A Look At Mastercard’s Newsroom

Newsrooms are a new occurrence in the agency world as brands are becoming full-fledged publishers, adding original content to their own properties opposed to pushing out the same asset across a network. For brands with a PR focus or engaging lifestyle content, the newsroom or branded site makes a lot of sense. Mastercard is a perfect example, as they manage two web properties where they push out 5-6 articles a day in addition to curating on-brand content throughout the web. All these efforts are aimed at shifting consumer perception away from MasterCard as a credit card company to view them as a technology partner. So far, they have had 135,000 people engage with their posts, generating 500,000 conversations and shares. 

MasterCard Announces Masterpass

In a big step forward from Paypass, Mastercard will be launching Masterpass, a new payments system that creates a unified digital wallet. Masterpass brings together various forms of payments from NFC to QR into a single account across credit cards and merchants. The solution streamlines online checkout as well without the need to enter details before purchasing so it’s not surprising Mastercard already has plenty of leading merchants and banks onboard for their Australia launch.

Foursquare Partners With Visa And Mastercard

In a similar partnership to AMEX, Visa and Mastercard have teamed up with Foursquare to deliver check-in discounts applied directly to cardholders accounts. The recent deal benefits brands by offering easy redemption while generating buzz on the social platform. The move also creates a unique revenue stream for Foursquare who will be earning a fee for every transaction.

New Fees in the Future For Credit Card Users

An anti-trust suit from 2005 has finally been settled between merchants, credit card companies, and banks to allow retailers in 40 US states to add surcharges on credit card purchases.  These fees are still illegal in California, New York, Texas, and seven other states.  The fees are optional for retailers, and there will be no fee on debit card purchases, but if you often pull out the plastic, that 1% cash back might not be worth it much longer.