In March of 2014 MasterCard launched its “Priceless Surprises” platform, a campaign that rewards current cardholders with exclusive surprises, simply for having a MasterCard. With three highly successful “Priceless Surprises” activated (Doug Gilmour, Coco Rocha and Justin Timberlake) MasterCard was looking to go in a different direction with its Q4 surprise and had the goal to involve more cardholders and gain more national exposure. This fourth campaign installment, “Truckload of Priceless,” was designed to create national buzz around the “Priceless Surprises” platform, drive card usage and cardholder engagement, and show consumers that MasterCard always strives to deliver on its promise: “When you’re a MasterCard cardholder, you never know when you will be surprised.”
Knowing the holiday season is the busiest and most stressful time of the year, MasterCard wanted to help cardholders with one of their greatest passions – giving. Partnering with card issuer President’s Choice Financial, instead of giving surprises to cardholders, MasterCard gave cardholders a chance to give a Priceless Surprise of their own.
The objectives were to drive MasterCard usage; increase brand loyalty and preference; increase awareness for the MasterCard brand in Canada; increase brand engagement with cardholders; create buzz around “Priceless Surprises” Canada-wide; and encourage interest and consideration for non-cardholders.
On Nov. 15 and 16, 2014 (one of the busiest shopping weekends across Canada), customers at select Canadian Loblaws stores were informed that with each purchase they made using their President’s Choice Financial MasterCard, that day, a toy would be donated on their behalf to a charity in need within Canada. In-store signage and takeaway collateral were also used to promote the initiative. Customers were also offered the opportunity to sign a gift tag which would accompany the toy to its new home.
Once the in-store campaign came to a close, MasterCard ordered the corresponding number of toys and packed them into a holiday-decorated #PricelessSurprises semi-trailer truck. Covered from front to back in red and white holiday lights and MasterCard branding, the truck made deliveries to charities like the Calgary Firefighters Toy Association, the Calgary Women’s Centre Toy Drive and Santa’s Anonymous in Banff over the course of two days.
“Truckload of Priceless” was filmed and promoted via digital pre-roll, display and paid social, and ran on national TV from Dec.15 to 31.
There were 10,000 PC Financial MasterCard shoppers who made a purchase in Loblaws over the November weekend that contributed to the “Truckload of Priceless” campaign, resulting in 22,313 toys donated to six Albertan charities. It garnered nearly 19 million online impressions, nearly 8 million online video views, 900,368 Facebook engagements and 18,758 Twitter engagements. And all of the charities reported this was the single largest donation they had ever received.