THE VOICE

TitleTHE VOICE
BrandVISA INFORMATION SYSTEM (SHANGHAI) CO.
Product / ServiceCREDIT CARD
EntrantPROXIMITY CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Entrant Company PROXIMITY CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Advertising Agency PROXIMITY CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Media Agency OMD CHINA Shanghai, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Wai Foong Leong BBDO/Proximity China Chief Creative Officer of Greater China
Sharlene Wu BBDO/Proximity China Managing Director
Kit Koh BBDO/Proximity China Executive Director
Airy Han BBDO/Proximity China Creative Director
Eric Wu BBDO/Proximity China Producer
Nicole Ma BBDO/Proximity China Creative partner
Steven Ruan BBDO/Proximity China Group Head
Alvina Seah BBDO/Proximity China Group Account Director
Anita Hsieh BBDO/Proximity China Associate Account Director
Crystal Lin BBDO/Proximity China Group Account Director
Abby Yu BBDO/Proximity China Senior Account Executive
Renee Zhang BBDO/Proximity China Planning Director
Stacy Yu BBDO/Proximity China Digital Planning Manager
Pride Fang BBDO/Proximity China Project Director
Anson Bei Uncle Advertisement Co. Ltd Group Account Director
Nicky Shen Uncle Advertisement Co. Ltd Senior Account Manager
Natalie Kat OMD China Managing Partner
Jessie Fu OMD China Business Director

The Campaign

Our target audience has beliefs about not traveling like the past generation. They want to explore beyond typical landmarks and are strongly against cliché travels. However, there is a strong stereotype of what Chinese travelers are like. They therefore need a voice that represents their way of travel. We started by creating satirical online talk shows featuring a character called Big Feng, who praised typical unoriginal cliché Chinese travel. Coupled with increasing international coverage of the way Chinese travelers were behaving abroad made the topic something could not be ignored. This set the stage for Visa to showcase how Visa was there to help them travel differently and explore deeper experiences. In hip tourist destinations off the beaten track, Visa rented bicycles equipped with a GPS showing unique Visa merchants. Consumers at home could also enjoy the experience virtually through the campaign site. Support also came with the supports from key opinion leaders, online branded video, etc.

Success of the Campaign

• More than 7,000 people visited Visa bicycle free rental booths and experienced our service within one month. They acknowledged that this service provided by Visa was very helpful in letting them explore off the beaten tracks • 40% increase in outbound transactions from previous year • 65,000 re-tweets, 4 times the industry standard • 244,582 New Visa Followers, double the number in one month • Social sentiment toward Visa increased to 97.3% , 5% increase from the average of previous year

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

We created a series of satirical online talk shows featuring a character called Big Feng, who endorsed cliché, typical, unoriginal travel behaviours of the China audience. The show got the attention of young Chinese travelers and became a rallying cry for them to vent their frustrations. This gave us the perfect opportunity to launch a branded Visa campaign. In hip tourist destinations off the beaten track, Visa rented bicycles equipped with a GPS showing unique Visa merchants. Consumers at home could also enjoy the experience virtually through the campaign site. We also invited key opinion leaders, who are popular among young Chinese and have rich experience in travelling, to be our ambassadors, all this while driving the message that they can feel free to explore because of Visa’s wide acceptance. Big Feng is brought back to criticize Visa’s campaign on his talk show. It galvanized young Chinese travelers to speak up louder than they ever had before to support this view of travel and endorse with the brand story.

But today’s young Chinese travelers no longer have the same mentality as before. They are no longer interested in group tours and just visiting famous landmarks. Instead, they want to embark on journeys that allow them to discover themselves and engage in novel experiences. They love the freedom to explore off-the-beaten-track venues where the exciting experience and delightful surprise awaits. The idea was to convince our young travelers that Visa as a payment brand understands their needs. Unlike China Union Pay that is available only in major merchants, Visa with its unparalleled coverage is widely accepted, even in the small store in the corner of a quaint street, letting them experience the different kind of travel experience that they are looking for.