Saturday, February 27, 2010

Visa Olympic Ads hit the right tone


It's been great watching the Olympics this year. Normally I don't get too involved. Maybe it's because, being in Seattle, it feels like it's in our backyard. And of course, it's in Vancouver and the Canadians are cleaning up on gold medals and will shortly take home the gold in hockey! (Can you tell what nationality I am?? :)

One of the fun things that I've enjoyed watching are the Olympic-themed ads. And I'm not the only one. As it turns out, American TV viewers like their Olympics – even in the commercials they watch.

A Nielsen survey asking Olympics viewers about commercials aired during NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage through February 20 shows that six of the 10 most liked ads contained an Olympics theme. The ads, aired by Visa, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Procter & Gamble, included either a direct mention to the Olympics or imagery alluding to the games.

Americans rewarded Visa the highest ratings of likeability for ads that ran the first week during Olympic prime-time coverage. The emotional spot featuring the story of U.S. speedskater Dan Jansen was liked three times more than the average commercial aired during NBC Olympic telecasts. Visa placed two more ads on the top 10 list, including a spot featuring U.S. skier Julia Mancuso, which earned likeability levels twice as much as the average.


In addition, Visa is running a super integrated marketing campaign along with these ads.


The overall blue hue that the commercials and all other visual elements use it instantly recognizable. Morgan Freeman as spokesperson has a wonderfully strong, provocative yet friendly voice that resonates with both sides of the border.

The website is really engaging. It uses the same creative style and palate as the commercials. While the sweepstakes is the main feature, there are also great vignettes, highlighting several athletes.


1 comment:

  1. I love the colours, the layouts and the themes. Very good work.

    I especially like the simplicity of the message. Not complicated but easy to understand and very, very catchy.

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