I helped find Canada's best rivals

Oldest Rivalry

In Canada, nothing sparks more arena arguments, dinner table debates, or living room battles, than hockey. And as proud sponsors of hockey’s oldest rivalry –The Toronto Maple Leafs and The Montreal Canadiens– MasterCard wanted to reward two ultimate rival fans with a priceless surprise. On Oct 8th, Toronto and Montreal were scheduled to face off at the Toronto home opener. It was the perfect time to ask fans about their own epic rivalries. Within hours we got the dirt from hundreds of fans. We invited ten rival pairs to join MasterCard for the home opener and put their rivalry to the test.

We created the world’s first Rivalry Recognition Technology – a groundbreaking “invention” that determined hockey fans’ rivalry index. One pair rose to the top and this father-daughter pair had never gone to an NHL game. MasterCard decided to make it priceless.

We enlisted two legendary NHL rivals to accompany the winners. Doug Gilmour and Guy Carbonneau hung out with them and made sure they got an unbeatable experience. It was an epic evening. After opening night the press was crazy about how MasterCard Canada owned opening night. Marketing Magazine said, 

“Visa may be the official Canadian sponsor of the NHL
but it was MasterCard that won share of mind on opening night.”

By delivering a genuine experience to cardholders, MasterCard demonstrated that it's the brand that understands hockey. And with 6.5 million estimated impressions from 947 Twitter mentions we have to agree.

Dave Stubbs | Duncan Porter | Jill Mack | Matthew Lee | Josh Haupert | Sarah Michener | Mike Lee | Chris Munnik