MasterCard Signs to Sponsor New EZSpree Promotion

Web promotions firm Yoyodyne said that MasterCard signed on as chief sponsor for an all-new EZSpree campaign, a permission marketing based online promotion that offers a $100,000 online shopping spree as an incentive to shop online. Spending was not disclosed.

The promotion will launch Aug. 17, and offer instant discounts to MasterCard users while providing “the only source of free traffic to hundreds of online merchants,” Yoyodyne said. Before its conclusion, EZSpree is expected to guide more than half a million shoppers to as many as 400 of the Internet’s best known storefronts, the company said.

Many participating merchants will be creating special price offers exclusively for MasterCard cardholders. Each participating merchant will be listed at www.ezspree.com where consumers can begin a shopping session, register for the sweepstakes, and review the rules and entry requirements.

“This partnership with Yoyodyne and sponsorship of their EZSpree program is another important step forward in MasterCard’s ongoing efforts to be the payment brand that consumers think of first when they go to shop online,” said David Henderson, MasterCard’s vice president for global advertising and interactive marketing.

EZSpree, which was originally unveiled in the fall of 1997, provides online merchants with free, qualified traffic to their transactional sites. In its initial year, 14.6% of participants reported making one or more purchases at participating merchants, Yoyodyne said.

In conjunction with the EZSpree promotion, Yoyodyne and MasterCard will launch a new resource for online merchants called MerchantToday.com. The site will provide research, products and news for the online retail market. Yoyodyne said it will create special content designed to help the online merchant stay abreast of current trends and events impacting the e-commerce industry.