CHALLENGE & APPROACH:

In a rapidly growing e-commerce market in the UAE, during the biggest holiday shopping season, with competing brands owning 80% of physical and digital media, how could Mastercard earn preference and usage and become the card-on-file?

A rare eclipse, 172 years in the making, was happening on December 26; the same day the shopping festival would start.

So, if competition owned the ground and the screens, we got Mastercard to own the sky, in a priceless shopping experience.

IDEA & EXECUTION:

Mastercard collaborated with noon.com, UAE’s homegrown e-commerce retailer, and using real-time astronomical data, the brand created “ASTRONOMICAL SALES”; a gamified promotion for all who registered their Mastercard as the card-on-file and purchased with it.

As the sun diminished in real-time, the price diminished in real-time by the same percentage too, with discounts of 97% on products, at the peak of the eclipse.

Regional news and media platforms competed to be the first to break the news of “the sale of the century” for “the sight of the century”.

Through targeted outdoor, social content and interactive augmented-reality technology, more awareness was generated.

Live eclipse viewing events across the country became live shopping experiences.

And those who purchased with their Mastercard at the exact moment when the eclipse formed the Mastercard logo, were awarded with priceless experiences.

RESULTS & EFFECTIVENESS:

Regional news and media platforms competed to be the first to break the news of “the sale of the century” for “the sight of the century”.

All products on sale, sold out completely.

Noon.com witnessed an engagement that was 15-times higher than usual engagement.

And we observed an astronomical increase in Mastercards on file, earning 18,282 new registered Mastercards in just 2 hours versus the average of 1,000 in 24 hours and 12,000 in one week.