How Mastercard (Ekata) Connected With High-Value Fraud & Identity Buyers Through Curated Events

Introduction: The Challenge of Reaching Fragmented B2B Buyers

For companies operating in complex categories like fraud prevention and digital identity, one of the biggest challenges isn’t awareness—it’s finding and engaging the right buyers.

Mastercard’s Ekata division faced this exact problem.

Their buyers:

• Span multiple industries
• Sit across different roles and titles
• Often don’t actively identify themselves as “fraud buyers”

This makes traditional demand generation extremely inefficient.

As highlighted in the original challenge:

• Buyers were spread across eCommerce, financial services, and payment providers globally
• Identifying and engaging them was slow and resource-intensive

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About Mastercard (Ekata)

Ekata, a Mastercard company, provides identity verification and fraud prevention solutions that help businesses:

• Verify digital identities
• Reduce fraud risk
• Improve customer onboarding and conversion

Their solutions are used by:

• Financial institutions
• eCommerce companies
• Payment platforms

Ekata’s technology enables businesses to make real-time decisions on identity and risk across digital interactions

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The Challenge

Mastercard (Ekata) needed to:

• Establish thought leadership in fraud prevention and digital identity
• Engage a highly fragmented and difficult-to-target audience
• Accelerate pipeline in a complex enterprise sales cycle
• Create meaningful engagement with senior decision-makers

Traditional channels weren’t working:

• Paid acquisition lacked precision
• Large events were too broad
• Cold outreach had low engagement

They weren’t struggling with reach.
They were struggling with relevance and engagement.

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The Insight: Conversations Drive Enterprise Pipeline

In complex B2B categories, buyers don’t convert from:

• Ads
• Content alone
• Cold outreach

They convert through:

• Conversations
• Trust
• Peer validation

The key wasn’t to reach more people.

It was to:

Get the right buyers into the right conversations.

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The Solution: Curated Executive Events Powered by Covent

Covent partnered with Mastercard (Ekata) to build a strategy centered around:

• Precision targeting
• Executive-level engagement
• High-quality, conversation-driven experiences

Instead of sponsoring large conferences, Covent created curated events designed specifically for Ekata’s ICP.

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How It Worked

1. Identify High-Value Buyer Segments

Covent worked with Ekata to define key audiences:

• Fraud leaders
• Risk & compliance executives
• Identity and payments decision-makers

Across industries like:

• Fintech
• Financial services
• eCommerce
• Payments

2. Leverage Covent’s Organizer Network

Covent activated its global network of:

• Trusted event organizers
• Niche industry communities
• Executive peer groups

These communities already had:

• Established trust
• High-quality audiences
• Strong engagement

3. Curate High-Signal Executive Experiences

Instead of large-scale events, Covent designed:

• Executive roundtables
• Private dinners
• Interactive discussions

Each event was:

• Invite-only
• Highly curated
• Focused on real business challenges

4. Ensure 100% ICP Alignment

Every attendee was:

• Pre-qualified
• Relevant to Ekata’s offering
• A potential buyer or influencer

This eliminated:

• Wasted conversations
• Low-quality leads
• Event inefficiency

5. Facilitate Meaningful Conversations

The events were structured to:

• Encourage dialogue
• Share insights
• Surface real challenges

This turned events into:

• Demand generation engines
• Relationship-building channels
• Pipeline accelerators

The Execution

• 🌍 Regions: Global (multi-market execution)
• 🎯 Audience: Fraud, identity, and payments decision-makers
• 🤝 Industries: eCommerce, financial services, fintech
• 🧠 Format: Executive roundtables, curated discussions, private events

Each experience was built to create:

• High engagement
• Deep conversations
• Strong peer interaction

The Results

The shift to curated event-driven engagement delivered:

• Highly engaged, qualified buyers across multiple regions
• Stronger pipeline velocity through direct conversations
• Improved buyer understanding of Ekata’s value proposition
• Consistent engagement with senior decision-makers

Most importantly:

Ekata transformed hard-to-reach, fragmented buyers into active participants in high-value conversations.

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Why This Worked

1. Solved the “Hidden Buyer” Problem

Ekata’s buyers didn’t always have clear titles or buying signals.

Curated events surfaced:

• The right people
• At the right time
• In the right context

2. Built Trust Faster

Instead of cold outreach, Ekata engaged buyers:

• Within trusted communities
• Through peer conversations
• In high-signal environments

3. Created Context, Not Just Awareness

Buyers didn’t just hear about Ekata.

They:

• Discussed real challenges
• Understood use cases
• Connected solutions to their needs

4. Focused on Quality Over Quantity

Rather than optimizing for:

• Event size
• Impressions

The strategy optimized for:

• Relevance
• Engagement
• Pipeline impact

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The Bigger Shift in B2B Demand Generation

This case reflects a broader shift:

B2B marketing is moving from reach → relevance → relationships

Old model:

• Broad targeting
• High volume
• Low engagement

New model:

• Precision targeting
• Curated experiences
• High-intent conversations

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What This Means for Enterprise Companies

If you’re selling into:

• Multiple industries
• Complex buying committees
• Hard-to-identify buyers

You need to move beyond traditional demand gen.

Instead of asking:

“How do we generate more leads?”

Ask:

“How do we create the right conversations with the right buyers?”

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How Covent Helps

Covent helps B2B companies:

• Identify where their buyers actually engage
• Access trusted communities and organizers
• Create curated, high-impact events
• Turn conversations into pipeline

We combine:

• Data (who your buyers are and where they gather)
• Network (organizers and communities globally)
• Execution (end-to-end event strategy and delivery)

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Final Takeaway

When your buyers are fragmented, hidden, and hard to reach…

You don’t need more reach.

You need better access.

That’s what Mastercard (Ekata) achieved with Covent.

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