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24/04/2013 by
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Why MasterCard Should Stop Its TrueTwit Sponsorship?

Why MasterCard, a NYSE listed company, should stop its TrueTwit sponsorship or campaign? Marketers read along to find out.

Why MasterCard Should Stop Its True Twit Sponsorship?

Throughout the world, MasterCard’s principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the card issuing banks or credit unions of the purchasers who use the “MasterCard” brand debit and credit cards to make purchases.

You will have seen their ads over a thousand times. They are also main sponsor of UEFA Champions League.

MasterCard … things that money can’t buy. For everything else there’s MasterCard.

MasterCard a Trusted Third Party

You could call MasterCard a TTP. A what? In cryptography, a trusted third party (TTP) is an entity which facilitates interactions between two parties who both trust the third party.

The Third Party reviews all critical transaction communications between the parties, based on the ease of creating fraudulent digital content.

In TTP models, the relying parties use this trust to secure their own interactions.

TrueTwit a Twitter Validation Service

Not familiar with TrueTwit? It’s a “validation service” that some people use on Twitter.

When you follow someone who uses TrueTwit, you’ll get a direct message back asking you to fill out a “Captcha” form to validate that you’re a real person.

Here’s your wake-up call: Nobody truly credible on Twitter uses TrueTwit.

The funny part is that it’s almost always the people you want to avoid who use this tool: Spammy marketers and affiliate-scheme pushers.

What’s funnier still is they use the service to try and avoid other people like them.

And the part that will make you laugh-out-loud is most people will automatically unfollow somebody who asks them to verify their account.

The MasterCard & TrueTwit Sponsorship

What’s the fuzz about? Since a while, MasterCard appears in the TrueTwit validation service. See the example here, I made a screengrab:

Why MasterCard Should Stop Its True Twit Sponsorship?

In the above TrueTwit Captcha box you can validate that you are a true person by typing MasterCard taglines. In this case freely translated: MasterCard for travel.

I have seen some similar promotions from MasterCard here.

My Opinion Why MasterCard should stop now?

MasterCard is a TTP. All about trust. Trust me; I do understand how things like this can work.

Either some self-proclaimed social media guru without branding experience mentioned a great opportunity for MasterCard to a claim TrueTwit Captcha campaign.

Or somebody at MasterCard thought it would be relevant way to show that it’s an entity which facilitates interactions between two parties who both trust the third party with TrueTwit.

But not trusting real people, or trying to help them against Twitter spammers and paid-for followers, it could be a nice idea.

But should a TTP or global brand truly be associated with spammy marketing and affiliate-scheme pushers?

Trust me MasterCard, step out.

Your brand is your most valuable asset.

What About You?
How do you rate the MasterCard TrueTwit campaign? If you were at MasterCard would you tell your CMO this is a very clever promotion? Or no, this does not fit the image of a listed TTP brand?

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About the Author
Igor Beuker was CMO at 3 listed companies, chairman at the IAB, jury member at Webby, AMMA and Esprix awards, founder of 3 digital agencies (sold to WPP) and global chief social officer at Mindshare. Now he is freejack consultant and still a sought after keynote speaker.

 

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