Profile... No-nonsense Lockwood adds feminine touch

A tough, uncompromising Australian known to work her agencies hard, there was never a suggestion that Lockwood was in town to indulge in celebrity worship or coo over Vivienne Tam’s winter collection. She is a woman who means business. MasterCard was the event’s lead sponsor, and she had the air of an army general determined to see his plan carried out to the letter.

The Singapore Fashion Festival is one of a number of ways the credit card giant is upping its efforts to reach an increasingly attractive target group. And Lockwood knows plenty about how to reach these people, because she is one of them: an empowered woman.

“We’ve been focusing on women for many years, but that spotlight has grown larger as women have become more powerful,” she says, pointing to research which predicts that, by 2014, women in Asia will wield more than US$500 billion in spending power.

“Women are more mobile and financially independent than ever before, and there are some interesting new sub-segments to target: young singles who have fast-moving lives; women who are postponing marriage and having kids later; and elderly women who like to travel,” she explains.

Fitting neatly into the first group is Denise Keller, the ubiquitous model-cum-TV personality-cum-socialite. Lockwood chose the Singaporean to be MasterCard’s ‘fashion embassador’ and the star of the latest ‘Priceless’ spot currently rolling out across Asia.

“Denise is confident, elegant, sassy. She epitomises the modern woman, and we knew from the word go that she was right for us,” says Lockwood. “We wanted her personality to come through in the ad, and push the idea that fashion allows a woman to be whatever she wants to be.”

Lockwood bristles at the suggestion that Keller is overexposed (the 25-year-old endorses Olay skin cream, Longines watches, Red Earth cosmetics, has appeared on the cover of Elle Singapore four times, has done ads for StarHub, MAS and SM5 in Korea and been an anchor on MTV Asia since 2002). Or that ‘Priceless’ — which was 10 years old this year (seven years old in Asia) — is looking a little tired nowadays.

“The beauty of the format is that it’s so flexible.” she says. “ It’s run in 108 countries and in 50 languages, and there have been many different treatments that have kept it fresh. Some executions use voice-overs, some don’t. We’ve used celebrities, sports personalities and new faces. We’ve run the idea backwards. We’ve used it for 15- and 30-second spots, sponsorships, outdoor, online, radio, print — and all of them together. Of course the sentiment is the same — and that will never really age. There’s plenty of life in it yet.”

Lockwood’s proudest moment, she says, was introducing ‘Priceless’ to Australia and New Zealand in 1999. Not far off was winning a silver Effie for a ‘Priceless’ spot launched in China in 2005.

But Lockwood does have her critics. Some say she has ruffled feathers by driving down agency fees too hard. Some say she changes her mind too often about the creative product, creating unnecessary work for her agencies (which include McCann Erickson, MRM, Weber Shandwick and Universal McCann, among others). Others complain that she has an annoying habit of poaching staff from her agencies.
Most agree, however, that Lockwood is a progressive marketer who’s genuinely good at thinking across disciplines. Whether or not you groan with boredom at yet another ‘Priceless’ campaign, the chances are it will appear in many different guises – and usually be followed by a rude parody that circulates on the internet.

Few argue, either, that Lockwood hasn’t delivered results. MasterCard’s 70 per cent jump in first quarter profits, announced this month, was thanks, in part, to strong volume growth in Asia. Lockwood has a tough job on her hands narrowing the gap with Visa, but she will not be drawn on her plans to take on her bigger rival.

“As always, our biggest competitor is cash.”

Natalie Lockwood's CV... 

2006 Group head, marketing, MasterCard Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa

1998 Marketing director, MasterCard, Australia and New Zealand

1995 Marketing manager, card products division, Citibank Australia