This campaign was designed with Gen Z in mind to ensure brand relevance, making it inherently social-first. It was tasked to drive our commercial objectives across Europe, in order to continue driving our primacy in digital payments. The highly modular approach and strong cultural resonance saw the campaign aired across twenty markets in Europe. The ethos was about connecting our Team Visa athletes (Olympians and Paralympians) and their passion points with content creators and influencers, tapping into culture, from music to gaming, to art, to fashion. Clearly positioning Visa as an enabler throughout the whole narrative. In the UK, the campaign featured swimmer Adam Peaty, musician Ellie Dixon and Creative Technologist Tigris Li, alongside Paralympian Jonnie Peacock, musician & gamer Talia Mar and game designer Julia Spinola. Italy hosted a competition where a Gen Z artist transformed the walls of an urban regeneration space in Milan, bringing to life the values of the Games. Guided by Olympic medallist Gregorio Paltrinieri and YouTuber Fraffrog. In Poland, Paralympic wheelchair fencer, Kinga Dróżdż’s passion for music was realised with the help of mathematical genius and Poland’s youngest university student Kamil Wroński. He turned science into music with guidance from musicians CatchUp and Monika Brodka. In Spain, young creative engineer, Rafa Rabasa helped athlete Desirée Vila bring her passion for music to life with guidance from musician and social media sensation Mar Lucas. In Germany, Tim Schütze a German Design Award finalist designed a prosthetic cover for three-time World Champion and four-time Paralympic medallist, Denise Schindler along with the help of stylist and musician Alicia Awa. In France, we matched three Team Visa athletes (Eugénie Le Sommer, Pauline Déroulède, and Sofyane Mehiaoui) with SMBs and artists to create and showcase artwork in Paris during the Games.

The campaign architecture is formed by three main body of assets:

1. The hero film that conveys an inspirational Brand story, an ode to possibilities for anyone looking to enhance their life in meaningful ways and a way for us to drive relevance with our core audience. It celebrates a story of progress – it’s a young maker’s journey from daydreaming to doing featuring the failures, the trials, and the efforts, showing the role Visa plays in people’s everyday lives, helping them move forward in life, one step at a time. As a result, it inspires participants by providing aspirational goals – motivating individuals to dream big and work towards realising those dreams.
   Featuring: Sasha Zhoya (Team Visa), Desirée Vila (Team Visa), Davide Morana (Team Visa), Ellie Dixon (Musician) and Rifke Sadleir (Creative Technologist).
2. The docuseries focuses on specific passion points where the athletes are matched with influencers and creators to work on the making of an actual project – whether that is a music track or an actual game. Each docuseries encompasses three episodes as long form content sitting on YouTube, there are five cutdowns (30”, x2 10”, x6”) supported in paid social driving people to watch each episode.

For example in the UK the Music Docuseries featured Adam Peaty (Team Visa), Ellie Dixon (Musician) and Tigris Li (Creative Technologist).
Tigris Li took on the challenge to make music from the swimming moves of Olympic Gold medalist and Team Visa athlete Adam Peaty. To then turn the technological output into an audio track, producer and musician Ellie Dixon stepped in with her expertise and musical flair to create a real track.

The Gaming Docuseries featured Jonnie Peacock (Team Visa), Talia Mar (Musician & Gamer) and Julia Spinola (Game Designer).
With expertise guidance from avid gamer, Talia Mar, Julia Spinola created the world’s first ever endless runner gamer to feature a Paralympian and Team Visa athlete, Jonnie Peacock.

The paid-for media strategy was structured into four phases: Introduction, Kick-Off, Journey to Paris, and Beyond the Games. Each phase had specific objectives; introducing the Level Up initiative, driving awareness and participation, showcasing creator journeys, and using the Games as a platform to highlight maker creations and stories.

Phase 1 was designed to start in May, moving to phase 2 in June, and peaking with the highest media investment for phases 3 and 4 across July and August. This helped to build excitement ahead of the Games and maximised interest and engagement immediately before and during the Games, driven by an insight that Games interest peaks with one week before and then during the Games.

To become the most culturally relevant and exciting brand during the Games, we met our audience where the conversation happens, in social. We partnered with key platforms TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and Snap to ignite interest and amplify stories. Snap played a key role as the most used platform by our target audience across Europe, and we created bespoke games and lenses that fitted seamlessly into the Snap platform and saw record levels of engagement.

Our strategy extended across paid, earned, and owned media, and our audience could seamlessly follow the whole story via YouTube and Visa.com. We leveraged short form content in social, in keeping with the nature of the platforms and longer form content in online video and cinema, where it would be most impactful and engaging.

The campaign also included partnerships with local media, such as L’Equip in France, Conde Nast in Italy, and LADBible in the UK to inspire and empower aspiring side hustlers to take their passions to the next level. For LADBible, this unfolded in three engaging phases:
• Showcased the origin stories of successful hustlers, spotlighting how they turned their hobbies into full-time ventures.
• Featured original creations from TikTok sellers, offering a platform to highlight and celebrate their unique products while levelling up their side-hustles.
• Shared valuable lessons and insights from established hustlers to inspire two new up-and-coming side hustlers in their journeys.

To enhance the experiential pillar of the campaign, Visa sponsored outdoor viewing areas for the Games and partnered with Kerb from 27th July to 4th August at London’s vibrant Seven Dials Market. We provided the public with an immersive experience, featuring live screenings of Olympic action, interactive games, and opportunities to engage further on social.

The campaign delivered impressive results, reaching over 80% of GenZ in markets activated and generating 3.6 million visits to Visa-owned channels via paid media.

Our creative resonated deeply with audiences, achieving a remarkable View Through Rate (VTR) of 81%, significantly outperforming the industry benchmark of 70%. This not only captured audience attention but also delivered the most cost-effective media investment, as users watched our content to the very end.

Shared Media Breakthrough: TikTok emerged as a powerhouse for engagement, delivering 2.4 million video views in the UK, a staggering 160% over the planned target. This incredible performance highlights Visa’s ability to connect with audiences on platforms where they are most engaged.

Earned Media Impact: Visa’s Level Up Your Game campaign gained widespread recognition across key marketing trade publications, including PR Week UK, PR Week US, Campaign UK. With a total editorial reach of 1.4 million, the campaign generated significant buzz and positioned Visa at the forefront of industry conversation.

On owned, Visa.com and YouTube have been activated consistently across Europe, with 19 pages, including 5 campaign landing pages, 7 Athlete destination pages, 7 docuseries pages. On Visa.com, average engagement was 3m 42s VS global average of 40s. On YouTube we achieved more than 11M views and 57M minutes of watch time.

Our ultimate brand metric of relevance shifted positively in all core markets, with an average uplift of 3% points for all adults. This was even more pronounced among GenZ, with uplifts by market between 3% and 8%, representing up to 30% improvement and reversing what had been a declining trend.

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