Channel 4 Signs MasterCard For Priceless Content
Channel 4 has signed financial services firm MasterCard to fund a new branded content music offering based around its “priceless” brand positioning.
The new programming, created by Freedom Media, will centre on MasterCard’s Priceless Evening, taking place on 16 November before being aired on 19 November. The event will take place at the Café De Paris and will bring together an exclusive line-up of new and established artists performing a selection of current hits and classic songs
Amongst those due to perform are James Blunt, Texas, KT Tunstall, Athlete, The Corrs and Ray LaMontagne, following the event’s success last year, featuring breakthrough artists Jamie Cullum, Katie Melua, Lucie Silvas and Amy Winehouse.
MasterCard UK & Eire’s VP marketing, Rita Broe, explained the appeal of the event, stating: “Last year’s MasterCard Priceless Evening provided us with an involving and high profile way in which to bring our Priceless campaign to life with customers and cardholders. The venue, the artists and the stage design all reflected our brand values. Channel 4 was the right broadcast partner to reach our audience of up market adults and we were able to use our exclusive tickets to run cardholder and media promotions.
“Using our Marketing Mix Model we evaluated the return on our investment and found The Priceless Evening to be twice as effective as conventional television over the same period. We were looking for an event to complement our BRIT Awards sponsorship and Freedom Media delivered it.”
Freedom Media’s creative director Andy Woodford added: “For the second year running, the MasterCard Priceless Evening will feature live music from the year’s biggest stars in the famous Café de Paris. It will be both a fabulous event experience and a unique, intimate music TV show. Most importantly, of course, the event, and the subsequent coverage, will sit perfectly within MasterCard’s ‘Priceless’ positioning which has proved highly successful over the past few years.”
The use of advertiser funded programming, such as MasterCard’s latest activity, is expected to increase in the coming months, with industry experts at the Edinburgh International TV Festival earlier this year predicting a rise in the medium, which offers “real benefits” to both advertisers and broadcasters (see TV Set For More Advertiser Funded Programming).
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