Visa Adds 'Life' With New Ad Campaign

  Visa USA on Feb. 7 launched "Life Takes Visa," its first new brand campaign in 20 years. The campaign and tag line are designed to emphasize the theme of empowerment, Visa reports, promoting Visa's credit, debit, prepaid, commercial and mobile payment tools to help consumers live life to the fullest.
  "This helps us make an emotional connection with our cardholders that hopefully will lead to greater market volume," said Susanne Lyons, Visa executive vice president and chief marketing officer during a media conference call. "Life Takes Visa is a nice play on words because merchants take Visa, and consumers use Visa to take advantage of all that life offers."
  The campaign is designed to expand the view of Visa in consumers' eyes from its leadership in credit cards to being a leader in a full suite of payments products, Lyons says. Visa introduced the campaign to the public on Feb. 10 during the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
  The campaign includes five television commercials showcasing such athletes as skater Michelle Kwan and skier Bode Miller. The ads build on the new tag line by using such phrases as "Life Takes Practice" and "Life Takes Determination" as viewers see the athletes competing.
  Visa is one of the 11 largest sponsors of the Olympics and has category exclusivity during the games, meaning competitors cannot advertise during Olympic broadcasts. Visa will roll out more commercials on other major prime-time shows. It also will run print ads in national publications as well as ads for Web sites. There also will be outdoor ads in eight large markets, including Charlotte, N.C., home of Bank of America Corp., the largest Visa issuer.
  The campaign is intended to generate more than 4 billion consumer impressions in its first three months, Visa reports. Lyons would not share specifics on ad spending, but she estimated Visa would spend about 10% more on this campaign than its recent ad spending. Visa reported it spent nearly $505 million on advertising, marketing and promotions for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2005.
  The new campaign will be measured in a variety of ways, says Lyons, as Visa monitors transaction volume, consumer awareness, consumer approval and knowledge of the Visa brand. She notes that it took about six months of advertising before the "It's Everywhere You Want to Be" campaign resonated with consumers.
  Work on the new tagline began nearly two years ago, says Lyons, with Visa seeking to create a "similar personality" to "Everywhere You Want" while adding the themes of convenience, security and acceptance. The campaign will filter through to other sponsorship deals and be used by Visa bank members, says Lyons. TBWA/Chiat/Day in Los Angeles created the new campaign.
  (c) 2006 Cards&Payments and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
  http://www.cardforum.com http://www.sourcemedia.com