May 16, 2011 09:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Offers Cardholders Superior Travel Services and Exclusive Access to Priceless Experiences
PURCHASE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MasterCard Worldwide today launched a marketing campaign to raise awareness of new and enhanced features to World Elite MasterCard®, the company’s premium card offering in the U.S. In addition to providing affluent consumers with superior card benefits, rewards and services they expect, the refreshed World Elite product features a premium MasterCard brand mark that visually distinguishes the card from other MasterCard cards.
“The enhanced World Elite MasterCard delivers stronger rewards and greater value to affluent consumers, while providing our issuers with additional program options and providing select merchant partners access to high-spending cardholders”
“The enhanced World Elite MasterCard delivers stronger rewards and greater value to affluent consumers, while providing our issuers with additional program options and providing select merchant partners access to high-spending cardholders,” said Edward Olebe, group head, U.S. Consumer Credit, MasterCard Worldwide. “Our World Elite cardholders can expect superior service and support around the world, whether at home or abroad.”
Offering Cardholders the Ultimate in Global Service
Factors like rewards, personalized services and unique experiences influence consumers’ decisions to use or keep a card product. According to MasterCard research, 26 percent of affluent consumers say the availability of 24/7 live customer service impacts their decision to keep or use a card, and 19 percent say the same about concierge or assistant services. An additional 55 percent of affluent consumers feel the need to satisfy their hunger for new experiences. World Elite MasterCard helps meet this need by providing access to exclusive dining, sports, travel and other experiences, as well as core travel services and global concierge support.
New World Elite Advertising Campaign
Beginning today, new features of World Elite MasterCard will be highlighted in print and online advertising, and will highlight specific cardholder portfolios.
“From the beginning, our marketing efforts were focused on creating awareness of the unique value and benefits of World Elite MasterCard and driving preference among its existing cardholders,” said Cheryl Guerin, group head, U.S. Marketing, MasterCard Worldwide. “By personalizing the cardholder’s experiences with the card, we also hope to create increased demand among prospective customers.”
The advertisements will focus on three different product attributes that include:
- MasterCard Global Concierge Service – This service provides World Elite MasterCard cardholders with comprehensive, personalized assistance accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The specially trained team is the single source for securing dinner reservations, tickets to events, coordinating business arrangements, locating hard-to-find items or booking travel to or from nearly anywhere in the world.
- MasterCard® PriceAssureTM – This service can help enrolled MasterCard cardholders take advantage of little-known airline credits for savings on future travel. PriceAssure will track airfare prices for qualified flight itineraries and will send alerts if the price of their flight drops below what they paid, net of airline change fees. MasterCard also offers complimentary, specialized customer service to help World Elite cardholders handle the legwork of obtaining airline credits with the airlines.
- PGA TOUR® Player Golf Experience – Through this exclusive package, eligible cardholders can receive exclusive “play like the pros” access to select TPC® courses that host PGA TOUR events – including TPC Sawgrass and TPC Blue Monster at Doral. Among some of the possible players-only features are a professional caddie with the cardholder’s name on the bib, use of the PGA TOUR Professional locker room with personalized locker name plate and lunch in the players’ dining room.
For more information, visit www.mastercard.com/worldelite.
About MasterCard Worldwide
As a leading global payments company, MasterCard Worldwide prides itself on being at the heart of commerce, helping to make life easier and more efficient for everyone, everywhere. MasterCard serves as a franchisor, processor and advisor to the payments industry, and makes commerce happen by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, governments, businesses, merchants, and cardholders worldwide. In 2010, $2.7 trillion in gross dollar volume was generated on its products by consumers around the world. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network – the fastest payment processing network in the world – MasterCard processes over 23 billion transactions each year and has the capacity to handle 160 million transactions per hour, with an average network response time of 130 milliseconds and with 99.99 percent reliability. MasterCard advances global commerce through its family of brands, including MasterCard®, Maestro®, and Cirrus®; its suite of core products such as credit, debit, and prepaid; and its innovative platforms and functionalities, such as MasterCard PayPass™ and MasterCard inControl®. MasterCard serves consumers, governments, and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information, please visit us at www.mastercard.com/worldelite. Follow us on Twitter: @mastercardnews.
