Visa Takes "Go World" Campaign to Vancouver

(ATR) Visa’s “Go World” global campaign is going local -- to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

“It’s a fully integrated marketing campaign that features our teams, athletes and athlete legends from around the world, as well as some very interesting promotional opportunities … and a wide variety of media vehicles -- television, print and definitely the digital space,” Jennifer Bazante, head of Visa global brand marketing, tells Around the Rings.

“What’s really interesting about the Olympics and the concept of Go World is it just really embodies the spirit of the Olympic Games and it engages consumers who relate to the Olympic Games through the … achievements of the athletes,” Bazante said.

Visa will support more than 30 athletes on its Team Visa Vancouver. There are 13 from Canada, 11 from the U.S., six from China and two from Russia.

The company provides financial support for the Olympians and Paralympians ahead of the Games. As members of Team Visa, the athletes spend more time in their communities.

Team Visa athletes also are a significant part of the company’s digital marketing.

“Because consumers engage with the Olympic Games and spirit through the athletes, the development of a lot of, sort of behind the scenes, different glimpses of how the athletes train and get prepared for their Olympic journey, became a really important part of our overall material,” Bazante tells ATR.

The TOP sponsor connects its consumers and athletes through its website, www.visa.com/goworld. There, consumers are able to view videos made by the athletes themselves, training videos, and background information. Consumers also can purchase prepaid visa cards with athletes’ photos, download their playlists and music, and get a widget to put on their social networking page to share with their friends in support of the athletes’ journey.

Visa plans to partner with NBC and Yahoo! in its digital marketing efforts.

“Just overall, the digital space is becoming more and more important as consumers’ media consumption habits have changed, so digital is just becoming more predominant or more important channel for us in marketing in general,” Bazante said.

Bazante tells ATR that Visa focused its “Go World” campaign in Canada, the U.S., Russia, South Korea, Japan, China and some central European markets.

Visa launched the contest in November that gave Visa cardholders the chance to win a trip to the Vancouver Games. The company followed with another promotion giving consumers a chance to win a trip to the Winter Olympic Games for the rest of their lives. Cardholders are automatically entered when they use their Visa cards.

“So far, we’ve gotten some anecdotal information that consumers are very excited about it,” Bazante said.

Visa’s merchant partners have also been able to have merchant offers, particularly in Vancouver.

“Vancouver’s a great city, and a very wonderful downtown core area where there are about 5,000 merchants in some of the key areas. They’ve got significant Visa presence and we’ve done different types of promotional activates as we have been partnering with these merchants there,” Bazante said.

Visa in Vancouver

Ahead of the Games, Visa has gotten its employees involved by offering different types of contests, trivia, information and presentations that allow them to connect with the Games.

“It’s a great property and these employeesin general are just really excited about it and really proud that Visa sponsors the Olympics,” Bazante said.

Multilingual employees will staff the Global Consumer Assistance Center in Vancouver during the Games. The center will provide services to help with card payment related services, help with lost or stolen passports, and information about shopping, transport, police and hospital services, dining and tourism and ATM locations.

The TOP Sponsor will set up ATMs and machines that process credit card transactions at competition and non-competition venues. Visa’s machines can be found in the Main Press Center, the International Broadcast Center and the Olympic and Paralympic Villages.

Visa also will hold an event February 10 for the opening of the Olympians Reunion Center (ORC). The ORC welcomes Olympians from previous Games.

Visa, located in San Francisco, California, has been a TOP sponsor for 24 years. It is the only card accepted at the Games. It became the first global sponsor of the Paralympics and Worldwide Partner of the International Paralympic Committee in 2002. It co-founded the first Olympians Reunion Center in Atlanta in 1996 with the World Olympians Association.

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With reporting from Isia Reaves

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