What went wrong with Mastercard’s World Cup sponsorship?
What went wrong with Mastercard’s World Cup sponsorship?
In a tournament of contentious decisions, Mastercard might have topped the lot.
The World Cup, despite not coming home, was a major success for a lot of reasons. Concerns over Russia’s suitability as host never came to fruition, and we saw some matches that will sit proudly in the annals of history. The spirit of the game has rarely been better observed. And let’s not forget the rise of the waistcoat. But for one particular company, this was a tournament to forget. Mastercard’s sponsorship of the tournament was a clumsy challenge right in front of the referee — which, in this case, was the whole world.What went wrong for Mastercard?
Their campaign promised to donate 10,000 meals to children in Latin America (through the World Food Programme) for every goal scored by Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. On first reading, that seems like a generous act. But after a moment’s thought, people around the globe collectively asked: ‘Why not just donate the meals anyway?’ A good question. And one that possibly didn’t occur to Mastercard’s marketing team. This time, the equation “famous faces + charitable act” backfired. It was a vanity project that failed miserably. Instead, the company faced huge criticism online. What began as corporate philanthropy ended as the biggest PR meltdown of the 2018 World Cup.Goals that changes lives: for each goal scored by Messi or Neymar Jr. Mastercard will donate the equivalent of 10,000 meals to @WFP to fight childhood hunger and malnutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean #TogetherWeAre10 #StartSomethingPriceless https://t.co/URfIp77ElN pic.twitter.com/Ckq61oJgld
— Noticias Mastercard (@MastercardLAC) May 31, 2018
Undermining their good intentions
So why did this fail so miserably? The fact is, the general public just doesn’t trust big businesses anymore. A recent Gallup survey showed that only 25% of people have a substantial level of trust in these institutions. This lack of trust translates to scepticism. And that scepticism leads to a Mastercard-style backlash. So while donating meals to those in need is a good thing, their dubious methods created an open goal for Mastercard’s critics."Based on the feedback, we are adjusting this campaign to replace the 10,000 meals donation per goal by Messi and Neymar Jr. with a contribution of one million meals in 2018. This is in addition to 400K meals we have already donated as part of the campaign."So the company had already provided hundreds of thousands of meals to those in need. But in one fell swoop, that good work was undermined by their attempt to climb aboard the World Cup hype train. Doing good is enough. Don’t cheapen it with a gimmick.