25/01/2019

Mastercard Australian Open 2019 Integrated Activation Urges Aussies To ‘Rally Together’

A new multi-strand Australian Open activation programme from official payments partner Mastercard asks all Aussies to pick up a racquet and rally together.

 

 

The integrated campaign, running under Mastercard’s global ‘Start Something Priceless’ platform (which aims to inspire and enable people to pursue their passions and purpose), rolled out across television and out-of-home, PR, experiential, digital and social channels.

 

The brand’s third year of sponsoring the tournament sees its work informed by insight demonstrating tennis’s proven record for maintaining not just health and fitness, but also relationships.

 

The proposition is that tennis is unique in that it offers all players – from eight to 80 – a chance to bond together and thus the creative invites all Australians to pick up a racquet and play with one another.

 

Thus, the primary objective of the campaign is to inspire Australians to pick up a racquet and rally together with family and friends (existing and new), because one of the priceless things about tennis is that it is not just about hitting a ball, but also about the friendships you make.

 

The initiative was launched with a 30-second nationwide television commercial that opens with a man trimming his hedge when a tennis balls lands in his back garden. He throws the ball back, but it continues to land in his yard which motivates him to look into the next door garden and see a girl alone with a tennis racquet.

 

The narrative then sees the man cut an opening in his hedge to play tennis with his neighbour and the spot closes with the voiceover: ‘Unlock the world around you, rally together. Start Something Priceless’.

 

The creative sees neighbours (in the Hampton area of Melbourne) take down their backyard fences and replace them with tennis nets for people in the community to come together over a rally.

 

The spot debuted during the tournament and ran for four weeks on official broadcaster Channel 9.

 

The video and supporting creative assets are also amplified across out of home and digital platforms.

 

 

The brand also worked on the #MastercardRallyTogether campaign with tennis ambassador John Millman.

 

 

The message is that tennis and Mastercard are helping break down barriers that divide communities and inspiring new friendships.

 

 

 

The activation, was developed in harness with creative agency McCann Sydney, with PR led by Eleven, experiential by sports and entertainment agency Octagon, while media was handled by Carat and The Story Lab.

 

The pre-activation research, released by Mastercard in collaboration with The Happiness Institute, found that being closer to a neighbour would make 90% of Australians happier – but fear of rejection and feeling awkward is holding them back.

 

To further illustrate and support tennis (and the brand’s) role in building connections and relationships, Mastercard worked with The Story Lab to leverage their 9 broadcast sponsorship in order to tap into genuine community stories by creating a three part content series titled ‘Local Connections’ which genuinely broke down the physical barriers that divided neighbours in a Melbourne Street by removing backyard fences and replacing them with tennis nets.

 

The series airs within the Australian Open broadcast and online.

 

 

 

 

Another activation strand, for fans at the ground at the Grand Slam Oval, saw Mastercard provide people with an physical opportunity to pick up a racquet and rally together with a friend or stranger at the ‘Mastercard Beach Tennis Court’ (created by Octagon).

 

The idea invites people to come down to the Mastercard Beach Tennis Court and rally with friends or other fans and incentivises participation by offering a leader board for those who complete the longest rally and a chance to win a $2,500 Ticketek voucher.

 

Mastercard also ran an activation thread that tracked player movements through each unique racquet using embedded technology which enabled each rally to be translated into art through real-time data visualisation displayed on a big LED screen inside the Oval.

 

 

 

As well as offering real-time and low latency tournament news and views,

 

 

Mastercard’s marketers also ran Australian Open ticket competitions, hospitality, on-site branding strands to the activation programme.

 

 

“Every day at Mastercard we work to make a difference in communities across the world. Tennis is a powerful way to bring people together and working with our agencies we built a strong integrated campaign that illustrated this insight across every medium,” commented Mastercard Asia Pacific senior vice president of marketing and communications Rustom Dastoor.

 

“Whether you lived in the neighbourhood in Hampden where we tore down fences, are watching our TVC or rallying with a friend on Grand Slam Oval, we are inspiring consumers to do something meaningful through tennis.”

 

Comment:

 

This work continues to reinforce Mastercard’s mantra that ‘experiences matter more than things’ and sees the brand continue to leverage the Australian Open 2019 to connect people to one another and to unique, priceless experiences.

 

This enlightening campaign also reflects the sports sponsorship space’s growing trend to link activation to cause and purpose.

 

The 2019 work follows on from the brand’s 2018 Australian Open activation, also developed with McCann Sydney, which linked with its Priceless Surprises for cardholders programme and which was built around the idea of ‘Making A Grand Slam A Happy Slam’ (see case study).

 

 

It was back in 2016 that Mastercard signed the deal to become as the official payments partner for the Australian Open and naming rights partner for the Mastercard Hopman Cup in collaboration with Tennis Australia (TA).

 

Mastercard has a strong track record for backing tennis tournaments and at the time also sponsored the Roland-Garros French Open, as well as the Miami Open.

 

Tennis is just one thread of the payment giant’s portfolio of sports partnerships which also include the PGA Tour, The Open Championship, UEFA Champions League, 2015 Rugby World Cup and Major League Baseball and in Australia it also backs Cricket Australia, The Ashes Series, One Day Series and Twenty20 and The Mastercard Hopman Cup.

 

Sport is just one of the nine consumer passion pillars – others include entertainment, music and film, travel, art and culture, culinary and dining, philanthropy, shopping and the environment – that guide Mastercard’s sponsorship framework.

 

It also sponsors other major tent pole events around the world such as the GRAMMY Awards and the Cannes Film Festival.

 

Links:

 

Mastercard Australia

https://www.mastercard.com.au

http://www.facebook.com/MasterCardAU/

https://twitter.com/MasterCardAU

https://www.linkedin.com/company/mastercard/

 

McCann Sydney

https://mccann.com.au/

 

Octagon

http://www.octagon.com/australia

 

Tennis Australia
https://www.tennis.com.au/
https://twitter.com/TennisAustralia
https://www.facebook.com/TennisAustralia/
https://www.instagram.com/tennisaustralia
https://www.youtube.com/user/TennisAustralia

 

Australian Open
https://ausopen.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AustralianOpen
https://www.instagram.com/australianopen/
https://twitter.com/australianopen
https://www.youtube.com/user/australianopentv



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