Visa - a 25 year veteran of Olympic sponsorship believes its new campaign for the London Olympics is "social by design"
"We threw down the gauntlet at an all-hands marketing meeting early on, that we will make this the most social games for us and for any other sponsor so far," said Kevin Burke, global CMO for core products.
The central idea for the 2012 campaign is "Cheer" because naturally, a lot of cheering goes on at a sporting spectacle like the Olympics. But apart from the cheering in the real world, Visa wants tow own the cheering of fans in social-media channels. According to the 60 Olympic athletes who make up Team Visa, encouragement from fans on Twitter and Facebook makes a big difference. Kerri Walsh, a 2004 and 2008 gold medalist in beach volleyball, said that when she's having a particularly tough training day, she turns to her social network for "inspiration and energy."
And so to the ad featuring actor Morgan Freeman and the iconic gold tinge which sets the ad apart from the herd. "When we come together to cheer, as one, we know what happens. ... Join our global cheer."
As part of the online cheer effort, fans have been asked to upload a text, photo or video cheer they've created for the athletes. Visa's Facebook page will serve as the global hub of the collection of consumer-submitted cheers and athletes' responses, as well as behind-the-scenes videos of the athletes' stories and training. Fans can also submit "one-click cheers" online or via mobile on social media including YouTube or through partner sites such as Yahoo and Sports Illustrated. Over the next several months, Team Visa athletes will also reach out to their social networks as de facto Visa cheer ambassadors with stories of how encouragement from fans helps them.
Visa will measure the success of the campaign using several traditional gauges like business metrics such as transactions, card activations and usage; brand-equity measures such as awareness and perception; as well as the satisfaction of clients such as its merchants and banks. Social engagement is the fourth measure, and particularly important in this campaign. Visa will measure likes, video views, uploads of cheers and shares to gauge success.
It will be interesting to see how this "audience-first approach' will work. For more information, click here
Did you know that you can only buy Olympic tickets with a Visa credit card? This amazing coup for the brand is a little known fact simply because the brand doesn't shout about it. You'd think more would be made of it!
No comments:
Post a Comment