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In collaboration with Ogilvy, Mastercard were successful in launching their latest initiative, #SpendLocal in Jersey. A scheme which allowed over 18’s to register for a prepaid card worth £100 to spend on the high street, which came about in response to the economic hardship caused by the pandemic. The uptake was phenomenal. Over 90% of islanders engaged with the scheme with 103,000 cards being issued and £10 million was spent on the local economy.
Due to the popularity of the world’s first card-based stimulus scheme in Jersey, the result was to introduce a second wave of this in Northern Ireland. The objective for VPI on this occasion was to document the scheme as it was happening, talking to business owners, members of the public and also government officials from both Northern Ireland and Jersey who were overseeing the scheme rollout.
The Approach
As the goal of the video was to create awareness of the success and performance of the scheme in Northern Ireland as it was happening, it was crucial to talk to a variety of people to hear their opinion and to also take interest into how the money is being spent – this being with shop owners receiving the card payment and also those spending. Pre-recruited Vox Pops became the natural solution for this problem as we couldn’t guarantee that recruitment on the day would result in people having signed up to the scheme. Likewise talking to business owners who are naturally more limited on available time, pre-recruiting them was the most efficient way to spend resources.
In addition to this, to make the most compelling and illustrative video as possible, we incorporated b-roll of mastercard branding and #SpendLocal promotion, bustling high-streets, busy shops and spending dedicated time inside the stores which we were talking to the owners of.
The Result
The rollout of the scheme provided to be a great success for Northern Ireland surpassing expectations, with 1.4 million #SpendLocal cards issued with £136.6m injected into the local economy. With the impressive results and accompanying video to act as a powerful testimonial piece and future marketing asset, it will aid in the future rollouts of phases to bigger markets and other countries.
