Olympic Games
Advancing the Olympic Spirit
Visa believes in the unifying power of sports. Sport unites people, communities and nations. It enriches people’s lives and creates economic development opportunities. In today’s world, where brand and trust mean so much, the Olympic Games reflect those equities found at Visa — worldwide acceptance, reliability, versatility and leadership. Sponsoring the Olympic Games makes good business sense for Visa and our clients.
Impacting Lives
Sponsorships, like Visa’s commitment and support to the Olympic Movement, National Olympic Committees and national teams, have helped ensure the continued success of the Olympic Games. Visa has provided direct economic support to stage the Games themselves and provided untold direct support to thousands of Olympic athletes through support of National Olympic Committees.
Additionally, Visa supports Olympic teams and individual athletes through its global Team Visa program, providing financial support, life-skills training and valuable marketing exposure in pursuit of their Olympic Dreams. Team Visa sponsors a mentoring program that allows Olympic and Paralympic Hopefuls to learn from and be inspired by athletes from previous Games.
Building Business, Uniting the World
Financial institutions and merchants benefit greatly from Visa’s Olympic Games marketing platform, which they use to connect with cardholders on a level that goes beyond commerce. During the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, 573 financial institutions and 491 merchant partners around the world participated directly in Visa Olympic Games promotional programs.
Visa was also the first to mount destination marketing programs linked to an Olympic Games host city. For the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Visa has partnered with Tourism Vancouver and Tourism Whistler to promote both domestic and international travel to these beautiful destinations.
A Presence Throughout the Games
At every Olympic Games, Visa is responsible for creating and managing the entire payment system infrastructure across all Olympic venues, including hundreds of point-of-sale acceptance devices and a dedicated ATM network at competition and non-competition venues, including the Main Press Centre, the International Broadcast Centre and the Olympic and Paralympic Village. As a service to its cardholders at the Olympic Games, Visa provides multilingual emergency services and general assistance for cardholders.
