MasterCard is reporting positive results from a year-long global social media monitoring campaign, tapping into conversations across 43 markets worldwide to gain insights and drive its business strategy.
A year ago MasterCard contracted NY media agency Prime Research to develop a real-time 'social listening' and analysis tool. This was to be used by cross-functional teams across the group to monitor social media chatter related to its brand and products. The centrepiece of this initiative is a giant 40-foot LED 'Conversation Suite' screen that's housed in its New York headquarters
Marcy Cohen, MasterCard's communications head says that: "Over the past six months, 125,000 people created unique content or commentary about MasterCard, stimulating 520,000 social media conversations, with a potential reach of 1.3 billion people. We're doing this everyday across 43 markets and 26 languages in real time."
She says that Conversation Suite data and insights aid in execution of real-time communications, "whether in identifying and responding to an issue via @AskMasterCard or leveraging insights to help inform new product launches like MasterPass".
For the MasterPass launch at Mobile World Congress in Barcleona in February, Cohen and her team tuned in to Conversation Suite to get a real-time view of reactions from the show floor and beyond.
"We quickly realized there was some confusion around what this product was going to be and how it would differ from Google Wallet. People also were concerned about safety and security," Cohen told marketing site ClickZ. "We fed this feedback to the team that was demonstrating the product on the show floor and changed the messaging around the product. We also quickly figured out who was driving the conversation around the announcement and fed them some of our key points....We quickly turned the conversation"