Every year at the MLB All-Star Game, 50,000 people stand together in silence, holding up the name of someone they love who has battled cancer. This year, Mastercard wanted to expand that moment and enable everyone to stand up to cancer.
With so many stories about cancer hitting our newsfeeds daily, it's easy to become desensitized. Today, cancer sits low on the list of causes people are most passionate about— surpassed by issues like mental health and poverty. So how do we incite mass public action amidst growing apathy?
There’s one thing that can inspire us to take action. When we think of our loved ones who have battled cancer— it becomes impossible not to care.
The truth is: Everyone has somebody in mind when they think of cancer.
This year, we brought cancer out of the doctor’s office and into people’s hearts by shining light on everyone’s personal connection to cancer. Partnering with Stand Up To Cancer, we set out to give people everywhere a way to share the names of their loved ones battling cancer.
Our goal? Inspire millions of people outside of the stadium to join us in standing up: whether that be through sharing the name of a loved one, or using your Mastercard to help us reach our $5MM donation goal.
Because while cancer is a collective issue, it's also personal. It’s not a stat. It’s your best friend. It’s not a story. It’s your neighbor. It’s not a life expectancy. It’s your mom.
We started by building on a tradition we began years ago with Major League Baseball and Stand Up To Cancer. We leveraged Stand Up To Cancer’s paper placards where people could write-in the names of their loved ones battling cancer. In a powerful moment of silence at the MLB All Star Game, thousands of people stood up holding their signs of support.
Then we did something we had never done before. We broke the placard out of the confines of the stadium, and set it loose across the country.
We created a digital version of the placard where people could share their stories— transforming the placard from a static piece of paper into a branded filter on TikTok and Instagram. To kick off the movement, we enlisted influencers and celebrities to use the filter and share the names of the people they stood up for.
We created a version of the placard that people could wear, with stickers distributed at almost 200 partner locations. Saks Fifth Avenue even dedicated two of their iconic windows to the cause.
We created the largest placard ever made, using drones to elevate people’s names into the glittering night sky above the Hudson River in New York.
To drive awareness of the movement, we leaned into our partnerships to create branded content that did not feel like advertising. We got media outlets like Good Morning America and The Elvis Duran Show to host news segments and share more stories about people standing up to cancer. We tapped Mastercard ambassador CC Sabathia for an on-air integration during the FOX broadcast of the All-Star Game, where he asked viewers at home to join us in standing up by using the filters. We worked with MLB Network to create custom vignettes, where stars like Anthony Rizzo and Liam Hendriks shared their own personal journeys with cancer. We also amplified our CTA to stand up to cancer in places like TV, out-of-home at Hudson Yards, and Out Of Phone (a new TikTok ad placement that lets you feature TikTok content on digital billboards in Times Square).
We looked inward. Every member of the team who created this campaign has been (or is currently) affected by cancer in some way. We sat them down to tell their stories and share who they stand up for in a raw, emotional, documentary-style content series.
Finally, we stood up to cancer ourselves. For every transaction at qualifying grocery stores and restaurants made with a Mastercard, we donated 1 cent to Stand Up To Cancer, allowing the donation to hit $5MM over the course of the campaign.
We Stand Up For garnered significant visibility and engagement, with over 210MM+ impressions across campaign assets, and 40MM+ views on TikTok and Instagram. Over five-thousand people shared stories using our social filters. The sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, with TikTok representatives touting, “Mastercard has united the platform like we have never seen before.”
By driving transactions in two core categories (grocery and dining), we were able to reach our $5MM dollar donation goal 4 weeks faster than projected.
We turned a singular moment in a stadium, into a movement across the country. From 50,000 people standing up at the All Star Game last year, to 2.5 million people standing up nationwide this year.
Standing up for the people we love: priceless
