Mastercard’s UAE Astronomical Sales wins big at New York Festivals

Mastercard named Global Brand of the Year

Mastercard was recognized with a series of awards at the New York Festivals® Advertising Awards, including being named 2020 Global Brand of the Year Award for its fearless commitment to creativity and innovation.

Mastercard’s Astronomical Sales campaign in the UAE walked away with three gold medals, one silver and one bronze, making it the region’s most awarded campaign. The Astronomical Sales campaign was in partnership with noon.com, conceived and executed by FP7 McCann – one of the region’s largest creative agencies and a longtime Mastercard partner.

“We are extremely honored to receive the recognition of Global Brand of the Year in addition to be awarded for this campaign, which is a true testament of our ongoing commitment to offer our consumers Priceless experiences. For a unique moment, our iconic logo graced the sky, and we wanted to reward our cardholders as we commemorated this occasion. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Marketing and Communication team, our agency partner FP7 and of course, noon.com, we brought to life one of the campaigns we are all proud of,” said Beatrice Cornacchia, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard.

In total, Mastercard global campaigns earned 6 Gold Towers, 6 Silver Towers, 14 Bronze and 117 Finalist Certificate Awards.

An Astronomical Initiative

The day after Christmas, at 6:30 am, Mastercard leveraged a unique solar eclipse and won the attention of shoppers across the Middle East, when they put their promotion in the sky.

During this rare eclipse, 97% of the sun would disappear, so Mastercard teamed up with one of the region’s biggest online retailers, noon.com, to give Mastercard holders up to 97% off a range of products in this exciting promotion, entitled Astronomical Sales.

When the eclipse started, so did the sale. And as the sun diminished, so did the prices, reaching discounts of 97%, and returning gradually to full price.

Additionally, to those who purchased at the exact moment the eclipse formed the Mastercard logo, priceless prizes were awarded.

Priceless Results

The results were phenomenal for the region, with this 2-hour promotion seeing products selling out in minutes and a change of behavior in a cash-on-delivery region.

Awarded categories

Online (Financial advertising: Use of Discipline/Medium)

Gold

Credit Card (Financial Advertising: Consumer)

Gold

Marketing + Promotions (Financial advertising: Use of Discipline/Medium)

Gold

Outdoor/Transit/ Out-of-home (Financial advertising: Use of Discipline/Medium)

Silver

Financial Service Provider (Financial advertising: Use of Discipline/Medium)

Bronze