Over the summer Visa launched Visa Checkout, an online payment tool that allows cardholders to save their personal and card information in one place and then easily use it to pay across different merchants. So far one major aspect of their campaign is to use video content to execute a tried and true, two-step process for a product launch.
Step 1: Show what it is and how it works.
The first two spots were literally “blink and you’ll miss them” 15-second ads that highlighted how fast online shopping can be with Visa Checkout. You can buy something just before your flight takes off or purchase a wedding gift as the bride is walking down the aisle. The 15-second length itself was telling – the product is so fast you don’t need more time to explain it. After Labor Day Visa went bigger, posting a 15-second spot that showed pro surfer Kolohe Andino on his board with a phone in his mouth and teasing that something was coming on 9/7. That something was Andino making a Pizza Hut purchase on his phone while riding a wave:
These spots show Visa Checkout in action, telling the audience what it’s all about and how easy it is to use.
Step 2: Get them to use it.
When the NFL season kicked off last week Visa used its status as NFL sponsor to highlight Visa Checkout. They invented a new holiday called Footballentines Day – a chance for football fans (likely targeting men) to show their loved ones, who may be ignored during the season, some love. Fans who used Visa Checkout at 1-800-FLOWERS could get a free bouquet of roses during the first weekend of the season.
Video was again a major part of this push with a spot featuring wide receiver Eric Decker and his wife, country star Jessie James:
Brooklyn Decker and the football player twins Devin and Jason McCourty also posted shorter selfie videos about Footballentines Day on Facebook.
Visa wisely used a simple merchant offer to help promote the product. After all, the whole point of Visa Checkout is to use it, and Visa knows that you need a merchant to have a transaction. Since Footballentines Day Visa has begun a second promotion with 1-800-FLOWERS and another offer with Pizza Hut.
Visa’s approach to promoting Visa Checkout seems fairly simple: show how easy it is and give cardholders incentives to use it. But nothing is ever that simple. Visa Checkout is an evolution of V.me, an earlier attempt at an online wallet initially tested by Visa in 2011, but then shelved and replaced with Checkout. Why? According to Visa’s senior vice president of digital solutions, Sam Shrauger, it was consumer insights that lead them to simplify the product. Shruger told Venture Beat that “when you look at the real pain point for consumers … they don’t want a wallet. They just want to pay and be done.” So in its function, Visa Checkout is not a digital wallet, it’s an attempt to make online payment as easy as swiping a card in a store.
With its initial creative execution, Visa has brought that key benefit to life for consumers by showing the speed and ease of Checkout and given them reasons to see for themselves.