On New Year's Eve, millions of people come to Times Square, MasterCard wanted to wish them all a Priceless New Year in a big way. However, the only digital billboards left were oddly shaped units on opposite corners.

MasterCard entertained the massive, captive audience by optimizing the odd shaped billboards with 12 animated stories. Each story represented a month of the year and utilized the windows in the Nasdaq board and the tall, narrow shape of the Reuters board.

What made the creative work special was embracing the limitations of the available digital boards. Windows and other obstructions were used as elements in the story telling. The story moved from a building on one side of the street to the building across the street. Smash, an animated baseball from one side of the street broke the animated glass on the other side of the street.

Animators and designers worked closely with architectural drawings of the boards and the buildings in Times Square to integrate the architectural features into the concepts. Bunnies popped out of windows.

A dragon circled around a turret-like billboard. And a fireman climbed a long long ladder up a thin billboard. And Smash, an animated baseball from one side of the street broke the animated glass on the other side of the street.

Mission accomplished. The audience was enthralled. According to tracking, the Priceless Surprises program has resulted in a 3% increase in consideration for MasterCard. No easy feat in a low interest category where consumers think the top two competitors are virtually the same!