Did MasterCard take a lead over Visa in sports marketing when it got Major League Baseball?
It certainly was a major boost. Baseball is one of the foundations of sports in the United States. It really filled our portfolio of sports properties. Were very involved with professional golf, hockey, soccer, and figure skating. But baseball is a foundation. Sixty-five to 70 million Americans are regular fans. It was a major coup for us. We were very fortunate in our timing. After signing the deal, we launched our first advertising in the [1997] World Series. We began what we call our Priceless advertising campaign in the World Series, and we used the father-son baseball ad as our first message. It was a good example of tying in our sports property, Major League Baseball, with the advertising theme to make an emotional connection with the passionate baseball fan. And, of course, the home run derby in 1998 gave it a good boost. What is MasterCard doing in golf? Golf is a great sponsorship for us. Thats because the demographics of the 26 million Americans who play golf fit very nicely
