“Visa expands NFL playbook with new marketing efforts” (vol.8 issue18, p60) by Dave Andrews

Entering in its 11th year as the NFL’s corporate sponsor, Visa is planning one of its more ambitious marketing programs ever. Included in these efforts are a mobile marketing unit which tours the country asking fans to emulate their favor NFL heroes by creating their own choreographed end-zone dance, a youth-targeted financial literacy program, the usual push rewarding card with NFL prizes and a creative television ad.

Visa recently renewed their contract in the early 2004 season with a six year extension worth a total contractual commitment of $300 million. Unlike previous years which Visa used their sponsorship for branding purposes, this year they want to focus more on benefits and specific products they have to offer. For example, the Tom Brady commercial seen on last weeks opening Thursday night’s Oakland Raiders-New England Patriots game emphasized the security that Visa has to offer. This was portrayed by having Tom Brady out to dinner with his five offensive linemen (the players who have the duties of protecting their quarterback).

Other promotional efforts include more than 1,000 prizes that will be given away throughout the entire season which range from Super Bowl trips, plasma TVs and other NFL merchandise. Gift cards will be yet another big push this year; they will include all 32 individual team logos (rights permitting) that will be sold by Visa banks. Last by not least, a financial literacy program that will use an NFL “financial football” version of Visa’s “Practical Money Skills for Life,” in which players will also endorse.

According to Visa, they are “…seeing our biggest activation numbers ever…” said Michael Lynch, senior vice president of event and sponsorship marketing. They also commented on how the NFL is approaching the value of the Olympics to US domestically. Comparing the NFL’s sponsorship to the Olympics is a huge comparison, given that MasterCard (Visa’s top competitor) already has twenty NFL teams locked with exclusive sponsorship. This forces Visa to bring down their marketing efforts to a local reach. That is why they will travel across the nation with this new end zone dance competition.