However its Olympic campaigns didn’t lock themselves into the Video games. Within the U.S., Visa’s brand served as background for the origin tales of Pharrell Williams, Visa-backed tennis star Iga Świątek, Visa-sponsored Olympic skateboarding bronze medalist Sky Brown, Visa Money App RB Formulation 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, chef and entrepreneur Roy Choi, and artist/designer Gemma O’Brien. In Europe, its “Level Up Your Game” marketing campaign confirmed content material creators turning athletes’ motions into artwork and music—an idea that transfers simply to any sporting occasion.
They’re a part of Visa’s technique to make use of the campaigns and the occasions themselves as proving grounds for every occasion that follows—together with a Visa-sponsored 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., and the 2028 L.A. Olympics, which it’s already teasing on social.
“Our sponsorship strategies have always focused on aligning ourselves with best-in-class properties: the NFL, FIFA, and Olympic Games,” mentioned Andrea Fairchild, Visa’s svp of world sponsorships and advertising and marketing, simply after the NFL’s Visa-sponsored Tremendous Bowl in February. “We utilize other partnerships along the way to enable Visa to reinforce our products. We can’t do everything, but we’re much better when those partnerships and collaborations come together.”
Workforce USA sponsors have taken diversified approaches to an identical difficulty. Eli Lilly signed on as Workforce USA’s prescription medication and well being fairness associate by way of the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Although it partnered with gymnast Sunisa Lee this 12 months, Lilly’s “One Body” advert marketing campaign targeted on younger athletes in Olympic sports activities with out singling out Workforce USA or the Olympics themselves. As a substitute of presenting a narrative about their efficiency, the spot talks about the necessity to “fight like hell” for private well being.
Delta Air Traces, which SponsorUnited factors out has elevated sponsorships by 19% since 2022, is pouring $400 million into Workforce USA over an eight-year deal that stretches to LA28. Whereas its preliminary 2024 Olympics advertisements relegated its planes to the background and targeted on athletes’ journeys to Paris, it spent current days focusing advertisements on Los Angeles and making its brand the centerpiece of the Olympic flag handover.