Visa Rolls Out Supportive Olympic-Themed Campaign Despite Tokyo 2020 Postponement

On 31 March, IOC partner Visa, began rolling out a series of ‘Do Your Part Like An Olympian’ videos fronted by members of its 90-strong team of Olympic and Paralympic ambassador athletes promoting messages of safety and sanitation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new work, which repositions Visa’s planned Olympics campaign (which had already been 80% produced), was created in harness with agency BBDO New York and turned around in a week

The ‘Do Your Part Like An Olympian’ campaign showcases Team Visa athlete ambassadors (including British skateboarder Sky Brown, Costa Rican BMX rider Kenneth Tencio and Greek pole vaulter Katerina Stefanidi) performing the Olympic sport skills they have trained so hard for juxtaposed with simple yet vital safety measures like handwashing, using hand sanitizer and social distancing.

With the objective of using Visa’s resources to help educate and encourage the world, the athletes were briefed to film themselves doing an athletic feat, or with their sports equipment, and then washing their hands, cleaning their home or using hand sanitizer, all practices currently encouraged by the World Health Organization to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Visa is not putting paid advertising behind the PSAs and instead posting them to its own social channels and encouraging athletes to do the same with the aim that organic sharing will push them out into the world.

In one spot Sky Brown opens a clip saying “Hi, I’m Sky Brown and this isn’t easy” before kick-flipping a skateboard in her bedroom. Brown then moves to the bathroom and says, “But this is” as she washes her hands.

The video closes with the text: ‘Sanitize your hands like an Olympian. #StayHome. Together, we’ll get through this.”

The campaign continues with a series of similar spots including Tencio riding his bike in his living room,

While pole vaulter Stefanidi has trouble using her pole in her home, but no trouble washing her hands.

The PSA style campaign will continue to run through April with more Team Visa athlete ambassadors rolling out their own self-shot spots from the confines of their homes.

Visa, which has been an Olympics sponsor since 1986, said that before the coronavirus pandemic forced the rescheduling of the Olympics, it had planned to run a similar campaign showcasing challenging athletic feats and sporting skills juxtaposed with the ease of using a Visa product or service.

According to Chris Curtin, Visa’s chief brand and innovation marketing officer, around 80% of that creative was already in the can and ready to roll out starting in the Spring and stretching in to the Summer.

After the confirmation of the Tokyo Games shifting to 2021 Visa reworked its strategy to pivot to ‘Do Your Part like an Olympian’.

“Following that same creative construct of ‘this isn’t easy, but this is,’ we decided to turn the attention to the Olympians doing things that can help protect everyone,” says Curtin. “Right now, there is something bigger than the games and we all need to be united regardless of nationality, sport or gender.”

According to Curtis, most of the original creative which was ready to go for 2020 is still likely to roll out in Visa’s pipeline leading up to 2021.

Comment:

The campaign turnaround was less than a week from idea to the first videos being published.

The videos, all filmed on the athletes’ smartphones at home, have an authentic, simple, feel to them – something which Curtin says was not just the only option, but also an intentional creative approach as given the current state of affairs in the world Visa didn’t want the videos to appear ‘hyper polished’.

There is certainly an underlying sense of optimism about each athlete’s creative that may lift up some spirits.

The campaign launched in the same week that Visa announced it had offered all of its athlete ambassador the option to extend their relationship with the brand through 2021.

Visa is not the only Olympics sponsor plotting a course as to how best to adjust its Olympic activation.

Other global sponsors such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, General Electric, Toyota and Intel all also have marketing plans at a late stage (with just four months until the opening ceremony was originally scheduled) and now need to rethink.

While other companies like Mattel had Olympic-themed collections rolling out around the event.

With the Olympic Games is postponed until next year, some sponsors are still being brave and seeking to make the most of their Tokyo marketing spend now.

As well as Visa, other brands to roll out ongoing iterations of their Olympic and local Olympic team activations in late March and early April include IOC partner Bridgestone with a regional variant of its global ‘Chase Your Dreams’ concept in South Africa with ambassadors Caster Semenya, Josia Thugwane and Lawrence Brittain (see case study), Team GB sponsor McVities (see case study), Australian Beef (see case study) and ASICS (see case study).

Links:

Visa

https://www.visa.com

https://www.instagram.com/visa

https://twitter.com/Visa

https://www.facebook.com/Visa

IOC

https://www.olympic.org

https://www.youtube.com/user/olympic

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/

https://www.facebook.com/OlympicChannel/

https://www.instagram.com/olympicchannel/