Has Visa dropped the ball? What it could have done through Olympic partnership
A look at how credit card brand Visa could have used it opportunity as official payment provider for the 2012 Olympic Games, instead of doing very little and potentially annoying a lot of people.
Yesterday was the first day that ticket applications for the London 2012 Olympic Games were put on general release, with all sales set to be done through official sponsor Visa’s own cards. But would you have known that Visa was an official sponsor at all? Unlikely, as unusually for a major brand, it chose not to market its involvement. A missed opportunity considering it must have paid a pretty penny just to be involved? You betchya.
The Drum contacted a few marketing services companies – digital agency Rippleffect, sports marketing agency Bananakick and brand response firm The Black Hole - for their thoughts on what brand activity Visa could, and should, have implemented.
How did they get away with this? How did Visa get away with being the ‘Official Payment Partner’ of the London 2012 Olympics & Paralympics without a modicum of pre-promotion? How did LOCOG not force their sponsor to look out for the average Briton as the games approached?
In my opinion promoting yourself as ‘sponsors of the world’s two greatest sporting events’ but then not telling people about the fact you need a Visa credit or debit cards to buy tickets, is only going to create long term ‘piss-off factors’. What would I have done different you ask?
As an experiential marketer, and let’s say I was a mightily lazy one, I would have at least performed a ‘get signed up now’ campaign in major transit centres throughout the country. As a dedicated experiential marketer, which I feel that I am, I would have celebrated The Games with an interactive exhibition travelling to key city centres and events promoting the virtues of the Olympics and why you should attend. And then I would have offered the opportunity for participants to sign up for your Visa card, well in advance of the ticket-buying window so you will be able to enjoy the events.
Additionally, I wonder how this was not flashed across social media channels, and why there was no PR leading up to the official launch. I have been wondering how this has slipped under the radar until the last few days.
Visa are quoted as saying: ‘We not only fully support the spirit and values of the Games, but also see the partnership as an opportunity to demonstrate brand leadership and increase preference for our products and services.’ Well I’m sorry Visa, you have shown your tremendous clout, but you have not demonstrated ‘brand leadership’.
Patrick C. Kavanagh, head of sponsorship and experiential marketing for Bananakick
Tactically, there are myriad ways in which Visa could have put their brand in front of people prior to ticket launch. But they’ve missed the main opportunity to regain hearts, minds and market share lost to competitors.
Ticket launch is arguably the second biggest event in the run up to the Olympics (the first being the opening ceremony). It’s a massive chance for the Visa logo to be viewed as more than just a payment mechanic, establish common ground with The Olympics and reinstate the brand’s personality in a move to regain market share.
The Olympic values of Respect, Excellence and Friendship should be leveraged by Visa. The run up to ticket launch was a chance to tell a compelling story about what these values mean for Visa as a brand and what they’re doing about it. For example, Friendship could translate into working in partnership with customers or helping the public to participate in the Olympic Games.
Going forward Visa needs to communicate these values and the customer-facing benefit of being the sole payment card. This needs to be at the heart of their marketing strategy – and integrated seamlessly across all customer communications.
This shift in focus will mean, instead of worrying about the fact they can only buy tickets online using a Visa Card; customers will be happy to use it every time they shop – for the chance to win golden tickets to the opening ceremony… men’s 100m final tickets and much, much more.
The Black Hole
Karl Stones – creative director, copy
Lynne Cook – head of planning
The investment made in the sponsorship of Olympic events is surely a positive experience. Helping fund one of the greatest sporting spectacles of our time should help lift a brand and allow it to bask in the glory given off by the Olympic flames. Not, however, if you quickly fall in to the trap of elitisting a corporate machine.
Visa is one of the primary sponsors of the London 2012 Olympics, as it was for the Bejing 2008 games. As part of the sponsorship, it is understood that visa is offering huge discounts or even free processing of card payments as long as all purchases are made with a visa card. This would appear a great deal for London 2012, but ticket buyers have a very different opinion.
This should have been handled very differently. The Visa deal is perceived as the worst kind of monopoly, as a punishment for non-card holders and greedy grab at increasing uptake on visa subscriptions.
With careful planning and a nudge in the right direction this could have been a different story.
Taking the successes of loyalty schemes, we would have presented the requirement for visa as a triumph for visa card holders. The message should have been that visa worked hard to secure the deal for their card holders and a reward to the loyal visa card holder, so that the tickets are available to them and their peers. And with this partnership visa will help the Olympic ideals to be realised.
Mobile carriers, while not carrying the sole rights, have offered and presented similar ideals. It’s not that everyone has to wait to buy festival tickets; it’s just O2 customers get them first.
A message like this would be relatively easy to spread given the enormous interest around the games. Search volumes will reach thousands as the demand for tickets increases, providing the opportunity for an application for a visa card to be combined with registering interest for tickets; while working partnerships with other games sponsors from personal banking, such Lloyds TSB (who’s link from the visa Olympic micro site is broken!) could be utilised to create an Olympic visa card.
The brand guardians for the Olympics are notoriously difficult, so there may have been issues we are unaware of, but right now they need to be on damage control. The social platforms are becoming littered with the negative aspects of this deal. Accusations of elitism are abound, regardless of visa’s pre-paid card allowing those without credit or debit cards to use services many take for granted. And the undertones of corporate meddling and cash controlled games need to be addressed as soon as possible.
Paul Goonoo - head of search and marketing for Rippleffect