New York-headquartered payment processing and financial services giant Mastercard, with worldwide revenues of $24 billion-plus has a history of association with popular sports like football, tennis and golf as part of its global outreach. Of late, its Indian arm too has ventured into sports sponsorships beginning with the country’s most popular game, cricket and almost simultaneously into a sport that matches its corporate profile, golf.
Starting in 2022, Mastercard presented the DGC Open with a prize purse of half a million dollars. Clearly the move struck the right notes and for the second edition of the event hosted by and at the historic Delhi Golf Club, Mastercard raised the sponsorship amount by fifty per cent, to three-quarters of a million dollars. Speaking about this and more, Manasi Narasimhan, Vice President and Head, Marketing and Communications for South Asia, said the company’s foray into golf was a natural fit for what it perceived to be an upwardly-mobile and aspirational market.
Excerpts from an e-mail interview:
What is behind Mastercard’s interest in sports properties in India like title sponsorship with the Indian cricket board for all home matches as well as domestic first-class cricket and now with golf?
MN: Mastercard, as a brand, has been highly invested in sponsorships worldwide, with marquee properties like the Uefa Champions league, the Grammys, the Cannes Film Festival, and the Australian and French Open tennis tournaments. Last year in September, we partnered with the Board of Control for Cricket in India to further enhance our prestigious portfolio of sponsorships. Sports is among the nine key passion points that Mastercard has identified to strengthen its association with its partners, customers, cardholders, and the larger audiences.
By becoming the title sponsor for all international matches (both women’s and men’s) held on home ground, domestic cricket matches like Irani Trophy and Ranji Trophy, and all junior cricket (Under-19 and Under-23) matches organised by BCCI, we successfully broadened our strategic outreach to Indian audiences. Since cricket is by far the most popular sport in India, we also leveraged this collaboration to promote women’s cricket with our #HalkeMeinMattLo campaign and inspire positive climate action among the masses with the activation of our Priceless Planet Coalition, which focuses on reforestation.
To bring our global expertise across sports to India, we partnered with the Delhi Golf Club for the DGC Open in 2022. Once viewed as an ‘elite sport’, golf has been gaining popularity in India. We recently concluded the second edition of the DGC Open with a 50% enhanced prize amount of $750,000. During the tournament, we organized a special workshop titled Mastercard ‘Golf Clinic’ for aspiring women golfers with Shiv Kapur. We did something similar for aspiring women cricketers by holding a ‘Cricket Clinic’ with M.S. Dhoni. Through these endeavours and these collaborations, we aspire to lead positive societal and environmental change while providing priceless experiences to people.
What led Mastercard into golf sponsorships in India?
MN: Our association with golf in India is in line with our international partnerships with the Arnold Palmer Invitational (USA) and The British Open (England). Over the years, Mastercard has onboarded ace golfers like Shiv Kapur and Anirban Lahiri as brand ambassadors to make the sport more popular and promote women golfers in India. According to a 2022 study by the Golf Industry Association, an umbrella organisation of services related to the golf economy and infrastructure, in India, people’s inclination towards the sport has increased owing to growing corporatisation and the construction of private golf courses in places like Gurugram and Greater Noida. Some of the other factors contributing to this trend are people’s increasing exposure to golf through travel and media, the aspirational value attached to the sport, higher disposable income and a shift in lifestyle.
In fact, today, course managers can be seen struggling to cope with the rush of walk-in (pay-and-play) golfers and the ever-growing demand for new memberships. Through our golf sponsorships, we largely target affluent customers and HNIs, who are willing to pay for the exclusive services they can access by being a Mastercard cardholder. Being part of the Mastercard community instills a sense of pride and exclusivity among them. We also believe that experiences are for everybody, and hence, we create moments that help us reach the larger audiences.
Where does India fit into Mastercard’s global scheme of things?
MN: India is a very important market for Mastercard, and our objective is to align our growth with the growth of the country’s digital economy. Further, our focus on trust, inclusion and innovation is closely linked to the vision of a truly digital India, where everyone gains from a safe and thriving digital environment. With the help of our people, programs, partnerships, sponsorships, and other initiatives, we will continue to invest in India.
How would you describe the change in marketing strategies that have come about after the advent of digital platforms, and how do you evolve your marketing strategies in this changing landscape?
MN: We are operating in a very competitive environment, where it is imperative to establish a distinct identity for your brand. Over the years, we have enhanced our focus on digital, with campaigns and activities that attract the attention of new-age customers. We deploy multisensory marketing to ensure that our campaigns are impactful. Under Mastercard’s flagship Priceless programme, we curate experiences that money cannot buy, enabling our cardholders to gather memorable moments and own them for life. We lay a great deal of emphasis on creativity in all our campaigns and follow a 360-degree marketing approach as opposed to doing a few ads every now and then. It’s a combination of these factors that helps us to stand out.
What are Mastercard’s other campaigns besides sports that the company is currently involved in India? Can you expand on Priceless as a philosophy?
MN: Building people’s trust in the digital ecosystem and furthering financial inclusion in India through innovative products, platforms and tools is a part of Mastercard’s larger global commitment. Along with our ecosystem partners, we have been reaching out to farmers, small merchants and traders, micro and women entrepreneurs and MSMEs and empowering them digitally. With the help of specialized platforms and trainings, we have been able to cover 10 million traders, one million farmers, nearly 40,000 women entrepreneurs and over 35,000 MSMEs. All this part of our efforts to strengthen our presence in India.
As far as the Priceless programme is concerned, Mastercard’s brand promise has always been to deliver priceless experiences that count beyond material things. This programme unlocks several unique experiences for Mastercard cardholders both in their home city and country and overseas. Recently, we launched the programme in Maldives, offering our cardholders unforgettable experiences across five atolls of the mesmerising island nation.