Avenue A Lands Big International Account

Internet advertising agency Avenue A on Monday landed Mastercard International Inc. as a client, an account with numbers among the company’s largest.

The deal, which was facilitated by Avenue A’s recent strategic alliance with Web services firm Luminant Worldwide Corp. The account will be serviced out of Avenue A’s New York office, by its wholly-owned subsidiary, iballs.

iballs will employ its media services and Avenue A’s technology to optimize the results of MasterCard’s online marketing to its US customers. Services provided will include banner ads, newsletter sponsorship, and opt-in email list management.

The campaign will be focused on increasing traffic to MasterCard’s Small Business Connections site; acquiring qualified members for the MasterCard Exclusives Online discount program; and creating and evaluating seasonal promotions and strategic partnerships.

One of the major selling points for Avenue A and iballs was the idea that the agency functions could work together with what Luminant Worldwide is doing on MasterCard’s Web site.

“They liked the idea that there would be integration of all of their online marketing,” said Jim Warner, president of iballs.

MasterCard, working with iballs, will be trying to reach three different constituencies with the campaign: member banks, small businesses, and consumers. Each has a different objective, but all will involve building a database of customer information.

“MasterCard is already a significant Internet marketer and is very innovative about using the medium,” said Warner.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.