Annual Report and Corporate Video

Challenge

A market leader in the payments space prepared for a groundbreaking IPO by broadening its image from “credit card company” to driving force “at the heart of commerce.” This meant promoting its role not only in enabling billions of transactions each year, but also in using a wealth of insight to the benefit of cardholders, banks, merchants and societies. Nevertheless, misperceptions about MasterCard persisted. How, then, to clarify the story, and make the company's true value better understood?

Solution

Through various media, we helped to create a new kind of narrative — one underscoring the benefits MasterCard brings to everyone, on every side of every transaction. A series of annual reports showed how the company drives commerce in markets worldwide, whether as an advisor, global processor, technology innovator — or a brand that says yes in more than 210 countries. In 2007, in a book that captured the very essence of the global company, employees described the roles they play in driving the growth of commerce. We then translated the annual into a website and promotional campaign, including a corporate video on display in MasterCard lobbies around the world.

Results

MasterCard's annual reports — and themes that extend to a wide range of communications — have been integral to the company's success in refocusing its brand. Our work has led to new engagements in 2008 and 2009, including B2B communications and the evolution of MasterCard's corporate website.