Music, memories, and meet & greets: Mastercard’s plan to woo next-gen Indians

India’s affluent consumer segment has emerged as a high-stakes battleground for global payment networks. Currently comprising 50–60 million individuals, this cohort is projected to double over the next four years as per a Goldman Sachs report from last year.

With an increasing disposable income, the consumers are also on the lookout for appropriate card providers–and the good old cashbacks and discounts no longer do the trick.

Against this backdrop, global card network Mastercard, which competes against Visa, American Express, and RuPay in India, is doubling down on its experiential marketing, moving beyond traditional sports sponsorships to embrace live music and entertainment that resonates with India's young, digitally-native population.

The company has recently announced its latest initiative, a partnership with EVA Live,an events and festival company. The collaboration will bring over 20 performances by international and Indian artists—including Enrique Iglesias, AR Rahman, and DJ Tiësto—to cities across India.

This marks Mastercard's first major entertainment partnership in the region, signalling a strategic shift in how the global payment company plans to compete in one of the world's most dynamic and challenging markets.

Tapping into India's live entertainment boom

Julie Nestor, executive vice president and head of marketing and communications for Asia Pacific at Mastercard, explains the strategic thinking behind this move: "This is the first time actually that we've had a music partnership and asset in South Asia, so we're really excited about it. The live music and entertainment industry has crossed over $1.4 billion in India with a 19% compound annual growth rate over the next three years, with over 300 large concerts expected next year."

The partnership offers Mastercard cardholders early access to concert tickets through pre-sales, discounts on food and beverages at venues, and what the company calls "priceless experiences"—exclusive opportunities such as meet-and-greets with artists and access to limited merchandise. Priceless is Mastercard's global platform offering exclusive experiences, rewards, and offers to cardholders.

And given the popularity of these events in India’s Gen Z, the brand is eyeing recall among the younger cohorts of the country. "India is very much a Gen Z market. Two-thirds of the population is under the age of 35, and they have a huge passion for music," Nestor notes. "So we really see this as a great opportunity for us to deepen engagement and even find new customers through this opportunity."

The brand motive

While a lot of the brand’s experiential marketing campaigns are for brand awareness purposes, Mastercard also keeps a close eye on the kind of returns the campaigns bring in terms of performance.

For this partnership, Mastercard, which along with Visa holds 90 percent of the Indian credit card market share, will monitor new customer acquisitions by partner banks, increases in card usage, and overall brand perception metrics.

Nestor emphasises the broader economic impact: "We want to reach new consumers, particularly in Tier 2, Tier 3 India. Brands often focus just on those in the metro, so we see this as an opportunity to really bring consumers in all across the country."

Previous partnerships have demonstrated significant economic impact beyond ticket sales. During the Taylor Swift Eras Tour in the United States, Mastercard observed substantial increases in spending around concert venues—accommodation bookings rose 68% and restaurant spending increased 49% in areas near stadiums.

The strategy also reflects broader changes in consumer behaviour following the pandemic. Mastercard has observed significant shifts in spending patterns, with travel playing a central role in experience-seeking behaviour.

"What we've seen from COVID is a massive growth in spend on experiences versus things. And those experiences are often travel related," Nestor notes.

This trend has influenced the company's marketing approach, with campaigns promoted across multiple countries in the Asia-Pacific region to attract international audiences via cross-border marketing.

Navigating the B2B2C Challenge

Operating in India presents unique challenges for Mastercard due to its business model. Unlike direct-to-consumer brands, Mastercard must work through bank partners who issue cards to customers. This requires creating experiences attractive enough to motivate banks to promote them actively to their cardholders.

"Our bank partners are critical for us in marketing and communicating these assets. The more desirable the asset, the more it is going to motivate the banks to take that to their cardholders."

Despite this complexity, Mastercard maintains its own marketing efforts. "We're also very focused on differentiating ourselves as a brand. So we will do social, we will use influencers, and those influencers might be music artists themselves or other Indian celebrities. So even though we're not traditionally B2C, we still take our role quite seriously as a brand that needs to market directly, as well as via our partners and their channels."

The brand has MS Dhoni as its ambassador since 2018, and has also had several other celebrities as the face of its campaigns over the years.

Mastercard's media strategy reflects the digital-first nature of its target audience, though it varies by market. "Our media strategy depends a little bit on the market we are operating in. So in different markets across Asia-Pacific, we spend slightly differently based on what that market looks like. But I would say largely, majority of our spend is digital."

The brand also still uses traditional media depending on the campaigns. 

Popular experience categories in India

The company's research in India has revealed strong interest in diverse experience categories. When Mastercard launched its Priceless platform in India in 2021 with 40-45 different experiences, it found particular enthusiasm across multiple areas.

"In India, we definitely see a lot of interest in a very unique kind of culinary and travel experiences. Of course, anything relating to cricket always does very well. So in the past, we've had training clinics with young female aspiring cricketers. Obviously, that's a sellout. But people are also very interested in the history of India. So when we've got some of those more historic or cultural experiences, they do very well as well."

Consumer expectations have evolved significantly: "I think there's a huge appetite for consumers on anything that we are able to put forward. People have got higher expectations now. They want something very immersive and something that's truly differentiated."

Reaching beyond premium segments

Mastercard's strategy also addresses India's economic diversity. While premium experiences might seem targeted at affluent consumers, the company emphasises accessibility across different economic segments.

"The experience like this one that we're talking about with EVA Live is something that is accessible to all. Of course, it comes with price points depending on the artist. But as we saw with Coldplay and Ahmedabad, there's a real interest for consumers to experience live music events, or a comedy event, or even a music festival."

The company identifies gaming as another accessible passion point: "Gaming is something that we're also seeing a huge uptick in interest in, and that is accessible to people, even if they’re not affluent. So we tend to look at not just focusing on the top end, but also on things that are universal passion points."

However, Nestor acknowledges ongoing challenges: "I think there's always work to do to think about how do you really cater to audiences that are outside of the metros. That is definitely a key focus for us moving forward. And I think this asset, as with cricket, was a way to be able to reach a very broad India versus just tier one India."

Competing in India's digital payments landscape

The competitive landscape in India includes strong domestic players like Paytm and other digital payment platforms. However, Nestor positions Mastercard's differentiation around security and fraud protection, increasingly important considerations as cyber threats grow.

"It is definitely a competitive market for sure. But I think competition is a good thing. And if we can bring more people into the digital and financial ecosystem, that's a big part of our company objective," she notes.

"Saying that, I think there's differentiation in credit and debit cards that provide greater security for people, particularly when there's a lot of scams and cyber concerns. Card payments allow that peace of mind for consumers that they will be protected. And we have also put a lot of our investment into anti-scam capability."

Last year, Mastercard also unveiled a dedicated campaign about the security benefits of its cards, featuring its ambassador MS Dhoni. 

Future Plans and Investment Commitment

Looking ahead, Mastercard plans to continue investing heavily in India across multiple experience categories. When asked about plans for the next three years, Nestor emphasises the market's strategic importance.

"It's a high priority market for us for all of the reasons that we know it's growing fast. The population size is huge. And we talked about the Gen Z growth. So we'll continue to invest in India in these experiences that matter to consumers."

The approach will remain comprehensive rather than selective: "For us, it's not one versus the other. It's not music versus cricket or anything like that. It's finding out what the passions of the consumers are that we want to reach. And they range from affluent to people that maybe haven't reached affluence yet."

The commitment to experiential marketing remains unwavering: "We are not moving away from our experiential strategy. We want to do more of it. And like I said, I think that the big vision and opportunity is for us to have a greater reach through social particularly. And to be reaching and bringing more audiences in from Tier 2 and Tier 3 India."