Visa replaces its 20-year slogan with Life takes Visa

A new line after two decades

On 7 February 2006, Visa USA presented "Life takes Visa", its first major rebranding campaign in 20 years.¹ The line replaced "It's everywhere you want to be", the promise that had signed off Visa's American advertising since the mid-1980s.² The first 60-second spot was scheduled for NBC's broadcast of the opening ceremony of the Torino Winter Olympics on 10 February, followed by shorter spots and print, online, outdoor and point-of-sale work.¹

The work came from a new agency. In November 2005 Visa had moved its US creative account, worth around $335 million, from BBDO to TBWA\Chiat\Day, another agency in the Omnicom group, ending a partnership of about 20 years.³ TBWA\Chiat\Day led the offline work, AKQA the digital work and Lopez Negrete the Hispanic advertising.²

From places to life itself

The old line had turned acceptance into a list of desirable places. The new one moved the card from the destination into the day. Susanne Lyons, Visa's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said consumers were "no longer only concerned about finding a place where their plastic is accepted".² They also cared about debit, online and mobile payments. "It was important for the brand platform to evolve to give Visa permission to move into these new areas," she said.²

The business had already moved. In 2005 debit accounted for $466 billion, about 42 percent of Visa's $1.1 trillion in volume; ten years earlier consumer credit had made up nearly 90 percent.¹ A promise built around ski resorts and restaurants suited a card for special occasions. It suited a card used at the supermarket less well. Of the new campaign, Lyons said: "It celebrates active participation in life, and what it takes to experience it to the fullest."¹ The brand's own research pointed the same way. According to Visa's brand driver studies, it was no longer enough that the card was accepted everywhere; security and reliability had become more relevant.⁴

A sentence built for small things

The construction of the line made it elastic. "Life takes" could be followed by almost anything, and the advertising used that freedom for ordinary needs. One online banner read "Life takes lessons. Life takes Visa."² LifeTakesVisa.com hosted more than 50 short video vignettes.⁴ A spring 2006 spot for the Visa check card played out as doodles on a series of paper checks and ended on "Life takes recycling".⁵

By the end of 2006 the campaign targeted cash for the first time. A television spot called "Lunch" showed customers moving quickly through a busy deli, while out-of-home ads promoted the security and convenience of the check card, and Visa waived signatures on qualifying purchases under $25 at fast food restaurants, taxis and cinemas.⁶ Kevin Burke, senior vice president, advertising, brand and Web at Visa USA, said: "This new spot illustrates how Visa streamlines checkout for both merchants and customers".⁶ The brand that had once sold the evening out was now selling the speed of a sandwich queue.

What the shift did to the brand

Lyons was candid that the words alone were not the point. "A line is just a line," she told Adweek. "The way it is being used and integrated into the new campaign is nothing like in the past."⁷ The old tagline had given Visa a fixed picture: a place worth going, and a rival that was not welcome there. The new one gave up that picture, and the sharp comparison with American Express that came with it, in exchange for range. Visa stopped presenting itself as a pass to somewhere special and began presenting itself as part of everything in between. Within two months the campaign reached 45 percent aided awareness.⁴

The line ran for about three years. In March 2009, during the recession, Visa replaced it with "More people go with Visa", its first global advertising campaign.^8,9 Antonio Lucio, chief marketing officer of Visa Inc., said: "It's not about spending more, it's about using Visa for those things that are important to you every day."⁸ Visa returned to BBDO in 2012,¹⁰ and in January 2014 it revived "Everywhere you want to be" as a corporate platform.¹¹

The direction outlasted the slogan. "Life takes Visa" moved the brand's promise from where the card could go to how often it was used, and the revived "Everywhere" kept that shift: Visa now explained the word through ecommerce and mobile payments that put it within reach of everyone.¹⁰ The places had become the background. Daily life had become the brand.