Mastercard is often overlooked as a key player in the technology landscape. Misrepresented as ‘just a credit card company’, rather than the fintech leader they’ve always been. They work at the cutting edge, pioneering much of the digital safety, security, and payments technology we take for granted. Playing a critical role in business, governments, and communities around the world, central to economic infrastructure and financial inclusion for billions. But you wouldn’t know it. We were tasked to create a visual and verbal expression that raised the pride and profile of Mastercard as a technology company and signaled this shift in perception internally and externally.

The creative expression positions Mastercard as a forward-thinking technology company grounded by intent and impact. Key themes of inclusion, connection, ambition, scale and leadership, stem from a bold value proposition and underpin visual and verbal storytelling. Powerful messaging is brought to life with dynamic typography inspired by the semiotics of code and woven through tactile illustrations that continually evolve like world-changing technology. Making complex concepts tangible and compelling, the breakthrough work is warm and tactile in a faceless world of cold lines and wires.

We undertook a comprehensive Inside Out / Outside In strategic approach. With a key measure of success being employee engagement and instilling pride, we gathered insights from internal stakeholders from all levels within the organization, to ensure our work hit key engagement points of feeling sense of inclusion and acknowledgment for their work.

To confirm our visual and verbal expression would breakthrough in the tech category, we ran an extensive competitor and category analysis, which uncovered the need for warmth, dimension, and tactility in what is traditionally a cold, blue, flat world.

We ran preliminary testing on LinkedIn to ensure the new positioning was resonating with potential recruits and driving engagement.

On November 2nd 2022, the new expression was launched to a global audience of Mastercard employees. President and CTO, Ed McLaughlin, introduced his new technology strategy surrounded by this rich and dimensional world. Six master illustrations linked to the key strategic themes in the value proposition were brought to life in a dynamic launch video, signaling this moment of change.

Internal channels and touchpoints switched over to the new visual and verbal assets on launch day - on the intranet, environmental signage, digital screens and presentation templates. A toolkit of all visual and verbal assets was delivered, so that all employees could begin integrating the expression into their everyday deliverables.

The external roll out continues, with messaging and visuals being used in external channels such as newsletters, press releases, and LinkedIn posts, and will continue through 2023 with an extensive communications plan.

The work made an immediate impact. At launch, this bold expression was surveyed internally and anonymously with Mastercard employees and returned a positive approval rate of 97%. Employees immediately shared that they felt a sense of pride, as they saw themselves and their work positioned as a vital part of a forward-thinking technology company.

The first recruitment campaign that used the new verbal expression saw a 44% increase in applications. The campaign used a hiring narrative that was developed using the key themes and language, and this shifted the story from a ‘good job at a big company’ to ‘an opportunity to build tech that changes the world and makes a real difference to real people.’ The increase in applications is testament to the power of this new aesthetic in the sea-of-sameness within the traditional fintech category.