Traditional advertising is dead, says the marketer who cut Mastercard's ad budget by 70%
Mastercard Senior Fellow Raja Rajamannar in conversation with Lara O'Reilly for Business Insider's CMO Insider Podcast Charlie Floyd/Business Insider Raja Rajamannar slashed Mastercard's ad budget by 70%, investing in consumer experiences instead. He says traditional advertising no longer works the way marketers think it does. As AI floods the market with more content than ever, marketers will need to be more creative. Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard's former chief marketing and communications officer, spent more than a decade overseeing marketing for one of the world's most recognizable brands. During his tenure as CMCO from 2013 to the start of 2026, he made a decision that many marketers would consider unthinkable: He permanently cut Mastercard's advertising budget by 70% as part of a progressive shift during Mastercard's marketing transformation. The move didn't hurt the business, Rajamannar said. Instead, he redirected much of that spending into experi...
