Mastercard supports sustainability projects and initiatives on a global, regional and local scale. As a well-established brand in Switzerland, Mastercard briefed us to find an initiative that has a positive effect on the Swiss environment.

Glaciers are an important environmental issue in Switzerland: 90% of all glaciers in the Alps will be gone by the end of this century. Because of global warming, glaciers are melting faster and faster. With that, the main source of fresh water for millions of people will disappear. Already today people are suffering from the lack of water: From mountain huts hosting hikers to farmers in the valleys, who face problems watering their fields.

The primary objective was to create attention for this. To give consumers a chance to actively help. To enable them to simply use their Mastercard for this. With the ultimate objective of creating a protective geotextile coversheet as large as possible.

Consumption is an unavoidable part of our everyday life. But it contributes to global warming, which makes Swiss glaciers melt. We found a way to make using your Mastercard do the opposite – and help stop the melting. By creating a piece of protective glacier cover in the exact size of the card. With every payment. In a country-wide campaign. Adding a piece of cover every single time our customers covered the card reader with their Mastercard. And then adding up all these pieces to create a big sheet of geotextile, to cover and preserve Swiss glaciers for the next ten years.

We wanted to reach a target audience as wide as possible – basically, all Mastercard holders. So we spread our message next to card readers where people had the chance to immediately add a piece of glacier cover by using their Mastercard.

We also wanted to specifically target people who care about the Swiss alps and are sensitive towards the problem of melting glaciers. To achieve this, a focus of communication was the mountain areas.

And we wanted to find and communicate a scientifically valid solution for the melting problem. For this, we partnered up with the Cover Project Foundation, an organization founded by scientists like the glaciologist Felix Keller, with the goal of developing the most effective way to protect glaciers with geotextiles. To provide deeper information online, we developed content where experts like Felix Keller and operators of mountain huts shared their knowledge and experiences about melting glaciers

We launched a country-wide campaign in October 2021. It ran for three months with a media mix ranging from POS displays, out of home, digital and social media to newsletters to Mastercard holders. Every payment made with a Mastercard during this time contributed a piece of protective glacier cover in the size of the card.

To target people with a special interest in alpine nature, we booked megaposters in 11 winter sport destinations such as Laax or Davos, including DOOH Screens at train stations on the way to these destinations.

On a landing page people could deepen their knowledge about Swiss glaciers and the impact of global warming. We produced interviews with the glaciologist Dr. Felix Keller from our partner The Cover Project Foundation, and operators of mountain huts giving us real life insights from people whose work depends on glaciers. This content was also used in interactive engagement ads.

The card cover campaign reached almost 40 Mio. people. Many of these people with a high sensitivity for sustainability topics: DOOH screens on the way to winter sports destinations alone reached 4 Mio. winter sports enthusiasts.

Interviews with glaciologists and mountain hut operators were used in informative engagement ads that reached 43k active engagements.

There was also a rise in card transactions, but it is not possible to say if this was a result only of the campaign. But the most important result is another one:

During the three months on air, we registered so many payments that we can produce a geotextile sheet so big, that we are able to cover 50,000 square meters of Swiss glaciers for the next ten years. This allows us to save up to 300,000 m3 of ice from melting. And to protect the underlying ecosystem.