LATAM TRENDSETTER: Cheryl Guerin, MasterCard’s Global Digital Marketing Head, Talks about how the Priceless Platform Continues to Innovate
Cheryl Guerin, Senior Vice President and Group Head of both US Marketing and Global Digital Marketing at MasterCard Worldwide, believes that her brand might best be characterized as the "Heart of Commerce." This positioning trademark came to life when she recently discussed at an ANA seminar how MasterCard is building connections with consumers and businesses in both a challenging economic re-setting and within a changing media environment.
Certainly within Latin America, the "Priceless" campaign has taken on a life of its own over the last decade. Last year, The Internationalist awarded MasterCard’s landmark campaign efforts in Brazil when the brand took advantage of the country’s advanced blogosphere and cultural affection for self-broadcasting. MasterCard asked Brazilians to create personal interpretations of what “Priceless” means, and they were overwhelmed with examples of "priceless moments" that now populate the Internet as photos, videos and blog postings.
Guerin believes that MasterCard sits at the center of what consumers care about most today: personal finance. As a result, the company's Digital Value Proposition is to "Advance Commerce Globally." In doing so, she continually asks, "How do you help consumers to confidently manage their finances while also helping them to filter the world to what matters to them."
Her answers lie in better understanding the context of consumption. She says, "Today consumers want to know more in order to be more responsible, but don't have the time. They also don't want to talk about it; in fact, they would like to talk about anything but their finances."
MasterCard has come to better navigate within this environment by what Guerin calls "shifting the mindset." This means simply trading old notions of control for new ones associated with credibility, particularly at a time when consumers are more aware of the digital landscape. "Listening, influencing and integrating can be optimized through the social media opportunity."
"Also by encouraging consumer to celebrate priceless moments by sharing them through various applications means that we are not talking to them directly about their finances." MasterCard's campaign genius is in encouraging aspiration that makes us pay attention to our finances.
So what's next for MasterCard? According to Cheryl Guerin, it's global expansion, payment capabilities, mobile extension, deeper marketing integraton and continued experimentation. She says they've only just begun.
As group head, US Integrated Marketing & Global Digital Marketing, Cheryl Guerin is responsible for US Integrated brand strategy, marketing programs, promotions, media advertising investment strategy, including directing the brand's award-winning Priceless™ advertising campaign. She is also responsible for the global, cross-organizational digital strategic leadership and best-in-class solutions to drive brand strength and business across B2C and B2B audiences. This includes identifying new digital marketing related opportunities and oversight of the MasterCard global web sites and development, digital brand program integration, Mobile and Social Marketing and ensuring corporate wide efficiencies.
