Raja Rajamannar de Mastercard
This year’s awards season officially comes to a close, as a jury of leading global CMOs unanimously selected Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and President, Healthcare Business at Mastercard, as winner of The One Show 2021 CMO Pencil, honoring the brand marketer behind the world’s single most impactful idea on a brand’s business from the past year. Rajamannar received the prestigious award for “True Name”, created by McCann New York with Hungry Man Productions Los Angeles and JSM Music New York, one of the top winners at this year’s show. In addition to the CMO Pencil, the work won two Best of Discipline awards (in IP & Products and Public Relations), eight Gold Pencils, three Silvers and two Merits at The One Show this year, and was the world’s second-highest ranked entry in The One Show 2021 Creative Rankings. McCann collaborated with Mastercard on the creation of the True Name card, which allows nonbinary and transgender people to have a credit card bearing their chosen name, rather than their birth name. “I am so proud of how Mastercard is committed to real actions that positively impact people’s lives,” said Rajamannar. “The idea for True Name came right out of the everyday life experience of a creative at McCann, Lucas Crigler. McCann presented this idea to us which is so simple, and so human, and so profound, and Cheryl Guerin, Head of NA, Marketing & Communications, boldly ran with it. It was not an easy path but the powerful truth behind it is what made it happen. “We brought this initiative to our partners including BMO, Citibank, Republic Bank and bunq amongst others, and it is now expanding even further- our European colleagues are launching True Name in 30 countries. True Name is a global movement, with the scale and impact to help improve the lives of transgender and nonbinary people around the world. And, I hope that the success of True Name helps to create more awareness and allyship among us all, and inspire other creatives, and other organizations, to do the same,” he said.
