Travel Merchant of the Year award for MAS

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) recently won the ‘Travel Merchant of the Year’ award category at the MasterCard Hall of Fame Marketing Awards 2010, an event showcasing the latest marketing trends in the credit card industry across 14 markets in South Asia and South-East Asia. This award showed the best card marketing programmes pioneered by financial institutions and merchants across the region.

The entries were appraised by members of MasterCard’s senior management, with input from advertising professionals. The ‘Travel Merchant of the Year’ category was open to merchants such as airlines, car rental companies, travel-related service providers that work with financial institutions or directly with MasterCard to provide cardholders with benefits.

Winning team: (From left) MAS manager (regional sales & marketing), David Raj, MasterCard international vicepresident and senior country manager, Malaysia and Brunei, Jim Cheah and Francis.

MAS executive vice-president, sales and marketing, Datuk Bernard Francis accepted the award on behalf of the company in Hong Kong. At the awards ceremony, Francis said: “We are very pleased with the outcome as this is the first time we have participated in this category. This definitely places us in good stead as we move forward in this new year. “This award demonstrates that MAS is constantly engaging with various tools and techniques to provide value-added service to its customers. “Our marketing practices are tailored to meet the customers demand effectively, creating a win-win situation” he added.

MAS’ partnership with MasterCard has been on-going since 2005. In 2010, the two organisations collaborated in a series of programmes and events including the MITM Travel Fair, Alice in Wonderland campaign, MasterCard Premium Travel Promo and Pavilion Pitstop — Red Carpet Gala Night. MAS and MasterCard also recently jointly organised a reward programme for its top spenders called ‘An Unforgettable Arabian Night’, where guests were treated to the first ‘Comedy-On-Air’ in Malaysia while on a flight to Pulai Springs, Johor.

-thestar online.