If you build it, they will talk.
Such is the underlying logic behind the MasterCard Conversation Suite: a physical and digital tool constructed by the payments giant around one year ago. A giant 40-foot LED display screen sits in an open space in MasterCard’s headquarters in Purchase, New York and displays social data in real-time, as a team of around 60 MasterCard employees from around the world monitors the data as it pours in.
So how does MasterCard use this flood of information, and how has the Suite evolved since its rollout? PYMNTS.com spoke with Marcy Cohen, vice president, senior business leader, worldwide communications at MasterCard to learn more.
“The MasterCard Conversation Suite was launched a year ago, and it is both a web-based analytics tool that allows us to monitor all conversations going on around the world on social media about MasterCard as well as our competitors, and it’s also a physical space,” Cohen explained.
“We’re looking at a number of things, from conversation trends and what people are talking about with respect to our business and our industry, to sentiment,” she said. “We’re looking at geographical location as well, and we’ve got heat maps that are global all the way down to street-level, if your geo-tracking is turned on your Twitter account, on your phone. So we can see where all conversations are taking place, which can be extremely effective when you’re a global company.”
According to Cohen, MasterCard uses the information they glean from the Suite for everything from consumer reach-out to day-to-day business decisions to long-term solutions.
“We’re looking for opportunities to engage but we’re also using the data to really help different businesses understand, in real-time, how these conversations are impacting the products and services that we deliver. And that ultimately really helps to inform everything from product decisions to messaging around our product to how to go to market with a product.”
Cohen pointed to MasterCard’s MasterPass roll out in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress as an example of how the Suite’s data can be used to influence how MasterCard develops and markets its solutions to the general public. Research from the Suite revealed extensive concerns about the security of mobile payments, allowing MasterCard to frame the MasterPass release around safety and ease.
“We really focused a lot on the safety and security elements of MasterPass, knowing that there was concern around it. We knew that, you know, there was concern about ease of use and we made sure to convey exactly how users would be able to utilize MasterPass once it launched,” Cohen said.
“So, we touched on topics that we knew were areas of concern for consumers and, as a result, were able to generate a lot of positive conversation.”
To hear more Cohen on MasterCard’s Conversation Suite, listen to the full podcast below.
*If you have trouble with the audio player above, click here.
Marcy Cohen
Senior Business Leader, MasterCard Worldwide Communications
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