US Banker

January 8, 2007

By Karen Krebsbach

MasterCard: Ready for its closeup

Product integration, a form of product placement, is becoming so ubiquitous that marketing messages may now have to be calibrated for their subconscious, as well as their conscious, effect on consumers. Just ask MasterCard.

In mid-November, the credit-card firm announced a partnership with Fox's prime-time television show, "Bones," to sponsor a series of 26 mobisodes, which follows three Jefferson Institute lab technicians solving a mystery. The mobisodes will be distributed on mobile phones through the Sprint network, later moving to Fox for wider distribution. In September, MasterCard was featured four times via two visible card shots in an ABC Family movie, "Relative Chaos." In late August, the firm collaborated with "Late: A MasterCard Mini Drama," a two-minute film. The firm is also pursuing multimedia partnerships, including video on demand, mobile, Google maps and podcast components. The card is also sponsoring the back stories of "Lost" characters on the Web.

"Potentially, we're trying to make a more conscious decision to win audiences and differentiate ourselves," says Michael Lao, vp of media at MasterCard Worldwide. "The average consumer gets 5,000 messages a day. How do you break through that clutter and stand out?" He acknowledges that the firm's multimedia marketing strategy, coordinated by buying agency GSD&M, serves as the latest example of how the firm is striving to integrate its brand and products into key programming in a way "that truly engages consumers."

Tallying the value of integrated placement is tough. Analysts and MasterCard sources didn't put a media value on the credit card's integration in the ABC Family movie. But the Wonder Bread logo's exposure of 11 minutes and 32 seconds - as well as two mentions by actors - in the Will Ferrell movie, "Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," added up to $4.3 million worth of media exposure, according to marketing consultant Joyce Julius & Associates. Moreover, it's no coincidence that mobile-phone users of the Internet and cable television subscribers are more upscale than the average consumer.

"It fits nicely into the targeted market," agrees Lau. "We worked with the producers and writers of the shows to weave in the MasterCard name where it makes sense. In conjunction with traditional advertising, the message becomes more powerful. People are remembering and recalling our brands because of it. ...We're being offered a lot of them and are picky about doing the ones that make sense."