Connecting people to priceless possibilites
art direction
- Product Design
- Photography
When it comes to travel, people are relying on their smartphones more than ever, not only as a source of inspiration but for booking and logistics as well.
There are plenty of apps built to help with everything from day-of hotel bookings to last-minute flight changes, replace heavy guidebooks and foreign-language dictionaries, and simply provide on-the-ground local expertise. Basically, whatever your interest or need when it comes to hitting the road, there’s an app for that.
Priceless Cities offers endless possibilities.
Brief
Portray priceless moments
We were challenged to create an innovative, highly differentiated utility for MasterCard cardholders that leverages the unique functionality of the mobile device while building on the core features of Priceless Cities.
The expectations were set clearly as below:
- Rapidly define a clear concept and experience strategy for a unique brand offering that provides real value in the minds of target consumers, and will drive usage of the Priceless Cities ecosystem and overarching preference for MasterCard
- Create a semi-functioning prototype that can be viewed on a mobile phone
- Identify the base functionality that can be leveraged from the existing Priceless Cities platform
- Create a story/strategy deck and user journey that put the prototype in the context of a larger idea
- Create a plan for testing the prototype with actual consumers
Opportunity
Connecting with the local culture
Target consumers care less about getting to the main tourist attractions than experiencing the nuances of local culture for their family as well as themselves. It’s what makes travel interesting and educational. But it’s not typically the kind of stuff you can find online.
Based on extensive research materials from MasterCard, we were able to quickly identify a set of needs and behaviors as below:
- Asking the concierge for inside tips
- Wandering around the local neighborhood as a way to browse options
- Wishing they had a better sense of the map
- Wanting to better understand local customs
(for education as well as avoiding awkward interactions)
Then, we began to create an app that ties the use of the MasterCard to an easy way to discover cultural nuances, offers, and experiences that deepen their experience of a city.
The Product
Connecting people to priceless possibilites
Purely tailored to MasterCard customers, this mobile application was designed to leverage the core Priceless Cities content as well as insights from consumers to create a mobile experience that extends the value of the product through the unique capabilities of the device.
With the expectations for a prototype that can be viewed and interacted on a mobile device, the primary goal was to create something that looks as polished and as real as possible. And, working closely with the mobile technology partners within MasterCard, we developed the right and most feasible level of functionality.
