Mastercard's "smart activation idea driven by local insights" developed into a campaign to connect the brand, UCL, and Football Passion.
Objective
Since football is the top passion in sports in Turkey, having Champions League Final in İstanbul is the biggest event of 2023 for local football followers to unite and celebrate again after the cancellation of the planned event in 2021.
Context
This campaign was created to welcome Uefa Champions League Final in Istanbul and celebrate Mastercard's 29-year-old sponsorship to this biggest football tournament across Europe.
Mastercard used iconic ferries of Istanbul and created a special musical instrument using 53 ferry horns with different tones. For the first time, people in Istanbul saw a ferry playing music with its horns.
Creative and Media Strategy
Football is the top passion for Turkish people, and it is accepted as the sport that has the most followers. Since it is the most popular sport in the country, 43 percent of the followers play football and 14 percent attend live matches.
UEFA Champions League is the top annual competition globally with 3.7 billion cumulative TV audience and with more than six million physical attendants. It is also accepted as the top annual sporting event in Turkey. Even though none of the Turkish teams are in UCL, locals have a passion to follow Champions League.
On the final weekend when UCL Final game was on city's agenda, the company's ferry did attract attention of people all around Bosphorus and thousands of people engaged with this event even by dancing or recording with their phones. Video of this special concert has been viewed more than 2.6 million times.
Mastercard used iconic ferries of Istanbul and created a special musical instrument using 53 ferry horns with different tones. Building a unique instrument made of ferry horns was at the center of Mastercard's creative idea. Hearing music from ferry horns attracted the attention of thousands of people across Bosphorus. Further, Mastercard filmed this concert and published the video on digital channels so that people all around Turkey could watch this unique event online.
UCL Final is one of the top football events globally and there were many other multinational brands that sponsored the UEFA with bigger budgets than Mastercard, such as Turkish Airlines, Pepsi, Ruffles, adidas, and Heineken. Mastercard needed to break this clutter amongst the high-budget advertisers and gain visibility.
