Visa

  • Print
  • Digital
  • Packaging
  • Environmental

Since 1986, Visa has been a premier sponsor of the Olympic Games. And as an official worldwide partner, Visa owns exclusive sponsorship rights to the payment service category. To help boost awareness and recognition of it’s role as a mature Olympic Games partner, Visa has developed and expanded it’s commitment to the global sporting event. This partnership reinforces Visa’s superior acceptance and enhances its brand image.

For the site of the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympic Games, marchFIRST was selected to create a visual vocabulary to maintain a consistent look and feel for its on-the-ground presence in and around all Olympic venues. The solution featured Visa sponsored athletes on over 250 distinctly designed components applied to their Hospitality, Environmental/Retail and ATM Programs. Setting a new record of their own, Visa reported card usage had increased more than 20% during the two and a half week event when compared to past results from previous Olympic events.

The Hospitality Program consisted of four separate waves of invited Visa guests. The exterior and interiors of two hotels were dressed with the Visa branded Olympic materials. A historical carriage house, completely renovated for Visa hosted party’s, along with a Visitors Information Center, were among some of the components created for their guests and Olympic visitors. Upon arrival, Visa branded duffle bags filled with cold weather apparel, along with an abundance of accessories, were awaiting each Visa guest in their hotel rooms.

The Environmental/Retail Program included numerous Visa branded pieces ranging from sculptural banners to a successful “gift-with-purchase Olympic pin promotion”. By selecting from the numerous options created, nearly all major retail properties in and around Salt Lake City participated by dressing the shopping malls, stores and streets with Visa branded Olympic promotional materials. Unfortunately, many items needed to be replaced throughout the event due to theft, which could only mean one thing.....the Visa logo is highly valued.

The ATM Program included several custom-designed permanent ATM structures for the larger Olympic event sites to accommodate the numerous fans from around the globe. In addition, a fleet of mobile ATM vehicles were created to accommodate the smaller (but still important) events throughout the Salt Lake region. ATM prompt screens featured existing footage from Visa’s ad campaign that aired prior to the start of the games. All of the prompt screens sported the look-and-feel as it guided the ATM user through their transaction. Upon completion of a transaction, the printed ATM receipt introduced the successful “Visa gift-with-purchase Olympic pin promotion” on the back with all participating retail locations.