Masters of Tech and Data
GOODS
& MASTERCARD
Project Type
Services
Industry
For years Mastercard has been known as one of the largest credit card companies in the world. What isn’t as well known is that over the years it has also become one of the biggest tech and data management companies – a part of the brand it’s been shaping for the last several years. Mastercard hired Goods & Services to help them tell that important story.
Highlights
Directed the development and execution of an engaging, immersive commerce narrative within Mastercard's Experience Center in NYC.- Envisioned a Web3-based Mastercard Wallet, poised to streamline car purchases in 2030.
- Spotlighted Mastercard's capabilities in 2030, encompassing identity verification, personalization, secure payments, and loyalty programs.
- Designed unique 3D environments and integrated AR motion graphics to portray a compelling mixed reality commerce experience.
- Leveraged cutting-edge technologies like WebGL and Multitaction Canvas to construct a captivating, interactive narrative.
Position Mastercard as a leader of Immersive Commerce Technologies
Our charge, all on a limited budget and a tight schedule, was to develop an experience for Mastercard that would effectively establish the company’s presence in—and point of view on—the future of immersive commerce. The solution needed to demonstrate how its current tech solutions are poised to lead the industry, particularly in the areas of payment, identity, personalization, loyalty, and security.
We were inspired by Mastercard’s prompt to look towards the future and ask, “What does the commerce journey of tomorrow look like?” “What are some of the emerging technologies that will most impact and support Mastercard’s customers? “How might that audience effectively be engaged?” And most importantly, “How do we show that Mastercard’s solutions are ahead of the game?"
The Goods & Services team set about brainstorming around those questions with the understanding that whatever we created would live in Mastercard’s Experience Centers (MECs) in seven major cities around the world (New York, Mexico City, London, Sydney, Dublin, Dubai, and Singapore). The MECs are immersive and collaborative spaces that allow Mastercard customers and partners to explore and interact with the innovative business solutions it has designed for the needs of customers today, and to share how it has its finger on the pulse of tomorrow.
Painting a Vivid Digital Landscape
Working with the incredibly talented group at the MEC, we collaborated on what kind of story we wanted to tell based on some clear criteria the Mastercard team had given us. They wanted to make sure the solution included an interactive digital component that “broke free from traditional content design to create a more enriching and compelling digital world,” and that MEC visitors be active participants in the story, not just consume content.
We also wanted to feature state-of-the-art technologies in the storytelling, like augmented reality, mixed reality, Web3, and metaverse tech to highlight how consumers could leverage robust technical capabilities during a purchasing journey and be protected with Mastercard’s advanced ability to securely collect, process, and handle data.
Most of all, we knew we didn’t want to simply tell audiences about Mastercard’s cutting edge tech, we wanted to paint a vivid, tactile picture of a not-so-distant future where Mastercard was leading this multi-trillion dollar market.
Driving 2030
We decided to focus on one immersive experiential journey that could represent many others: the process of researching, vetting, and buying a car. This choice wasn’t arbitrary. An expensive yet common transaction like buying a car was the ideal testing ground to showcase Mastercard’s robust capabilities and the future of technologies like tokenization. It also helped that Mastercard had already been doing some thought leadership in the automotive space.
As we drilled down into this concept further, we addressed more questions that we believed customers might have, like: “How do you personalize the car buying experience through tools like AI and AR?” “How do you incorporate modern purchasing options like digital assets and smart financing into the process?” And, fundamentally, “How do you present a rich, compelling, and seamless customer experience around the car buying process that showcases the future of commerce with Mastercard leading the way?”
The answer was the development, direction, and execution of an engaging, immersive, commerce narrative experience at the New York MEC called Driving 2030, a 3D WebGL-based experience poised to revolutionize the car purchasing process.
Four Chapters. One Journey.
Imagine, the year is 2030 and you’re looking to buy a vehicle. By then cars might drive themselves, or who knows, even fly. Whatever the cool features are, Mastercard’s solutions and capabilities are positioned to revolutionize every interaction in your 2030 car buying journey.
Using an interactive touchscreen table and a large wall-length curved LED display, MEC visitors don’t just get to see how Mastercard’s core technological solutions come to life, they are enveloped by them. Swiping left and right on the table’s navigation row shifts the view on the large-screen display. Highlighting select areas on the table allow MEC visitors to open topic-focused “hot spots” that dive deeper into the four key categories of purchasing an automobile (which we labeled “Driving Awareness,” “Driving Exploration,” “Driving Purchase,” and “Driving Loyalty”) – and Mastercard’s technologies behind them.
These four related stories are also personally customized to each visitor, so the system learns key information about the user, like what kind of car users are interested in, what their driving habits are, how much they can afford, and much more.
We constructed a captivating interactive narrative that transitions between the physical and digital worlds and “gamifies” the purchasing process, Driving 2030 shows how Mastercard’s capabilities can support merchants and banks, helping the company improve both its customers’ business goals and the end result for consumers.
Additionally, utilizing unique 3D 360-degree environments and integrated AR motion graphics to portray a compelling mixed reality commerce experience, Driving 2030 accomplishes two key project goals: 1. Successfully highlighting Mastercard’s in-market capabilities around identity verification, personalization, secure payments, and loyalty programs, and 2: Showing how tech like AR/VR helps people test drive a car without ever having to be in a car.
The Road Test
In just four short months, the Goods team took Driving 2030 from concept to MEC centerpiece. According to the MEC team, it’s been a hit with all audiences, intended and otherwise. Partners and executive buyers are excited to play with it and “get their hands dirty.” And internally, the project successfully pushes the design barrier of what the company had done before, and serves to help further shape Mastercard’s innovation story as an impressive sales enablement tool.
Flexible. Scalable. Personal.
The results? A 500% increase in customer leads. International attention from other ZEISS business regions, including Europe and Asia. Significant time and cost savings in shipping, storing and setting up of AV equipment via a repeatable, scalable, safe, and crowd-friendly process.
