Finalist 2025
Social Good
Brand
Mastercard
Entered by:
Weber Shandwick
She is Priceless
Why?
In Africa, women remain vastly underrepresented in leadership, particularly in technology. As of 2024, women make up just 30% of the tech workforce across Africa and occupy less than 15% of executive roles in tech companies, with only 8% in CEO positions. Moreover, women-founded startups receive only 6.8% of total funding raised by African startups (IFC). The World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Gender Gap Report reveals that Africa’s gender parity stands at 68.4%, with persistent gaps in economic participation and political empowerment. These figures underscore the structural barriers that continue to limit women’s representation, recognition, and reward across the continent.
In 2024, Mastercard launched She is Priceless to challenge these norms and reframe what leadership looks like in Africa. Featuring powerful personal stories of women leaders from Mastercard, the campaign struck a deep chord—achieving over 11 million in reach and positioning the brand as a progressive, inclusive employer.
The 2025 edition of She is Priceless returned with an evolved ambition to reaffirm Mastercard’s DEI commitment through authentic storytelling that could inspire, engage and translate into measurable awareness and visibility.
With a localized strategy in each market, and a shift in media formats to focus on viewability—a core business KPI, the campaign amplified fresh voices and expanded into a fourth market—Morocco—in its 2025 edition, aiming to deepen emotional resonance and social relevance across Africa.
The challenge remained twofold:
- To authentically reflect and inspire the next generation of African women in leadership, especially in male-dominated sectors like tech and fintech
- To achieve standout impact—socially and reputationally—on a modest media budget, using content as the core driver
With gender parity in Africa projected to unlock US$316 billion in additional GDP by 2025, Mastercard saw the opportunity to shape perception, fuel participation, and progress across the continent.
The Content Solution
At the heart of She is Priceless was a simple yet powerful insight: representation drives aspiration. The campaign was built around Mastercard’s own female leaders—trailblazers in their fields—who told their stories in their own words.
The content strategy was shaped by authenticity, empathy and relatability. Mastercard selected six female leaders across South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Morocco—each with a unique journey of resilience, leadership and impact. Their interviews explored deeply personal themes such as single motherhood, self-doubt, mentorship, ESG values and redefining success in male-dominated spaces.
Content formats included:
- Long-form print and digital features, including a prominent Forbes Africa feature story
- Quote cards and written reflections
The storytelling tone was intentionally human, humble and inspiring—reflecting the leaders’ own words, stories and values. No corporate scripts or generative AI were used in this process.
The campaign was strategically timed around International Women’s Day on March 8, 2025, giving it thematic alignment and built-in social momentum. Over three weeks, each leader’s story was spotlighted with bespoke content—tailored to local audiences but united by a consistent visual identity and voice.
The campaign line “She is Priceless,” was designed to represent the strength, value and visibility of African women.
What made this initiative impactful wasn’t its format but its voice. By allowing its own women to lead the conversation, Mastercard flipped the typical top-down brand narrative into a grassroots, inclusive movement. This approach deepened connection, generated credibility, and turned each woman featured into both an influencer and role model.
The Media/Content Amplification Solution
With a small budget, Mastercard needed to make every media dollar work hard—without compromising reach or relevance. The amplification strategy was rooted in smart distribution, organic amplification and trusted media partnerships.
The campaign used a three-tiered approach:
- Owned Media: Mastercard’s official LinkedIn, Instagram and X platforms served as the digital media campaign hub. Content was adapted per platform with written reflections for Instagram and LinkedIn and quote cards for X. The content calendar was built with a storytelling approach, rolling out each leader’s narrative across the three-week campaign window.
- Leader Advocacy (Earned Organic Reach): Each featured woman leader was equipped with her own content toolkit and actively shared her story across LinkedIn. This created a ripple effect—unlocking reach within professional networks, community groups and beyond. The authenticity of peer-to-peer storytelling dramatically increased shares and engagement.
- Strategic Media Partnerships: Editorial powerhouse, Forbes Africa was selected for its relevance and reach across Africa’s urban, upwardly mobile demographic.
Forbes Africa ran a feature story around International Women’s Day in both 2024 and 2025, featuring the campaign and in-depth spotlight on each leader.
This platform lent credibility and elevated Mastercard’s DEI message beyond corporate confines. The media spend here was both transactional and contextual, with the channel aligning editorially with the brand’s values and audience.
The campaign benefited from:
- Localized targeting across key African metros
- Strategic timing around International Women’s Day
- Personalized storytelling and relatable bite-sized quotes for easy and engaging consumption aligned to each market’s culture.
Despite not relying on paid influencers or high-budget ad spend, the campaign delivered extraordinary organic results. By tapping into trusted voices, editorial reach and meaningful platforms, Mastercard transformed a modest media budget into a high-impact storytelling movement.
The Result
The 2025 She is Priceless delivered exceptional results, both in media performance and in impact on Mastercard’s DEI agenda, across four key African markets—South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and for the first time, Morocco.
Total Campaign Performance (Across All Markets):
- Campaign dates: March 11- 31
- Total Reach: 12 million
- Total Impressions: 15.7 million
- Clicks: 15,880
- Total Engagements: 32,711
- Viewability Rate: 40%
Media Features Metrics:
- Campaign dates: April/May 2025
- Overall spend: US$ 50,000
- Monthly magazine readership: 163,000
- Monthly page views: 500,000
The campaign also drove impactful brand engagement offline. It was cited in International Women’s Day panels, employee feedback forums and mentorship outreach sessions—demonstrating Mastercard’s continued role in driving visibility, value and voice for women in Africa’s tech and leadership ecosystems.
Beyond numbers, the brand and social impact was clear.
- The campaign solidified Mastercard’s positioning as a gender-equal employer in Africa, with women holding 43% of leadership roles—well above industry benchmarks.
- Employee feedback showed a significant uplift in internal pride, especially among women, who cited the campaign as empowering and authentic.
- Comment sentiment analysis showed 90% positive sentiment, with phrases like “inspiring,” “motivating,” and “redefining leadership” recurring.
- Importantly, She is Priceless created tangible social ripple effects. Young women across Africa reached out to featured leaders directly via LinkedIn for guidance.
With no celebrity endorsements and no glossy production, Mastercard proved that storytelling—when rooted in truth and values—can shift perceptions, inspire futures and drive lasting social good.