Visa readies Team 2012 new year push
Visa will focus its London 2012 marketing activity on enhancing the profile of Britain’s Olympic athletes in the build-up to the Games.
The 18-month strategy will start in February and feature traditional advertising, online, social media and point-of-sale activity. Creative work for the campaign is currently being finalised.
Colin Grannell, head of partnership marketing at Visa Europe, says: “The goal is to make the team famous, to make some of the individuals much higher-profile.”
Visa, which is the presenting partner of Team 2012, plans to raise public awareness of lesser known British athletes and their events.
Grannell adds that Visa will “push as hard as we possibly can” in its 2012 marketing activity, targeting “every household” and “as many retailers as we can”.
Visa will also hold competitions giving winners the chance to meet and train with athletes in the run-up to the Games. Competitions in Visa’s other 34 European markets will provide tickets for spectators to travel to London for the event.
Grannell says he believes that the 2012 Olympics will be a “watershed” for Visa in terms of brand awareness in the UK. After taking over from Mastercard as sponsor of the Fifa World Cup this year, he admits that “the brands, in terms of awareness, have been relatively close” in the context of football.
After London 2012, he claims, Visa will “be miles away from any place where Mastercard might be in terms of association with the Olympic Games”.
