MasterCard Rewards Debit Users with Sweepstakes
MasterCard is giving women 1,000 reasons to treat themselves with a new sweepstakes that encourages cardholders to use their debit cards.
The credit card company has renewed its monthly bonus sweepstakes, which offers the chance to win a $1,000 monthly bonus for 10 years. Cardholders are automatically entered every time they use their debit MasterCard card through June 30. Double entries are earned for transactions at restaurants or on purchases made with the PayPass.
Consumers can also enter at Priceless.com/Promos/MonthlyBonus.
“Women tend to be the most frequent debit card users and we wanted to try and reinforce debit card usage even more,” said Cheryl Guerin, vice president, promotions and interactive, MasterCard Worldwide. “MasterCard is rewarding and honoring women for what they do every day.”
A recent survey found that debit card usage by women has more than doubled since 2003, rising from 20% to 43%, according the “Women in the Financial Marketplace” analysis, part of the Yankelovich Monitor 2006/07 study.
Yet while debit card usage is up, a separate MasterCard survey found that women aren’t doing enough to treat themselves.
A study of 1,000 women found that 60% of women pamper themselves only once every three months or less. Another 34% don’t put money aside while 53% allocate less than $25 a month to treat themselves.
So, MasterCard is treating women with incentives of its own to raise awareness about the promotion. The company has made 50,000 vouchers available for consumers to treat friends and family to $75 worth of spa services, a round of golf or a two for one dining discounts.
Visitors to Priceless.com/Promos/MonthlyBonus can fill out e-cards to someone they believe deserves a bonus, Guerin said. MasterCard is leveraging the popularity of e-cards to help drive awareness of the campaign. The vouchers are available on a first come, first serve basis
“We wanted to create some buzz and excitement and have people get involved,” Guerin said of the vouchers. “The more we can get consumers engaged and involved in our organization, the higher awareness of the overall program. Anything we can do to get people talking, to get people excited to reinforce our usage message is one of the strategies we use for promotion.”
MasterCard is running TV and radio spots and sending out 34.5 million pieces of direct mail to help promote the campaign. Online ads and PR also supports the effort.
Armstrong Partnerships handles MasterCard’s promotions. McCann Erickson created TV and radio spots for the campaign, while MRM Worldwide handles the online activity and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide and Taylor PR oversees PR. Project Support Team is in charge of the sweepstakes administration and fulfillment.
