives in other countries have chosen to use the "Priceless" platform. No one has mandated they adopt it, but they have picked it up in 110 countries in 51 languages. MasterCard now is moving it into even more specific cultural niches.
MasterCard has been marketing to the Hispanic market for eight years but in July launched an effort using the "Priceless" platform to cater specifically to U.S. Hispanics. The main feature is a new Latin-centric "Priceless" ad featuring the Mexican tradition of Lucha Libre wrestling. Before the Luchador ad, Jogis says, MasterCard adapted international "Priceless" ads for the Hispanic market.
The new "Priceless" ad features a masked Luchador paying for spa services with his MasterCard. The tagline at the end of ad encourages consumers to use MasterCard credit or debit cards. Jogis says 75% of the Hispanic market prefers using cash, so MasterCard is aiming to explain the benefit of using either credit or debit MasterCard products to pay.
The Luchador ad is running on Hispanic television in 11 U.S. markets with large Hispanic populations, including Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami. "We're tapping into the Luchador tradition, which is such a culturally relevant way to connect with the Hispanic market, and we're doing it in a much more integrated way–much more so than in the past," says Jogis.
The company also revamped its Spanish-speaking Web site, which has the MasterCard "Priceless" theme heading the page: "Hay ciertas cosa que el dinero no comprar. Para todos lo demas existe MasterCard." (There are some things that money can't buy. For everything else there's MasterCard.)
With all its efforts, Jogis says the "Priceless" campaign remains as strong as ever, noting that the Mr. Bill ads are garnering attention.
"That's the excitement of "Priceless," he says. "It continues to resonate with consumers."
But MasterCard is not resting on its laurels. Jogis says the card brand is continually working with its ad agency, McCann Erickson, to maintain the campaign and already is planning 2009 marketing. MasterCard intends to make more inroads into entertainment, fashion and sports and will continue to push debit on the "Priceless" theme, he says.
