Mastercard's Athlete Endorsement Strategy

Notable celebrity-brand partnerships drive significant exposure in the marketing and advertising world, but a key question persists: what goes into the process behind which  brands source, evaluate and ultimately select celebrity endorsements as part of a larger marketing strategy? Is this selection an arbitrary process, or one that carefully aligns with strategic objectives surrounding customer passion points, new business goals, and support for emerging product lines? 

Written in collaboration with Mastercard's VP and Head of Sponsorships for North America Michael Goldstein, this case examines Mastercard's overarching sponsorship strategy, summarizes notable athlete endorsement theory and models for endorser selection, and ultimately tasks students with the assignment of working through a hypothetical, but applied, endorser selection process featuring eight (8) prominent soccer athletes and their adjoining E-Poll endorser scores.