Virtual Shopper
By Yash Egami on Dec 10, 2009

The app, which could be described as a blend of Google Maps, Twitter and augmented reality, is an ingenious branding solution for a category hit hard by the financial crisis.
“The idea behind the ‘Priceless’ campaign is to basically get people to use their debit and credit cards,” says McCann’s co-executive creative director Alessandra Lariu. “However, this is a really bad time to be saying to people that they should go use their MasterCards to spend some more money. So we decided to create this app that had some utility, and at the end of the day, because it’s a P-2-P recommendation, you’re more inclined to use your card because it’s something that was suggested by people who are out there instead of a big brand.”

Says Lariu, “The app doesn’t just have cool things to do and see, it also has discounts and recommendations. Like for instance, it might say that at this place you can go for a wine tasting from 6-8PM, things like that. We’re calling them offers and they’re things that people can do and try. And they’re not coming from MasterCard, they’re coming from people. The small businesses are loving it because they can put their things out there.”
While the application may seem pretty straightforward, building it was anything but. In order to have content ready for the launch date, McCann partnered with sites like NFT (Not For Tourists), Shop Local and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. “We had three different content partners plus a moderation partner going to a database that would then spit out the content to the app and the site,” explains Lariu. “It looks really simple but it was really, really complicated. The ability to add picks and how you work that out so that everyone can add their own was a challenge. Every time you add something it shows up on your phone, but everyone else can’t see it until it gets moderated.”

While the app has a number of advertising possibilities, Lariu is mindful of its notoriously fickle audience. “It can’t be obtrusive, it should be useful. It can’t just be advertising for advertising’s sake.”