Visa U.S.A. Debuts Two Visa Check Card Ads During Super Bowl XXXIII

http://nt.excite.com/news/pr/990126/ny-visa-ad-super-bowl

Visa Check Card Spots to Focus on Card’s Utility, Use in Everyday Life

SAN FRANCISCO /PRNewswire/ — Visa U.S.A. today announced its two Super Bowl XXXIII commercials will support Visa Check Card. As “The Official Card of the NFL,” Visa will leverage football’s greatest stage the Super Bowl to debut the two spots, which conclude its season-long NFL integrated marketing campaign.”While previous Visa Check Card ads were developed to build awareness and educate consumers about the product, our Super Bowl spots will help increase usage by demonstrating the everyday situations for which a check card is the ideal payment tool,” said Liz Silver, senior vice president, Advertising, Visa U.S.A.

“These ads continue to emphasize the Visa Check Card’s primary benefit convenience.” Entitled “Nigel” and “Romance,” the Super Bowl ads, produced by BBDO New York, will reinforce that Visa’s ubiquitous acceptance allows consumers to use the check card in everyday purchasing situations. As a “pay now” product that debits funds for purchases directly from a cardholder’s checking account, the Visa Check Card helps consumers get what they need and move on, no matter where they make purchases.

The popularity of the check card advertising campaign, which began in 1995, has helped drive the circulation of the Visa Check Card to approximately 70 million cards in 1998, compared to 9.2 million cards in 1991. By 2001, Visa anticipates that check cards will account for 10 percent, or $5.5 billion, of all consumer transactions in the United States.

The two Super Bowl ads cap off Visa’s year long NFL integrated marketing program targeting core fans, which included:

Title sponsorship of the Visa Halftime Report on FOX Season-long NFL-themed advertising, which was recently selected by the NFL Quarterback Club as the best football-themed ad of 1998
Member-supported national consumer promotions
Retail tie-ins
League support
Charitable contributions
“Visa Hall of Fans,” a new fan exhibit at the Pro Football Hall of Fame

As the World’s Best Way to Pay, Visa is the leading payment brand and the largest consumer payment system worldwide with more volume than all other major payment cards combined.

Visa plays a pivotal role in advancing new payment products and technologies to benefit its 21,000 member financial institutions and their cardholders. Visa has more than 70 smart card programs in 33 countries and on the Internet, with 23 million Visa chip cards, including over 8 million Visa Cash cards.

Visa is pioneering SET Secure Electronic Transaction & trade programs to enable and advance Internet commerce. There are more than 620 million Visa-branded cards, which generate over US $1.2 trillion in annual volume. Visa is accepted at more than 15 million worldwide locations, including at over 450,000 ATMs in the Visa Global ATM Network. Visa’s Internet address is www.visa.com.