Following this year’s earlier UK ‘Flow Faster’ London 2012 work from Saatchi & Saatchi (featuring Usain Bolt), Visa and agency TBWA is now rolling out its global ‘Legends’ campaign within its ‘Go World’ Olympic programme.
Unlike the earlier ‘behavioural change’ aims of the previous UK Olympic work, this global campaign has more of an awareness/reputation/values objective. It is part of Visa’s integrated marketing campaign called ‘Go World’ and also marks Visa’s 25 year history as a sponsor of the Olympic Games.
The TV part of the official (and exclusive) payments partner of the games’ international campaign follows on neatly, in terms of creative approach, style and message (as well as the Morgan Freeman voiceover), from the brand’s previous US-led global Olympic work that ran during the Beijing Games.
Once again the spearhead TV (and online) film, by TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles, takes a creative approach dominated by sepia/gold tinted footage of Olympians in action.
This lead video component, ‘The Difference’, is a montage showing previous games’ more exciting moments, punctuated with the tagline “Join our global cheer.”
The message across all executions is effectively an appeal to support the Games by stating that ‘Your cheers are the difference between memorable and unforgettable, impressive and amazing, athlete and legend’.
The campaign runs under the global tagline ‘Join our global cheer’.
Thus the work is based on the (not overly original) insight that fans like to cheer for athletes at sporting events. Something that McDonald’s placed at the heart of its Beijing 2008 Cheer For China Olympic campaign.
The campaign, supported by a push in social media, is airing live in 70 countries and features nine individual videos with inspirational Olympic stories of famous athletes, including Michael Phelps, Li Na and less famous ones with a tale to tell such as Sudan’s Lopez Lomong.
US superstar swimmer Phelps is front and centre of much of Visa’s work and has been so ever since he was one of the brand’s ambassador’s in Beijing in 2008.
The campaign harnesses a Facebook app and other social media platforms (including the Visa YouTube Channel) to let fans record audio, video or text cheers for more than 60 (Visa-sponsored) athletes.
Visa also says that these fan-uploaded cheers will/could be used in one of Visa’s later Olympics ads.
Comment:
Whether an ad-based reward is a powerful enough motivator to drive this idea remains to be seen. Also, whether this approach really matches the gravitas of the Olympic Games ideal is also questionable.
One downside of the work is that to some it may not feel that fresh and new as it so closely follows on from the brand’s Beijing Olympic creative. Although, of course, the positive aspect of this is that it is consistent and familiar.
But if simple views is anything to go by, then thus far it looks to be a success in terms of visibility and reach. As, according to data from Visible Measure, the Go World online video is the most globally viewed London 2012 online film thus far with an impressive 2,800,000 views.
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