The Challenge
Mastercard wanted to connect with high-value travelers and shoppers across KSA and UAE during the peak summer season, a time when media clutter and broad targeting often dilute effectiveness.
Traditional demographic and interest-based approaches weren’t enough to identify real, in-market audiences demonstrating genuine purchase and travel intent. Traditional targeting methods delivered reach but lacked precision.
The challenge was clear: How could Dentsu increase audience relevance and attention quality while maintaining Mastercard’s strict data privacy standards?
The Solution – Dentsu’s Strategic Approach
Dentsu applied its audience intelligence framework to identify key consumer clusters, including Travel Seekers, Frequent Shoppers, and Tech Enthusiasts.
Next, Dentsu used Digiseg’s household-level data to refine these cohorts into privacy-safe, addressable segments activated across programmatic display and video in both KSA and UAE.
To secure high-quality, transparent display and video supply, Dentsu activated the campaign across premium inventory accessed through PubMatic, ensuring consistent reach and brand-safe delivery.
To measure impact objectively, Dentsu implemented a controlled A/B testing framework across Display and Video in both KSA and UAE, comparing:
- Control group: Standard interest-based audiences
- Test group: Digiseg audiences across key lifestyle categories
Activated Digiseg Audiences:
- Travel: Seeking Luxury Travel & Vacation, Family Travel Indulgers, Business Class Travelers
- Shopping: Frequent Shoppers
- Technology: Internet & Computing Enthusiasts
All activations adhered to Mastercard’s 70% viewability benchmark, ensuring a consistent and measurable test environment.
“This Mastercard campaign is a great example of how trusted partners can come together to deliver precision at scale. Through Dentsu’s strategic audience intelligence and Digiseg’s privacy-safe data, we were able to activate on PubMatic’s platform with exceptional efficiency and measurable impact, proving that premium data, smart strategy, and transparent technology can drive real business outcomes.” – Amélie Grenier-Bolay, Country Manager Italy, MENA, PubMatic.
The Results
Dentsu’s use of Digiseg data achieved breakthrough performance uplifts across key engagement metrics:
- +520% higher CTR on Display in KSA
- +88% higher CTR on Display in UAE
- +9–12% higher VCR on Video across both KSA and UAE
- +13.6% higher attention than campaign average, validating that relevance drives attention
- Luxury Travel and Tech Enthusiast audiences recorded the highest engagement and completion rates, confirming superior message resonance
- All results were achieved without cookies or personal identifiers, ensuring 100% privacy compliance
The Dentsu Difference
By unifying Dentsu’s audience intelligence, Digiseg’s cookieless household-data, and PubMatic’s premium programmatic supply, the campaign shifted Mastercard from a reach-driven approach to a relevance-led one.
The result: measurable attention, meaningful engagement, and a more efficient media investment—all within a fully privacy-compliant framework.