MasterCard International is expected to debut a multichannel marketing campaign April 15 to increase the use of its debit card products.
The centerpiece of the campaign is the SunStakes Sweepstakes, which offers debit card users a chance to win a number of prizes each time they use their card. The sweepstakes, which runs nationwide through June 30, is the credit card issuer's first nationwide effort on behalf of its debit cards. The SunStakes Sweepstakes offers a 2002 GMC Envoy as its grand prize, a high-performance watercraft and a gas grill.
MasterCard is supporting the sweepstakes with radio spots in select markets, statement inserts, in-branch materials and direct mail.
“This gives people the potential to use their debit cards in other places they may have not thought of before,” said Millena Leiningen, MasterCard's vice president of marketing and communications, North American deposit access. “With the statement messaging, issuers can customize it for their cardholders.”
The direct mail promoting the contest will be sent out directly by the card issuing banks. MasterCard is providing them with statement inserts and a compact disc containing logos and templates for letters the banks can use to design their own direct mail creative.
“We've also developed microsites for our issuers,” Leiningen said. “There's been huge interest in this already.”
She said she did not know how many direct mail pieces would go out to support the SunStakes Sweepstakes.
The credit card issuer said about 40 million Americans have MasterCard debit cards.
