Your Shot: How McCann Eclipsed the Competition for Mastercard

When nature paints your brand’s logo in the sky above eight countries, it’s a good time to celebrate. For Mastercard, the opportunity came last month as countries in the Middle East and Asia experienced a ‘ring of fire’ eclipse for the first time in 172 years.

For McCann Dubai, the event was an unmissable opportunity. Together with noon.com (one of the region’s biggest online stores), Mastercard offered ‘astronomical savings’ that changed as the eclipse progressed. In other words, when the sun was 97% covered by the moon, products would be discounted by 97%. But customers had to move fast, as when the sun came out the other side moments later, prices began to return to normal.

To find out how such an ambitious and unique project came together, LBB’s Adam Bennett spoke to McCann Dubai’s regional ECD Fouad Malak.

LBB> Congratulations on a great campaign! How did the idea first come about, was there a real lightbulb moment?

Fouad> Some of the young creatives who recently joined us were exploring the interesting things to do in Dubai around Christmas. Astronomy is a big passion point in these parts and there was a buzz already forming around the eclipse set for January 26th. At that same moment one of the lads had his screen open on a Mastercard key visual he was developing, and the idea of matching the Mastercard emblem with the form of the eclipse started to take shape.

LBB> What can you tell us about the research that went into this campaign? Was the end result based on any particular insights?

Fouad> The team did a tremendous amount of research on the eclipse itself – the timings, the visibility, the relevance to the region – these were all elements that we knew would make or break the success of the promotion. They even travelled to the Dubai Astronomy Centre to make sure that the research they had done correlated with what the scientists had found, and to pick up new insights and details, especially with regards to astronomy’s regional relevance and influence. 

LBB> What were your main aims and ambitions going into the campaign? 

Fouad> Our goal was to create a purchasing opportunity during that dead season while proving to the client that even promotional work can be as exciting as big-budget brand work.

Above: A selection of images from the campaign, including the creative team behind it all.

LBB> How have you found the reception to the campaign?

Fouad> At first, we were not sure what kind of turnout we would get. but when we showed up on the day of the eclipse at 4.30am to set up our cameras, we were truly astounded by the huge turnout. The observation deck of the Dubai Astronomy Centre could hold 200 people, and an hour before the eclipse 500 were already waiting outside. Furthermore, our peers from around the world have been sending us positive responses about the innovative simplicity of the campaign. The partner noon.com informed us beforehand that the promotion was oversubscribed threefold, and that they had concerns the site might not cope with the load. Of course, all went well in the end and the extensive media coverage around us was a further sign of success. 

LBB> Speaking more generally, how much more impactful do you think experiential, one-off campaigns like this are as opposed to standard activations? 

Fouad> Massively more effective and what goes amiss sometimes is the fact that such activations achieve better results whilst simultaneously building brand love in a way that’s longer term. 

LBB> What can you tell us about the client's reaction to the campaign? 

Fouad> The initial reaction was, “Are you sure you guys can pull it off in time, this is the Christmas season after all?” but this quickly changed to, “How can we support you best… but you have to be quick, we wouldn’t want to force our teams to spend their festive season in the office.” So, we managed to establish a kind of crack team: combining key personnel from the client side, media, digital and agency, working in unison over the holidays to ensure nothing was amiss.

LBB> What were the biggest challenges and how did you overcome them? 

Fouad> Getting certain approvals from authorities/entities to get the right shots at the right locations wasn’t as straightforward as we thought. Ensuring the live transmission tech of the eclipse went off without a hitch during the promotion and the prices corresponded accurately to the moon’s coverage of the sun was a very complex affair. This highly technical feat hadn’t been attempted in these parts before and we were fortunate enough to have the right people on the ground to resolve any issues.  

LBB> Any parting thoughts? 

Fouad> We want to reach out to all our fellow struggling creatives from around the world with a message of hope: the kind of day-to-day promotions that make you wish for measles can turn out to be something truly wonderful with the right spirit and partners. What was most satisfying for the team was meeting 15-year-old Ashmeet in the early hours of the 26th, full of enthusiasm, waiting at the door. The head of the Astronomy Society said it best: “This kind of promotion gives the youth of today enough motivation to get out of their homes, drop their tablets and PS4s and just look up at the sky and discover the wonders of space.”