Master Card, Nuance-Watson team up for Asian women

MANILA, Philippines - Travelers can now shop duty-free for a cause when they stock up on cosmetics and fragrances at Changi Airport. Through MasterCard Purchase with Purpose™, MasterCard will make a donation to help improve the lives of disadvantaged women each time cardholders make a purchase at Nuance-Watson stores from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012. Donations will go towards initiatives run by the Singapore National Committee for UN Women (formerly UNIFEM) to lend support to economic empowerment programs, improve access to education and healthcare services for women and girls in Asia.

The year-long collaboration will include all the 22 Nuance-Watson Perfumes & Cosmetics stores located at the four Changi Airport terminals in Singapore. During this period, all MasterCard cardholders who are traveling through Changi Airport will receive special benefits and privileges when they shop at Nuance-Watson.

Changi Airport — consistently ranked world’s best airport by leisure and business travelers and the industry as a whole — handled more than 42 million passenger movements in 2010, and is expected to see growth of approximately five percent in 2011 This Purchase with Purpose tie-up between MasterCard and Nuance-Watson leverages the strength of passenger traffic at Changi Airport, which serves some 100 airlines flying to over 200 cities worldwide. 

Included in the list of benefits and privileges as part of this collaboration, during the Great Singapore Sale (May 27 toJuly 24, 2011), MasterCard cardholders will receive a S$40 voucher for every S$450 spent at Nuance-Watson stores in a single receipt.

“Corporate Social Responsibility has been an area of focus for us at Nuance-Watson Singapore as we have been supporting four charitable organizations in Singapore for years. This meaningful collaboration with MasterCard to help disadvantaged females in Asia is in line with our humanitarian objective to involve our valued customers in our charitable efforts,” said Ken Tse, managing director of Nuance-Watson Singapore.

As a leading global payments company, MasterCard Worldwide prides itself on being at the heart of commerce, helping to make life easier and more efficient for everyone, everywhere. MasterCard serves as a franchisor, processor and advisor to the payments industry, and makes commerce happen by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, governments, businesses, merchants, and cardholders worldwide. In 2010, $2.7 trillion in gross dollar volume was generated on its products by consumers around the world. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network – the fastest payment processing network in the world – MasterCard processes over 23 billion transactions each year and has the capacity to handle 160 million transactions per hour, with an average network response time of 130 milliseconds and with 99.99 percent reliability. MasterCard advances global commerce through its family of brands, including MasterCard®, Maestro®, and Cirrus®; its suite of core products such as credit, debit, and prepaid; and its innovative platforms and functionalities, such as MasterCard PayPass™ and MasterCard inControl®. MasterCard serves consumers, governments, and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information, please visit us at www.mastercard.com. Follow us on Twitter: @mastercardnews.

Media contacts:

Georgette Tan, MasterCard Worldwide, +65 6390 5971, [email protected]

Cindy Choo, Weber Shandwick, +65 6825 8035, [email protected]