Mastercard Pushes Masterpass for the Holidays

Mastercard is bracing for the impact of another holiday shopping season by putting its Masterpass mobile payment system front and center. It’s not only offering up a new ad spot for the program, but it’s also rolling out new discounts, as revealed by word the company recently sent our way.

The TV spot features Kat Dennings and Joe Montana, both of whom discover just how useful Masterpass can be in a variety of settings, whether getting smoothies, shopping for furniture, or cleaning up the mess from some kind of bizarre football-related flashback that ends in broken pottery. It really needs to be seen to be believed, but it does repeat “Masterpass” sufficiently often to drive the point home for anyone.

But Mastercard’s got more afoot than just odd advertising; it’s also got a new Perks week to roll out, and the target of said Perks will warm plenty of hearts: Dunkin’ Donuts. Running through November 17, those who reload a Dunkin’ Donuts card enrolled with Perks will get an extra $5 as long as they pay with, you guessed it, Masterpass.

That’s not a bad deal; half a dozen donuts is $5.79, so you’ll be able to get like a long weekend’s worth of donuts. It might have been better if the perk had run through Thanksgiving weekend—people could have picked up donuts enough for a three-day weekend on Black Friday morning—but I doubt anyone will be complaining here.

The quality of Mastercard’s latest ads and promotions can be debated, but for the most part these are sound hits at a good time. Using Kat Dennings draws in the younger set thanks to the success of her recently canceled show “2 Broke Girls”, and Joe Montana draws in the older crowd who actually remembers watching him play before his 1994 retirement. Free or vastly reduced donut prices, meanwhile, appeals to pretty much everybody alive on the planet right now.

With Black Friday only a few days away, it’s clear Mastercard is getting a full-court press ready for the big event that kicks off a month of intermittent spending. It remains to be seen just how much Masterpass is a part of that.