Visa Extends Olympic Sponsorship To 2020
Global financial services brand Visa has renewed its long-standing worldwide sponsorship deal with the International Olympic Committee extending the relationship for a further period of eight years taking it through to the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Visa becomes the IOC’s third top-tier sponsor to renew its partnership for the next six Olympic Games with Coca-Cola and Omega having also signed up through 2020.
The IOC has nine top-tier partners, including Visa, paying a total of $883m for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and 2012 London Summer Games.
The others are Acer, Atos Origin, Coca-Cola, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic and Samsung.
The Panasonic and Samsung deals run through the Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
In renewing its sponsorship, Visa will retain the rights it has enjoyed since 1986 and remain the exclusive payment services sponsor and the only card accepted at the four Olympic Games that follow London 2012 Olympic Games, including the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the 2018 Olympic Winter Games and the 2020 Olympic Summer Games.
Over the past twelve Olympic Games, Visa has utilised its sponsorship to increase its global brand leadership, grow Visa transaction volume, expand acceptance in new and emerging markets and enhance preference for its products and services.
The new contract will enable Visa to deliver additional benefits to members and their cardholders with expanded point-of-sale presence, exclusive acceptance programmes for Olympic-related transactions and increased access to unique experiences for Visa member banks to offer to their customers through Visa marketing programmes.
As part of the deal, Visa also retains exclusive category rights to all 205 National Olympic Committees and their Olympic teams around the world.
These rights include advertising and promotional use of Olympic marks and imagery from the Olympic Games as well as marks from the National and International Olympic Committees.
