Mastercard's annual Australian Open sponsorship is its biggest in in the region. Each year, we create a new campaign that leverages Mastercard's tournament sponsorship to:

- Fortify customer and issuer and merchant relationships; capturing valuable leads as a result of issuer and merchant strategy sessions and customer forums;

- Drive brand differentiation to deliver competitive advantage by leveraging our sole and exclusive activations as well as offering exclusive cardholder benefits;

- Increase brand affinity through direct association with the AO whilst also expanding Mastercard’s footprint outside of precinct, connecting passion points of culinary, music and sport;

- And strengthen Priceless attribution, driving traffic to priceless.com & driving front of wallet behaviour, leading to uplift in spend onsite.

Every year we create almost enough assets to fill the Rod Laver itself! From billboards and outdoor across Melbourne, to the big screens welcoming crowds into the precinct, to the Mastercard Corporate Suite, to the integrated video screens (and soundscape) surrounding the courts, to the multitude of printed signage and countless digital assets... it's a dazzling array of work.

And for our Unsung Heroes campaign, we began with a dazzling insight. Most people think of tennis as an individual sport. But it takes an enormous number of people behind the scenes to create such an iconic event. From the court-painters, to the ball-kids, to the racquet stringers, to the local baristas - these are the Unsung Heroes of the AO. So for this campaign, the first in which Mastercard didn't feature an AO player as a campaign ambassador, our strategy was to honour 'the team behind the tournament'.

This platform led to our creative idea: 'The tennis, proudly brought to you by everyone'. We found three fantastic stories to tell: Dylan, Tinika and Zvi, just three of the unsung heroes who make the AO what it is.

Their stories were authentic and inspiring. And the results were as remarkable as these heroes themselves. For the first time in AO history, we reached more than 1.1 million fans at the event and of course many millions more around the world. On the ground, Mastercard sold out of pre-paid Mastercard giftcards, recording a 77% uplift YoY, with 85% of cards purchased via cash sales. While the global priceless.com platform recorded 130% YoY growth in traffic, with 154 priceless surprises delivered and 100% of priceless experiences fulfilled. The hero TVC itself also delivered record increases in viewership, with an increase of 369% YoY, while the Merchant Program saw a 100% increase YoY in merchant asset monetisation. Adding up to yet another priceless AO for Mastercard.