In the build up to the UEFA Champions League Final in May 2021, Mastercard rolled out a ‘statistics versus heart’ marketing campaign to run in parallel to its match mascot rights work (which switched from physical to virtual during the pandemic) and its priceless message from José Mourinho activation strand.
Working with Opta’s Stats Perform, the idea behind the activation was to contrast authentic past match data with the topics of passions, courage and belief based on the campaign conclusion that football is played with the heart
The initiative was based around a series of online spots rolling out around the semi-finals between 3 to 14 May which blended statistical match outcome likelihoods with key game archive action footage and saw Mastercard calculated the probabilities of impossible comebacks of UEFA Champions League.
The ‘Comebacks In Football’ videos came in multiple language versions, all carried the brand’s globally familiar umbrella #Priceless hashtag alongside the campaign-specific #FansvsFacts and the #UCL hashtags and asked the question whether the Champions League was ready to make history again at the Final on 29 May?
These spots were supported by additional content and paid online partnerships led by a 10-minute conversational online video with Opta which saw Mastercard invite a prominent fan of each club left in the competition to argue for the reasons why this will be their year moderated by Opta’s Duncan Alexander who provided plenty of relevant stats for why each team won’t win.
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Mastercard is a long-standing sponsor of the UEFA Champions League with a relationship dating back to 1994 and activates through multiple marketing strands annually between October through May through its global #Priceless brand platform which seeks to bring people closer to the things they are passionate about primarily through brand-backed experiences.
The payments partner renewed its tournament partnership in October 2020 with a new UEFA deal extended its UEFA Champions League rights for the 2021–24 cycle.
“We are very proud to renew our long-standing sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League,” Mark Barnett, president of Mastercard Europe, added. “Key sporting events are a great way for us to directly connect fans across the world to their passion. As we enjoy our 27th year as an official sponsor, we are excited to witness new priceless moments in the UEFA Champions League for years to come.”
On 14 May 2021 Mastercard doubled down to its commitment to football as a core pillar of its marketing mix by joining the National Women’s Soccer League as an official partner and welcoming Crystal Dunn as a Global Mastercard Brand Ambassador.
We are excited to announce that we are joining the National Women’s Soccer League as an official partner and welcoming Crystal Dunn as a Global Mastercard Brand Ambassador! https://t.co/F7S2F7mBVf pic.twitter.com/98J2SXOHX3
— Mastercard News (@MastercardNews) May 14, 2021
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