The Winter Olympics gets underway in Pyeongchang with the opening ceremony this Friday.
We have five Irish athletes competing for glory and there will be a nightly highlights programme on RTÉ hosted by Clare McNamara and Darren Frehill as well as substantial live coverage of the Games on BBC and Eurosport.
The major sporting tournaments have become the test bed for major brands to introduce new ideas and technologies that can quickly take root.
In London 2012 Visa put a major emphasis on the concept of contactless payments. See where we are now with ‘tap and go’.
To look ahead to what the future for payments will be like in the coming months and years we could do worse than take a glimpse at where the same brand, as one of the Top Olympic Partner programme, is steering and that is firmly in the direction of wearable payment methods.
Aside from being a main partner of the Games, Visa also has a team of 54 sporting ambassadors from 44 countries that are competing in Korea.
Here is a look at the 60-second commercial that was seeded out through the athletes’ individual accounts through January and went fully live in time for a marquee slot amid the SuperBowl advertising last weekend.
“We feel that the campaign is a great representation of the Olympic spirit and the aspirational camaraderie that the Winter Games brings,” Visa chief marketer Lynne Biggar told AdWeek Magazine.
“This work is a part of a broader integrated global brand platform that extends across all our marketing work both globally and regionally.”
The advertisement features the concept that every finish line is really just the start line for a next adventure with the payoff line delivered by Morgan Freeman.
Sport for Business Coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics will continue through the Games, focusing on the commercial aspects, and supported by our friends at 53 Degrees North.
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