Mastercard’s Rajamannar to Cannes: classical advertising is “dead”

Mastercard, the payments brand, is tapping the power of experiential marketing in a bid to engage consumers in meaningful ways around their passion points.

Raja Rajamannar – the chief marketing and communications officer at Mastercard – had a tough message for the advertising industry’s creative class.

“We keep internally calling it: Storytelling, which is classical advertising, is dead.”

Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing and communications officer, Mastercard

The marketing leader at the Purchase, New York-based payments company cited a major proof point in supporting this claim. “Consumers hate interruption. And advertisements are clearly an interruption to a good experience. So, not only are they putting [up] ad blockers … they are also paying money to keep these pesky marketers out, whether it is on Netflix,...

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