Friday 11th September 2009, London, UK
- Between 1st June and 31st July, MasterCard and McCann Erickson ran a short film competition inviting Raindance’s extensive network of filmmakers to produce their own interpretations of MasterCard’s new Priceless® campaign leveraging The Big Lunch, a national initiative conceived by The Eden Project, which took place on 19 July.

Drawing on the knowledge and experience of the UK’s largest independent film organisation, Raindance, MasterCard invited the people of Britain to produce their very own interpretations of its Big Lunch TV ad. Two £1000 prizes were pledged, one for the ‘Best Film’ and one for the film which obtained the highest number of views on YouTube within thirty days.

The results from this ground-breaking creative venture were very pleasing. MasterCard received a number of films which spanned a touching combination of humour, emotion, socks, superheroes, balloons and sausages! The standard was high but the judging panel eventually managed to shortlist the full list down to thirteen entries. These shortlisted films then spent the next month fighting for the public’s vote, thus encouraging the film-makers to circulate their film links as much as possible. This resulted in a total number of 18,415 views.

We are pleased to announce that the winner of ‘Best Film’ is Trevor Hardy, with the extremely impressive claymation entitled ‘Let’s Lunch’, whilst the film which drove the most amount of footfall on YouTube is ‘The Green’ by Stephen Gallacher. Both films are charming, clever and genuinely represent brilliant examples of user-generated content.

Rita Broe, Head of Marketing for Europe, commented:
”This is a unique activity in the user-generated content space, which goes beyond simple ad amplification. Our partnership with Raindance is born of the insight that consumers increasingly want to express themselves via social networking sites and the role of our brand in this campaign is to help facilitate that.”

Andre Burgess of Raindance.tv, commented:
“Our partnership with MasterCard in this unique opportunity reinforces Raindance’s underlying ethos of helping our grassroots community to flourish and be discovered. We’ve loved seeing entries from across the country and getting a snapshot of how people and their communities express themselves through the medium of online video.”

- Ends -

For further information, please contact:

Doyel Maitra, MasterCard Europe
Tel: +44 (0)207 557 5033,
doyel_maitra@mastercard.com

MasterCard UK Press Office

Tel: +44 (0)870 990 5403,
mastercardpressoffice@webershandwick.com

About MasterCard Worldwide

MasterCard Worldwide advances global commerce by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, businesses, cardholders and merchants worldwide. As a franchisor, processor and advisor, MasterCard develops and markets payment solutions, processes approximately 21 billion transactions each year, and provides industry-leading analysis and consulting services to financial-institution customers and merchants. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network and through its family of brands, including MasterCard®, Maestro® and Cirrus®, MasterCard serves consumers and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information go to www.mastercard.com

About The Eden Project

The Eden Project is an attitude to life, the first expression of which was the creation of the greatest conservatories in the world in a crater in Cornwall. Its mission is to point out our total dependence on the natural world in ways which don't feel preachy and to demonstrate aspects of behaviour and thinking that encourage us all to explore the boundaries of what is presently called Sustainable Living.

The Eden Trust, which runs The Eden Project, is an educational charity with projects both at home and abroad that develops educational programmes and events based on the philosophy that the challenges that are facing us should be viewed as opportunities that make us give of our best. The Big Lunch is one of the most important of these projects.

About Raindance.tv

Tied in to two of the autumn season’s most popular and well-established fixtures (The Raindance Film Festival in October, and the British Independent Film Awards in November), raindance.tv plc brings together several key online offerings under one roof: video sharing, networking and resources.

Raindance.tv offers a blend of high-quality, independently-produced, feature and short films via its website http://raindance.tv and via other IPTV and mobile networks, enabling users everywhere to watch films from around the world.
For more information visit http://www.raindance.tv

About Raindance Film Festival

Launched by Elliot Grove in 1993, Raindance is the UK’s largest truly independent film festival, showcasing shorts and features from around the world, and specialising in directorial debuts. Distinguishing itself from other festivals with its rock and roll attitude, Raindance runs riot in the West End of London for 10 days every October. Over the years Raindance has showcased such films as Pulp Fiction, Blair Witch Project, and Memento. The hugely popular event has grown steadily over the years. Last year, in 2008, the festival screened over 90 features and 160 shorts from all over the world, and attracted an audience of over 12,000 people.

As well as showing independent films from around the world, the festival hosts special events, including its renowned pitching event, Live!Ammunition!, where filmmakers can end up selling their ideas to the industry.
For more information visit http://www.raindance.co.uk