MasterCard BRITS Work Led By Ronson’s YouTube Super-Group Uptown Funk Surprise

The core kick-off for MasterCard’s 2016 BRIT Awards activation saw music maestro Mark Ronson produce a fan-created cover of his hit Uptown Funk as a ‘Priceless Surprise’.

Targeting music lovers across Great Britain, the fan/musician initiative runs across Facebook and YouTube, plus paid social advertising, a major PR push, plus BRIT Awards sponsorship idents, outdoor executions and digital outdoor advertising at Greenwich underground station and the O2 (where the BRIT Awards are held).

At the heart of the campaign, the sponsor and the BRIT Award-winning (and nominated) artist ensured six fans of the surprise of a lifetime.

Mark Ronson and MasterCard brought together 6 fans who had previously covered Uptown Funk online – Anna Shields & Blair Crichton, The Ayoub Sisters, Ross Campbell and John Atkins – to create a brand new cover and share their love of music.

Ronson initially selected fan musicians from YouTube based on the ‘quality and originality’ of their track covers and then asked the chosen few to London’s famous Abbey Road Studios.

Believing they were just recording their versions of Uptown Funk (the top selling UK song of 2015) for a Ronson documentary, the star musician/DJ/producer/writer surprised them at the studio where he produced a cover version for the campaign that featured all six fan musicians.

The MasterCard YouTube channel hosted additional, shorter campaign videos – including ‘Ukulele’,

‘Strings’,

‘Guitar’,

and ‘Vocals’.

As well as clips of Ronson himself producing the track.

Unsurprisingly, the initiative saw MasterCard offer up plenty of social media amplification – such as Twitter content:

It's true! The 1st official Mark Ronson Uptown Funk cover is coming very soon. See the story https://t.co/n9jeoZOUZ3 https://t.co/KcocNFE3uZ

— MasterCardUK (@MasterCardUK) January 14, 2016

Watch the Priceless Surprise story of the first 'Uptown Funk' cover produced by @MarkRonson! https://t.co/iKkwIBlc86

— MasterCardUK (@MasterCardUK) January 20, 2016

Get your nod on with @MarkRonson's #PricelessSurprises cover of Uptown Funk! @MasterCardUK https://t.co/h9hmZ6Xcpy pic.twitter.com/rb880phL45

— BRIT Awards (@brits) January 24, 2016

and Ronson also uses his own Twitter channel to push the initiative.

I searched the Internet 4 my fave Uptown Funk covers, found 6 very talented musicians & hit Abbey Road 2 cut this https://t.co/f3QDfh4UDE

— Mark Ronson (@MarkRonson) January 19, 2016

As did Abbey Road Studios.

Recorded here at Abbey Road, watch @MarkRonson record a cover of Uptown Funk for @MasterCardUK's #PricelessSurprises https://t.co/ENGH8fQ1Qo

— Abbey Road Studios (@AbbeyRoad) January 20, 2016

A further aspect of MasterCard’s BRITS activation was an awards ceremony ticket competition strand,

Fancy #WINNING tickets to the @Brits with @MasterCardUK? Enter here> https://t.co/txpCmSpAKa Closes 03.02.16. pic.twitter.com/teob0wagPJ

— ASK Italian (@ASKItalian) January 18, 2016

and Ronson also reportedly has other additional surprises lined up for further phases of the campaign and a set of MasterCard secret gigs with a mystery artist joining him onstage.

Ronson commented: ‘It was brilliant to bring together six unique talents and produce a new cover of my track. It’s an honour that such talented people are interested in my music, and I loved working with the group – they shared such a good energy, and we created something special. It’s the first time I’ve ever produced a cover of one of my own songs, and I really enjoyed it.’

While Shaun Springer, MasterCard UK and Ireland’s head of brand and sponsorship, added: ‘Our sponsorship programme is about creating experiences that connect MasterCard cardholders to the things they love in new and surprising ways. We understand how passionate music fans are, and Priceless Surprises is our platform for helping those fans share their love of music, and connect them to their favourite artists in truly priceless ways. ‘

‘Mark Ronson is a huge global talent, and we’re honoured to be working with him. It was fantastic to help him bring together a group of his biggest fans through a shared love of his music, and create something so unique,’ continued Springer. ‘Music fans can expect more Priceless Surprises from MasterCard ahead of this year’s BRIT Awards.’

McCann London was the main creative agency behind the campaign, production was run by Craft, while media planning and buying was run by Carat UK, digital, social and sponsorship by Big Group and PR from Kaper.

The McCann London team included chief creative officers Rob Doubal and Laurence Thomson, creative directors Matt Crabtree & Simon Hepton, a creative team of Jean-Laurent Py, Matt Crabtree & Simon Hepton, while other members of the unit included managing partner Tom Bedwell, business lead Oliver Morgan, account manager Lauren Benezra, planning partner Karen Crum> and project director Metz Fasano.

The production company was Craft London, the director Blake Claridge, the head of production was Sergio Lopez, senior producer Zara Balfour, line producer Ben Greenacre and the DoP was Berndt Wiese.

The sound recordist was Ashok Kumar, the editors were Max Downey and Phil Conway, while the sound mix was handled by Tim Sutton.

Comment

2016 marks the 18^th consecutive year that MasterCard has been the primary sponsor of the BRIT Awards and its activation approach continues its globally consistent strategy of using so called ‘Priceless Surprises’ to bring musicians and fans closer together.

Ronson himself has also been nominated for British Male Solo Artist and British Producer of the Year for the 2016 BRIT Awards which will take place on 24 February at The O2 in London.

This year’s campaign neatly dovetails with previous MasterCard music-led Priceless Surprises including its Pharrell fronted 2014 BRITS campaign (see case study) and its 2015 work activating its rights at The GRAMMYs (see case study).

Links

MasterCard Priceless Surprises:

https://www.pricelesssurprises.co.uk/

MasterCard UK YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/MasterCardUK

MasterCard UK Twitter

https://twitter.com/mastercarduk

MasterCard UK Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/MasterCardUK/

MasterCard UK Google+:

https://plus.google.com/u/1/116916914076308047523

MasterCard UK Website: