Visa Dominates As Winter Olympics Corporate Sponsor

Longtime Olympic sponsor VISA is gearing up for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and also looking two years into the future.  The credit card giant recently announced that they would continue their exclusive corporate sponsorship through 2020, including the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.  VISA has been an Olympics sponsor since 1986.

But what exactly does a corporate sponsor do?  Obviously, these major companies foot some heavy-duty bills for the event itself.  Most major sponsors, such as Visa and Coca-Cola, spend approximately $100 million in sponsorship dollars for such events.  In return, they receive prime advertising air time and print space, their corporate name and logo attached to anything and everything Olympics-related, and the opportunity to flex some serious endorsement muscles for the games’ top athletes.

The sponsor directly supports many of the participating athletes.  This can mean paying for training, meals, lodging, apparel, and a range of other needs.   They also offer endorsement deals to many of these athletes.  Michael Phelps and Alexi Salamone are just a few of the athletes who have appeared in promotions for Visa.

Ahead of the Competition

As the dominant corporate sponsor for the games, Visa has quite a head start over their competitors in terms of doing business.  Visa is the only credit card accepted at many of the Olympic venues, with major competitors MasterCard and American Express accepted at a much smaller number of events.  Reportedly, these companies have staged a number of “ambush” marketing tactics to steer business in their direction.  Visa also receives exclusive rights to the Olympic logo in their marketing campaigns.

Visa is offering a huge list of special incentives and promotions in conjunction with the Olympics, including:

• Olympic Card. Customers can use the card to purchase Olympics apparel. Proceeds from these sales will go directly toward training for future Olympics and Paralympics athletes.

• Discounts on merchandise. Customers that use their card will receive 10% off exclusive Vancouver apparel and Olympic-themed items.

• Gym membership. Users pay $0 to try out 24/7 Fitness if they use their card.

• Hotel rooms. The company is offering a 25% discount at Hilton Hotels.

• Store discounts. Both Sears and Dick’s Sporting Goods are offering discounts through their partnership with Visa.

Additionally, the company is giving away a trip to the Olympics.  Users can enter to win through the official Visa website.

The company holds a “Visa Olympics of the Imagination International Art Contest” every Olympic year to encourage kids to get involved in the festivities and watch their favorite athletes.  The grand prize winner and their parents receive a free trip to the next Olympics.

Downside of Sponsorship Domination

One huge drawback to Visa’s being the “only card accepted at the Olympics” is that Visa is the only card accepted at the Olympics.  Most visitors to the games already have their credit card decision firmly in place well before they arrive in Vancouver, and very few folks will apply for another card just to pay for things at a two-week event.   Thus, paying for items with a non-Visa credit card creates a lot of unnecessary hassle that people will gladly do without.  This can also reflect badly on the “exclusive” sponsor and create hard feelings from consumers.  In the end, although Visa estimates its visibility is up over 25 percent thanks in part to its highly-publicized Olympic sponsorship, it could serve the International Olympic Committee (IOC) well to leave a tiny bit more room for other credit card companies, whose customers would add a tidy sum to the games’ overall total income.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Credit Card News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.