Best In Consumer Insights: Mastercard

The Mastercard “Priceless” campaign has been running successfully since 1997, and has been shown in over 100 countries and in over 50 languages.

The insight that the Mastercard “Priceless” campaign levers is that life isn’t about what you buy, but about the relationships you have with the people you care about, and the special moments that you can share with them.

Rather than exclusivity, or status, or the accumulation of stuff, this insight positions Mastercard as more an enabler to the more important things in life.

What I find interesting is that this isn’t particularly ownable, since any card can claim this; but by putting a stake in the ground with this insight, they have claimed it for their own.

It also doesn’t hurt the longevity of this McCann-Erickson campaign that it has struck the right balance of emotional heart tugs, humor, and pop culture references across its almost 400 spots.

Additionally, with imitation being the most sincere form of advertising relevance, this campaign probably has the most parodies, spoofs, and user generated originals of any ad campaign on the web.

The example below is one of my favorite real spots.