Decide if your commercial will be written for radio, television or both. Next, determine the run time of your MasterCard spot. Broadcast media adheres to uniform time slots of 15, 20, 30 and 60 seconds for commercials. The 60-second category is most frequently found on radio and cable television, where affordability gives companies more bang for their ad buck.
Become as familiar as you can with the pacing, words, graphics, tone and message current MasterCard commercials convey. Get your hands on a digital photo (JPEG) of the MasterCard logo for television spots so you can use it during or at the end of the television version.
Write draft text for your commercial. Use the broadcast journalism rule of thumb: No more than 75 words for a 30-second commercial and no more than 135 words for a 60-second commercial. If you can write your MasterCard commercial in fewer words, you might want to consider a career in this field.
Load your MasterCard commercial with benefits and features. A feature of the card is its small size. A benefit is your ability to snare a hot outfit on sale that you wouldn't have been able to purchase had you not had the card in your wallet.
Boot your computer, open an 8 1/2-by-11-inch Microsoft Word document and select two columns from the "Format" menu. For radio, use the left column to note special effects and music; the right column stacks the text you've written for the talent. For a television commercial, use the left column for visuals (e.g., someone at the cash register or the brand's logo).
Spell check and edit the commercial to make sure it fits the proper word count and doesn't include language filled with hard-to-pronounce words that may be difficult to understand. If you're working in Microsoft Word, find the "word count" command under the "Tools" menu and verify the copy count of everything in the right column.
Ask someone else to read your MasterCard commercial aloud several times so you can hear how the words sound. Even professional commercial writers have gotten to this point and realized their copy was lacking, so don't feel badly if you need to do surgery on the text.
Make certain your commercial ends with the word "Priceless." It wouldn't be a MasterCard commercial if you left it out.