In the run up to Real and Atletico’s titanic Champions League Final, MasterCard unveiled former Portugal star Deco as the ‘manager’ of its player mascots with a spot showing the former Portugal player coaching a miniature mascot dream team at a secret Player Mascot Training Camp.
The webfilm was part of the final phase of pre-game activity from MasterCard before its season-long campaign culminated with 22 children having a ‘Priceless Experience’ walking out of the Lisbon Estádio da Luz tunnel as Official Player Mascots for the 2014 UEFA Champions League Final.
The online training ad which featured recently retired Deco teaching skills to a mini mascot team made to resemble some of the star players from recent Champions League history: including Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Luiz, Diego Costa, Wayne Rooney, and Edgar Davids.
The spot was hosted on the sponsor’s digital platforms and came with local market language variants – such as the French version:
It was followed by an Official Mascot Press Conference where Deco and MasterCard international President Ann Cairns were on-hand to introduce each mascot and present them with their final match day shorts.
The 22 kids, who came from across the world and included five girls, won the opportunity of a lifetime
via a social media competition which ran principally through the financial brand’s Facebook page.
MasterCard also worked with brand ambassador Deco on the day of the final to deliver on-the-spot surprises to MasterCard customers in Lisbon and at the fan fest zones: including rewarding a lucky few cardholders with impressive keepy-uppy skills with tickets to the final.
Comment
Using Deco, the former Porto, Barcelona and Chelsea player, seems a sensible fit for the sponsor not just because he won the Champions League twice in his career, but also because his diminutive size makes him a good height fit with the mini mascot team.
The training camp film received more than 30,000 views in the first three days.
MasterCard, which is reported to be in talks about extending its 20-year sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League, builds its activation around the tournament on an experience-driven marketing strategy.
The payments brand’s current three-year deal expires next summer and it is looking to further build on the partnership to feed its umbrella ‘Priceless’ positioning which focuses on offering money-can’t-buy experiences.
‘We recognise that people don’t just want to buy things, what they want is things they can remember – they want experiences. That is why we’ve developed ‘Priceless’ into an experiential campaign. It’s all linking the experience you have with a good feeling,” explains Cairns.
MasterCard is set to continue to leverage the passion of sport to promote its new payment technologies, including contactless payment, in the coming weeks through its partnership with the Brazilian national football team (where it’s World Cup work will see it lock horns with rival and official FIFA partner Visa) and in the coming months as an official partner of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Links
MasterCard Witness History Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/witnesshistory
MasterCard YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDy8zqsb1-0qFZqG689fZ3Q
MasterCard Player Mascot Twitter
@MasterCard
#PlayerMascot
#PricelessSurprises
MasterCard Player Mascot Website
https://campaigns.mastercard.co.uk/uefa/cmo/terms.html
UEFA Champions League Website
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/
