You Could Need a Visa

Since I have already posted on Coca-Cola and McDonald's as the Olympics' official soft drink and restaurant, respectively, I decided to discuss Visa's involvement as the official credit card of the Olympic Games.

The TOP ("The Olympic Partner" program) sponsors pay a boatload for exclusive use of the Olympic rings in advertising and logos. Visa's Web site states they are America's Olympic Team Partner and provide direct funding, promotional support and life skills training to athletes. Through professional events, they also provide the opportunity for Olympic hopefuls to train, compete and earn prize money.

As for Visa's social media involvement, they have an impressive looking Facebook page dedicated to Team Visa Athletes complete with videos, photos and posts packed full of updates on the Olympics as well as the Paralympic Games. With over 105,000 fans, this is a great medium where fans can easily find updates and interact with one another through discussions on posts. I'd say they aced it on the Visa Go World Facebook page.

I was unable to find Visa on Twitter, but hey, it's not for everyone. However, Twitter is such a big deal these days that someone over there in communications should consider adding it to their social media list. I was able to find a list of Twitter users that also uses Visa. It's a small list not created by Visa and I think if an official Visa Twitter page came up, people would be likely to follow. I mean, don't "more people go with Visa"?

Ice-cold and Responsible

The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games opening ceremony was very entertaining and I truly appreciated the amount of dance involved. (I have been dancing since elementary school.) While the cultural storyline and insane projector effects were something I highly recommend you see if you missed it, the commercial breaks entertained my attention as well. One commercial in particular was Coca-Cola's snowball ad  featuring an all-out snowball fight between Olympic team members from several countries in which an icicle initiates said fight.

Coca-Cola's Twitter account named MyCocaCola tweets news about the company, keeping followers updated in real-time. Posts include links to Web articles for further information. Their account named CocaCola tweeted that Coca-Cola staff at the games is wearing uniforms made from recycled plastic bottles. An article from packagingnews.co.uk covers the story.

This is part of Coca-Cola's zero-waste approach to becoming a more sustainable business. What a way to promote your company as well as an environmentally responsible message.