Ad Campaign From Visa Piggybacks Olympic Spirit

From Visa is among a long list of blue-chip marketers spending, in total, billions of dollars on sponsorships of, and ads for, the Summer Olympics. Others include Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and Samsung. Visa’s campaign for the Summer Games will be the largest in the 25 years it has been an Olympic sponsor, executives say. The campaign will involve more than 70 countries, compared with about 45 for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Athens. (Marketers always put more emphasis on the Summer Games than the Winter Games, reflecting that more countries take part in the quadrennial summer sports festival than the wintertime one.) The Visa campaign will give fans a chance to post good wishes — “global cheer,” in Visa’s parlance — in the form of comments, photographs and video clips on the Visa Facebook page, at facebook.com/visa. They can also voice support through comments on Twitter (@teamvisa), using the hashtag #VisaGoWorld, and online, on sites that include the Visa YouTube channel. Social media are playing far larger roles in the campaign than they did for the Visa campaign for the 2008 Summer Games, or even for the campaign for the Winter Olympics only two years ago. “It will be more social than ever before,” said Antonio Lucio, global chief marketing, strategy and corporate development officer at Visa. “At the core of the idea is consumer participation,” he added, in that “people’s cheers fuel athletes’ performance.” In Visa’s previous Olympics campaigns, Visa was the one cheering on the athletes through the “Go world” theme. Now, Visa wants its cardholders to join in the cheering. “It puts this new spin on ‘Go world,’ ” said Patrick O’Neill, executive creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles, the Visa creative agency. “We want to own the idea that all of us cheering together make that li-t-t-t-t-t-t-tle bit of difference.” Mr. O’Neill echoed the fanciful pronunciation of “little” by the actor Morgan Freeman in a television commercial that will send viewers to the social media to submit cheers. “When you wish, they fly just a li-t-t-t-t-t-t-tle bit higher,” Mr. Freeman intones as the Russian pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva soars skyward in a clip from the 2004 Summer Games. In addition to TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles — part of the TBWA Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group — the agencies working on the Visa Olympics campaign include other Omnicom agencies like BBDO, OMD and Proximity. | 06 May 2012

By Stuart Elliot
An advertising campaign from Visa is about the Summer Olympics, not Christmas, but consumers are still asked to be of good cheer.

The campaign, scheduled to start on Monday, will use social media to encourage consumers around the world to root for their favorite athletes at the 2012 Summer Games in London. The goal is to bring to life a Visa ad theme, “Go world,” as an exhortation.

Read Article on Visa is among a long list of blue-chip marketers spending, in total, billions of dollars on sponsorships of, and ads for, the Summer Olympics. Others include Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and Samsung. Visa’s campaign for the Summer Games will be the largest in the 25 years it has been an Olympic sponsor, executives say. The campaign will involve more than 70 countries, compared with about 45 for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Athens. (Marketers always put more emphasis on the Summer Games than the Winter Games, reflecting that more countries take part in the quadrennial summer sports festival than the wintertime one.) The Visa campaign will give fans a chance to post good wishes — “global cheer,” in Visa’s parlance — in the form of comments, photographs and video clips on the Visa Facebook page, at facebook.com/visa. They can also voice support through comments on Twitter (@teamvisa), using the hashtag #VisaGoWorld, and online, on sites that include the Visa YouTube channel. Social media are playing far larger roles in the campaign than they did for the Visa campaign for the 2008 Summer Games, or even for the campaign for the Winter Olympics only two years ago. “It will be more social than ever before,” said Antonio Lucio, global chief marketing, strategy and corporate development officer at Visa. “At the core of the idea is consumer participation,” he added, in that “people’s cheers fuel athletes’ performance.” In Visa’s previous Olympics campaigns, Visa was the one cheering on the athletes through the “Go world” theme. Now, Visa wants its cardholders to join in the cheering. “It puts this new spin on ‘Go world,’ ” said Patrick O’Neill, executive creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles, the Visa creative agency. “We want to own the idea that all of us cheering together make that li-t-t-t-t-t-t-tle bit of difference.” Mr. O’Neill echoed the fanciful pronunciation of “little” by the actor Morgan Freeman in a television commercial that will send viewers to the social media to submit cheers. “When you wish, they fly just a li-t-t-t-t-t-t-tle bit higher,” Mr. Freeman intones as the Russian pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva soars skyward in a clip from the 2004 Summer Games. In addition to TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles — part of the TBWA Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group — the agencies working on the Visa Olympics campaign include other Omnicom agencies like BBDO, OMD and Proximity.