TAP FOR YOUR TOWN

TitleTAP FOR YOUR TOWN
BrandMASTERCARD
Product / ServiceCONTACTLESS PAYMENT
CategoryE02. Sponsorship & Brand Partnership
EntrantMcCANN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation McCANN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Media Placement CARAT Sydney, AUSTRALIA
PR ACUMEN REPUBLIC Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production McCANN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Additional Company DIGITAL ARTS NETWORK Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Pat Baron McCann CCO
Jerker Fagerstrom McCann Executive Creative Director
Adam Lee McCann Managing Director
Marcus Tesoriero McCann Creative Director
Ian MacDonald McCann Planning Director
Jonathon Shannon McCann Copywriter
Long Truong McCann Art Director
Loryn Garnsey McCann Group Account Director
Caroline Drury McCann Senior Account Manager
Colin Tuohy McCann Head of Broadcast
Matthew Flinn McCann Senior Editor
Cobie Dellicastelli McCann Digital Producer
Katrina Leo McCann Digital Producer
Terry Chisolm McCann Head of Craft
Rob Toscano McCann Digital Designer
Michael Papageorgiou McCann Designer
Ben Pearce freelance AD
Rupert Laffey freelance Copywriter

The Campaign

For Kiwis, rugby is a religion …and former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw a god. Tap For Your Town gave towns in New Zealand the opportunity to bring Richie out of retirement and play one last game of rugby against their town’s local team. To change the transaction behaviour of an entire nation, we made tapping more than just a way to pay, but a matter of town pride. A Priceless game of touch rugby with Richie was to be both an incentive and a communications platform. The rules were simple: the town with the most taps would win.

The Brief

1.2M media 260K creative

Creative Execution

For 10 weeks, we monitored real-time tapping and social media data of 66 New Zealand towns. This allowed us to follow inter-town banter and respond with real-time communications to fuel fierce local rivalries. During the campaign, we created over 400 pieces of town-targeted social creative, including geo-targeting, leader boards and personalised shout-outs from Richie himself (on YouTube and Facebook), making tapping the talk of the town…in every town. When Queenstown emerged victorious, the game was broadcast nationwide on Facebook Live to 480,000 people. To New Zealanders there’s nothing more Priceless than bringing their living legend Richie McCaw out of retirement and into their town. Richie’s team won the game 11-10 in a thrilling overtime victory, but that was far from the only fantastic result.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The campaign reached 97% of New Zealanders while generating 48.3 million impressions (a number 10 times greater than the national population). During the campaign period, New Zealand towns together made 13.24 million taps, compared to 8.94 million taps in the same period in 2016 (an increase of 48% year on year). Monthly taps increased by 17% from 4.52 million to 5.29 million, monthly frequency increased by 11% from an average of 8.1 to 9.0 taps, and the penetration of tapping behaviour increased by 31,000 active cardholders from 531,000 to 562,000. These results are projected to deliver over 10 million additional transactions across next 12 months, equating to some NZD$212 million of value to Mastercard.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

It's difficult to convey what rugby means to the people of New Zealand. It's more than their national sport; it's a religion. And former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw is a god. When Richie retired in 2015, the nation was devasted. For decades Mastercard has communicated with its Priceless platform, and to New Zealanders there's nothing more Priceless than bringing a living legend out of retirement and into their town...let alone being one of the local players that get to take their field and take on one of their idols.

New Zealanders have a fierce love for their local area and rivalry with others. The Maori have a phrase – tangata whenua – used to describe people of a particular area. It means ‘people of the land’ and signifies the important relationship between people and place. We landed on a truth that people might not tap for themselves but they might for their town. But we would need something priceless to get the towns tapping. Our target audience was all New Zealander Mastercard cardholders.

Links

Supporting Webpage