GWEN STEFANI'S PRICELESS SURPRISE

TitleGWEN STEFANI'S PRICELESS SURPRISE
BrandMASTERCARD
Product / ServiceMASTERCARD PRICELESS
CategoryA13. Excellence in Partnerships between a Content Producer and a Brand/Product/Talent
EntrantOCTAGON Singapore, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation OCTAGON Singapore, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Tom Healey Octagon Account Director
Sam Ahmed MasterCard - APMEA CMO Asia Pacific
Dan Austin MasterCard - APMEA Senior Business Leader, Marketing
Andres Gonzales MasterCard - APMEA VP Sponsorships
Tan Siang Kim MasterCard - APMEA Specialist, Regional Consumer Marketing
Yuko Someya MasterCard - Japan Director, Global Marketing
Yoshiko Yeomans MasterCard - Japan Program Manager
Rob Twiddy FRUKT Account Director
Alex Mohler FRUKT Global Account Manager
Ko Enomoto Weber Shandwick - Japan Account Manager
Alex Baker McCann Regional Business Director
Cyril Bedat Digital Arts Network Regional Business Director

The Campaign

The two amazing ambassadors kicked off a powerful social campaign through a series of entertaining online clips. Keita veered off script towards the end of each piece, bringing 130 million Japanese “in” on a Priceless Surprise. “If you were able to surprise Gwen Stefani with a Japanese experience while she is in Tokyo for Fashion Week, where would you take her?” Share with us your ideas of how you would give Gwen Stefani a Priceless Japan experience to win… We then pushed out merchant offers across the Priceless Japan Pillars - Eat, play, shop, stay.

Creative Execution

We launched with Gwen announcing her plans to visit to Tokyo for an exclusive concert for MasterCard customers. Keita played the role of her Japanese host, translating Gwen’s words, but veering off script towards the end to deliver the call to action; ‘If you were able to surprise Gwen Stefani with a Japanese Experience while she is in Tokyo, where would you take her?’ Keita and local viewers were ‘in’ on the Surprise. Fans shared what ‘Priceless Japan’ meant to them, sparking discussion about the array of unique treasures in Japan. This stimulated online conversations and enabled MasterCard to serve unique Priceless Japan merchant offers Japan offers. Both Gwen and Keita’s significant social media followings extended the reach. One lucky customer was given a Priceless Surprise by Gwen who invited him to accompany her to the exclusive Keita Maruyama fashion show, and VIP Access to her sold out concert.

This collaboration was a true partnership between brand and talent. All seeing direct benefit. The films featuring Gwen Stefani and Keita Maruyama were viewed over 17 million times, reaching 36 Million people, 1 in 3 of Japan’s total internet population. The Gwen Stefani Live in Tokyo concert supported the debut of her first solo album in almost a decade, which quickly hit #1. The sold out show offered Japanese fans a truly Priceless Experience. Keita Maruyama’s show at Fashion Week Tokyo brought down the house, with over subscribed attendance and Gwen Stefani hosting a lucky cardholder in the coveted front row. This remarkable duo brought the Priceless Japan launch to life generating more than 1.7million qualified leads to MasterCard merchants, directly driving Japanese business through the roof.

What do you get when you pair a Grammy award winning global superstar with one of Japan’s favorite fashion designers? A surprise that 130 million Japanese fans are in on. Priceless. Gwen Stefani rediscovered the passion to write and perform music after a 10 year hiatus. Keita Maruyama was inspired by the partnership to create a new collection for Fashion Week. MasterCard facilitated this match made in heaven and ensured this unlikely partnership was a success.

The Japanese financial category floods consumers with offers. MasterCard took a new approach – don’t shout at them. Let them sing with you. In order to reach out to consumers in a new way and deliver the desired cut through, we knew the launch event need to be headlined by an ambassador. A big one! We needed to engage talent with mass appeal, international credibility and relevance with the local audience. Plus, we needed a local personality that would anchor the campaign and tie back to the domestic focus. Ideally one with a relevant reason to be talking about business to our merchant partners. A celebrity business man!

Links

Video URL