CardMarketing 2.0

Carol Vorderman, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, is a C-, maybe even B-List British celebrity who made her name as an awkwardly dressed co-host on one of the nation's favourite weekday afternoon gameshows: Countdown. It's a word creation/number crunching show favoured by tea-swigging coffin-dodgers, although it's fair to say it also has a strong retro appeal with students, people off work ill or anyone else, as Les, a former boss of mine, used to say, on the ponce*. I was a huge fan, too, until the cult hero and main host, Richard 'Twice Nightly" Whiteley, threw a seven and someone else stepped in. It's never been the same since...

Aaaannnnnyway, Carol, a member of Mensa, is the brainbox of the show, the one who works out the answers to all the number games when none of the contestants can. She's revered throughout the UK by people who have a poor understanding of maths for being brilliant at maths.

It's this perception of Carol being a numbers whiz that has led to extreme criticism of her decision, away from the Countdown set, to be the face of First Plus, a UK debt consolidation company. Because people trust her, and have seen her in the First Plus ads on TV, many, it's claimed, have subsequently taken out loans that are unsuitable, or which they can't afford. As far as I'm aware, it's a debate that rambles on...

Richard "Twice Nightly" Whiteley, left. Above, Carol with someone else after Richard's untimely death. The show has never been the same since.

...which, I'm sure, could be said of this post, too. Now what has Carol Vorderman got to do with card marketing? Well, nothing really — other than a touch of cynicism. It's like this. The other evening I was watching the Tour de France highlights on TV and in the break there was a MasterCard advertisement inviting UK MasterCard cardholders to have a stab at winning a '£50,000 continental journey of a lifetime'. The rules, below, are pretty straightforward: the more cardholders spend abroad, the greater their chance of winning the dream holiday.

Entry is simple. Use your MasterCard abroad between 1st June and 31st August 2007 and you will be automatically entered into the draw to win a £50,000 Priceless journey across the continent of your choice. Remember, every purchase gives you another entry into the draw, so the more you use your card abroad, the greater your chances of winning.

This holiday spend prize draw really got my goat. Firstly, it's painfully unoriginal. There are other, more engaging ways for issuers to get people to buy into their cards and brands without having to dangle a free holiday in front of their noses, however exclusive — look at what Amex is doing with the Members Project, and Mastercard itself with its Sum It Up Sweepstakes (in association with American Airlines and Universal Studios).

No money on offer with The Members Project — all the cash goes to a good cause — and no cynical call to potentially overspend with the Sum It Up Sweepstakes, but both command a hell of a lot more respect and are considerably more exciting that Mastercard's £50,000 holiday gig.

Now I know high outstanding balances are pretty key for issuers, but encouraging cardholders to transact more than they might normally on the highly unlikely off-chance they will win a dream holiday (where they will have plenty of time to fret about the debt they have racked up) seems a touch cynical to me, a tad irresponsible — not unlike Carol with her decision to front up a debt consolidation company.

While the Mastercard 'journey of a lifetime' gig seems so 'yesterday', Discover's Motiva Card, a card encouraging good credit management rather than excessive credit, seems so much more responsible, so much more 'today'. As consumers mature and perceptions change, issuers need to become more subtle. There are other roads to Rome.

* Unemployed, and contentedly so.