Shortlisted 2023

Financial Services

Brand

Visa

Entered by:

Starcom Worldwide

Protecting Gamers Protects Visa

Credited:

Roblox, Venatus Media

The Challenge

A HARD REALITY: A GENERATION BYPASSING PLASTIC

Visa is a global payments technology company. With 2.5 billion credentials in use, Visa connects people through payments all around the world. Visa aims to be the best way to pay and be paid, for everyone, everywhere.

Gen Z are bypassing ‘traditional’ ways of paying. They are growing up in a world where their defaults are fintech products such as digital wallets, apps, smartwatches or subscriptions. It’s a world in which the Visa brand is simply less visible, and therefore less important to how they pay.

In Europe, this is making a tangible impact on their brand preference for Visa. Amongst Gen Z, Visa’s brand leadership gap against digital wallets is narrowing.

But our visibility issues don’t stop there. The broadcast media channels that Visa has relied on in the past to build brand equity with wide base of card users, are reaching fewer Gen Z’s, as they opt out of mainstream media platforms and into their own blend of on-demand media services.

To win the hearts and wallets of a new generation, we had to find a way for Visa to be a meaningful part of the media spaces that matter most for Gen Z.

The Content Solution

THE BRAVE PLAY: A NEW TAKE ON PROTECTION

 One of Visa’s key benefits is the security of its network, and the in-built payment protection that Visa users have. As important as it is, it’s a benefit that consumers sometimes find difficult to really see and value versus the competition. And for Gen Z it’s, well, not that exciting.

We knew that simply advertising this benefit into Gen Z channels wouldn’t be enough to make an impact. They form their perceptions of brands through direct experience and by observing the experiences of their peers.

One of the biggest spaces for social interaction for Gen Z is now Roblox, a platform where social networking meets gaming. It has magnetic appeal for this generation:

  • They are 188% more likely to use it than other groups.
  • Roblox’s fastest growing demographic is 18-24’s.
  • It now has 57.8m DAUs globally.
  • The average user plays Roblox for 2.6 hours a day.
  • And they’re spending money – as of Q2 2021 average spend per gamer was at $15.41.

We knew where we needed to show up, but we had to find an authentic way to do that and add value to their in-game experience. We wanted to use a space like Roblox to make Gen Z truly see (and maybe even care about) the protection that Visa offers.

There are also many alternative ways to buy Robux Roblox in-game currency and walle, from digital wallets, to subscriptions and gift vouchers. We wanted more Roblox’ers to choose Visa when they buy and spend Robux.

The answer wasn’t to put a Visa-led message about protection into Roblox. The answer was to find a direct way to engage more deeply with Roblox’ers by giving them the extra protection they really need in their world.

The Media/Content Amplification Solution

MAKING IT HAPPEN: EUROPE’S FIRST ROBLOX PROTECTION POP-UP

 We e took our first steps into Roblox with the creation of the Visa Protection Store, with three Roblox experiences for up to 8 weeks.

The store exclusively sold our one-off designer Visadefence and security items, some branded, some not, helping them stand-out and personalise their avatar while bringing Visa’s brand attributes of security and protection to life..

The pop-up shop was available across UK, France, Germany and Poland, with locally-tailored, language-specific versions of the shop created for each country – the first time Roblox have done this.

Players could buy Visa-createdbody-armour, forcefields, protection auras, helmets and  shields using Robux.  a

Portals were placed across various worlds within Roblox to get gamers to the stores. These drove players out from one experience and directly into the Visa Protection Store, giving them the chance to buy our items before jumping back into their world and into gameplay.

At the point-of-purchase Roblox’ers were encouraged to top-up their Robux wallets safely with Visa. Both the store and portals carried messages educating Roblox users on the key security benefits of paying with Visa.

Gamers are rightly cynical and sensitive to brands entering ‘their’ worlds. But even gaming influencers like SharkBlox noticed our Protection Store and created YouTube videos reviewing the experience. We take it as high praise that he said ‘I was honestly expecting to roast this, but VISA did this kind of well”.

The Result

TRANSFORMATIONAL RESULTS: OPENING WALLETS, CHANGING MINDS

 As a first for Visa, we weren’t sure if Roblox players would visit the pop-up, buy our items, use their Visa card or think any differently about the brand. In the end, they did all of these, exceeding our expectations. And we achieved all of this with a budget of just €114k across four countries.

Over a quarter of Gen Z Roblox’ers engaged with the Visa Protection Store, compared to Roblox’s average of 10%.  This drove millions of store visits. Our store items were also viewed millions of times and a total of 1.1m hard-earned Robux used to buy our protection items.

With this scale of branded impressions, Visa brand exposure to the Roblox universe was a combined total of 11 years that they would otherwise never had.

All of this exposure has made Visa more visible and meaningful to Gen Z Roblox’ers. Through custom brand tracking, we’ve seen lifts across key brand attributes in all countries where the campaign ran.

By protecting the players of Roblox, we are protecting the future of the VISA brand.