Visa Inc. announced July 15 the launch of the first phase of a national U.S. marketing campaign to increase the awareness of the benefits of using reloadable prepaid cards instead of cash.
The campaign, which will include a large focus on radio advertising to reach the traditionally unbanked or underbanked market, also features a Facebook community page and in-store demonstrations at hundreds of retailers nationwide, Hyung Choi, Visa head of U.S. prepaid products, tells PaymentsSource. He would not name the retailers but says they may include drug store and discount retailers.
Some 80 million financially underserved consumers live in the U.S., according to Visa.
“This particular consumer and audience can walk into various retailers and engage in live demonstrations of the prepaid product by educational personnel,” he says. “Consumers can walk through what this product does, so we can drive personal interaction to show how prepaid is a better alternative to using cash.”
The campaign message focuses on four values of the prepaid product, according to Visa: control of spending; convenience to make purchases online, at retailers or to pay bills; security that prepaid cards are safer to carry than cash; and access to funds through direct deposit, Choi explains.
“The campaign not only explains the prepaid product, but it is giving consumers an opportunity to engage in interactions with how the product works,” says Choi.