The Campaign

We created WaveShades…sunnies you can pay with. A partnership between iconic Aussie sunglass brand Local Supply and Visa. WaveShades have an NFC payment chip seamlessly built into one of the arms, so you can make purchases at any contactless terminal around Australia. To preload funds, you simply link them to your Australian bank account. So at the beach, at festivals and when you’re going for a run, you can ditch your wallet, put on your sunnies, and buy whatever you want.

Creative Execution

We launched WaveShades at Laneway, Australia’s premiere music festival. It was the ideal venue to showcase payment-enabled sunnies as it is a day-time summer festival with a ton of bars and food outlets that are all equipped with Visa contactless terminals. We gave sunglasses to influencers and had point of sale in venue that highlighted the fact that you could pay with sunglasses. Seeing people paying with sunnies at the festival bars had the cool factor and created conversation at the festival, on social media and mainstream media in Australia and around the world. Suddenly our summer campaign had a momentum all its own.

Results

We launched the WaveShades at Laneway, Australia’s premiere music festival. The sunnies resulted in a 77% increase in the number of payWave transactions at the festivals, compared to 2016. Visa’s innovations and brand affinity scores increased 71% over the summer. The first run of WaveShades sold out in 13 days. Local Supply had their best ever summer with sales up 59%, and brand awareness up 65%. WaveShades got media coverage in Australia and around the world. Visa went from being an invisible brand to one that millennials actually mentioned in the Laneway post-festival survey. People were asked, ‘What was the best thing about Laneway?’ “Always the music, but those Visa sunnies were crazy!” Male, 23, Melbourne. “The lineup and the Visa sunnies.” Female, 18, sydney

Local Supply and Visa both needed to connect with millennials, but they each had different problems to overcome to be successful. Local Supply are a seen as a cool company but lacked reach. Visa needed to shift perception of their brand from corporate and stuffy, to millennial-minded. A partnership between the two brands made sense, but they still needed an idea that built an on-going relationship with their target market. So instead of using traditional media, they decided to make a product that integrated seamlessly into millennials lives. Something they viewed as a summer essential, and interacted with every day.

We wanted to capture the attention of millennials for a partnership between two brands, Local Supply and Visa. Local Supply was after scale. Visa wanted to be seen as innovative, relevant and cool. But it was obvious to us that if we were to engage this cynical bunch, we couldn’t just tell them we’re innovative and cool, we had to actually prove it. So, we focused on how millennials approach an Aussie summer – they go to the beach, get outdoors and living it up at music festivals. Basically, all the places you don’t want a wallet. This insight formed our strategic approach – to innovate their summer lifestyle, and help them live a little lighter.