Mastercard has been focusing a lot on sports marketing recently. People from India, more than any other country, are incredibly passionate about cricket. Mastercard’s brand positioning is about “connecting everyone through priceless possibilities”. It’s not for the rich and famous or the well-to-do, it’s for everybody even those who do not have access to the financial system today. Therefore, cricket provides the company with deep penetration across all the segments. Mastercard signed a sponsorship deal with the BCCI recently.
Other than cricket, the company is also associated with the Australian and French Open tennis tournaments. In India, Mastercard signed the former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni as its endorser four years ago.
Mastercard has launched an initiative called the ‘Priceless Planet Coalition.’ Through this initiative, the company plans to plant 100 million trees worldwide within the next 4 years. They have partnered with various organisations and signed sponsorship deals with many franchises to create awareness regarding this initiative. Manasi Narasimhan, VP and head, marketing and communications, Mastercard talks about the company’s Priceless Planet Coalition (PPC) and sports marketing with Storyboard18’s Shibani Gharat.
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