Can I animate the model and it's material with Mecanim?

I'm trying to have a hologram shader animated so that the model fades in while the model itself is standing still. The problem is that the animation clip that contains the animation that drives material properties is overwriting the model bones as well. I have tried masking it and putting it on a seperate animator controller but neither of those worked.

Is there a way to get this to work with Mecanim or do I have to use an alternative? I just need the material animation to mind it's own business and not mess with the bones, that's all.