Play safe, pay safe and always stay safe: Mastercard’s new campaign starring MS Dhoni

New Delhi: Mastercard has launched a new card advocacy campaign, ‘Payments Ka Powerplay’.

The campaign, live from October 1-15, features former Indian cricket team captain and Mastercard’s brand ambassador, 

Mahendra Singh Dhoni in a series of six commercials highlighting the benefits of using cards, such as security, chargebacks and purchase protection for cardholders. 

The commercials will stream on television and digital channels through content integrations with leading TV shows, YouTube and OTT platforms, as well as retail activation, innovative OOH and social media channels.

The campaign has been timed with the onset of the festive season starting in October. 

Mastercard Economics Institute’s recent report cites that last year,  pre-festival transactions surged by over 200% compared to regular days. Besides metros, the rise in affluence, digital adoption, and financial inclusion has particularly benefited Tier 2 cities. During Diwali, daily spending in cities like Indore, Udaipur, and Lucknow jumped by over 190%, significantly higher than the 120% rise seen in metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

Gautam Aggarwal, Division President, South Asia at Mastercard spoke on the campaign, “The ‘Payments Ka Power Play’ campaign is among Mastercard’s interventions towards making commerce safer in India by nudging cardholders towards more secure and smarter digital payment options using cards. What better way to do that than using cricket analogies by leveraging the company’s long-standing relationship with Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Humour is also an effective tool, such as comparing chargebacks to the DRS review system in cricket. Reinforcing the safety and security of card payments alongside wide-ranging benefits, the campaign is aimed to address misinformation around card payments, promote the usage of card control settings and explain the benefits of tokenised transactions.” 

The campaign uses interesting cricket analogies to empower cardholders to confidently make payments through cards. One analogy compares the width of a cricket bat to the four-centimetre range within which contactless transactions can occur, making contactless payments easier to understand and addressing misinformation about their safety. Another analogy uses cricket fielding to explain card control settings, such as activating contactless payments and daily usage control and setting online payment and international usage limits. On a humorous note, it further draws a comparison with chargebacks to the Decision Review System (DRS), a technology-based system in cricket that helps on-field umpires make accurate decisions. 

The film: