Mastercard discusses the “3Cs” for improving the marketing/finance relationship

Stephen Whiteside

Mastercard, the payments company, has built a strong relationship between its marketing and finance teams, and thus developed useful guidelines for other brands to follow in this area.

Marketing and finance teams are often regarded as polar opposites.

The creativity and experimentation required to build a brand, according to this theory of departmental strife, do not align with the fundamental conservatism and hard numbers that define the worldview of chief financial officers (CFO).

Falling in line with such a belief, Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing and communications officer at payments giant Mastercard, conceded in a session at the 2023 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity that a natural “tension” exists between these functions.

“If you were to look at the skillsets of marketing versus finance, they are wired very...

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