To support the launch and generate buzz for MasterCard’s newest Priceless City, Priceless Chicago, we tapped into the greatest springtime passion in the city: Cubs baseball. Through social campaign, fans were invited to showcase their true love and passion for their favorite team, the Chicago Cubs. Fans were then provoked to “prove” their Pledges, via submitting Facebook photos to the app, and were entered into additional sweepstakes for exclusive experiences, like taking batting practice from home plate with Cubs coaches. To amplify the program, MasterCard engaged the fan’s favorite local businesses, to cultivate conversations across social channels to promote the Cubs Pledge.

Watching fans prove their pledges really helped MasterCard with a challenge they’d been struggling with: proving what “Priceless” actually is for its customers. The strength of the creative was that it gave Chicagoans a way to associate MasterCard with what they already loved about their city rather then telling them what was priceless about Chicago from an outsider brand.

Over 50 sports influencers were galvanized; dozens of Chicago media outlets covered the story and participated.

A media campaign (print, radio and stadium signage, but focused on digital and social) delivered over 172MM digital impressions across national and local media sites.

Over 4.7MM potential Twitter impressions, 1.3MM potential earned reach from friends of Fans and 68,000 earned and owned social reach impressions were delivered on core social channels. 36,000 visits were attracted to the Cubs Pledge app in 2.5 months, delivering 1,600 pledges and over 450 multimedia “proofs” (with nearly 1/3 of fans acquired through social completing the “Pledge->Prove->Priceless” journey).