Visa invests $9b to boost e-commerce

•Firm begins new campaign
Digital payments platform, Visa has spent $9 billion in technology to shape the future of commerce across the globe in the last five years. The investments were targeted at delivering a differentiated set of products, services and benefits.

Visa said its efforts would continue to shape the physical and digital credit or debit card transactions, and also increasingly sits at the center of enabling money movement.

Built on access to economic inclusion, Visa said its network connects 3.6 billion credentials, over 70 million merchant locations, tens of thousands of partners and powers more than $11 trillion in total volume yearly.

The firm disclosed this, while inviting the world to ‘Meet Visa,‘ the global payments technology company. It is a new move to showcase its brand evolution spotlighting the diverse capabilities of its network and commitment to enabling global economic inclusion.

Aligned closely with the company’s business strategy, this phase includes the debut of a dynamic global marketing campaign and a preview of a modernised look for Visa’s iconic brand.

The firm said more than 60 years ago, when Visa was founded, few could imagine a world beyond cash and checks. Visa said the founding vision to introduce a more secure, reliable and convenient currency in digital form began with a simple question: what if money became fully electronic? Visa said it continues to anticipate the future of digital commerce, providing access through its secure global network working for everyone, everywhere.

Executive Vice President and Global Chief Marketing Officer, Visa, Lynne Biggar, said: “People think they ‘know’ Visa. Consumers and businesses trust the power of those four letters and see it when they open their wallet, pay a vendor, walk into a store or check out online. What they don’t see is how those four letters operate the most dynamic network of people, partnerships and products.

“We are on a mission to ensure that Visa is seen as more than a credit card company and understood as a trusted network that drives commerce forward.”

Illustrating the scope of Visa’s capabilities, initial elements of Visa’s brand evolution include the ‘Meet Visa’ films, which spotlight the power of the network. This is developed by Visa’s global creative, Wieden Kennedy, and the firm is unveiling a short film directed by Malik Hassan Sayeed that invites the world to ‘Meet Visa,’ a network working for everyone.

Complementing this introductory film is a series of shorter digital films and photography that showcase the breadth of the Visa network working to provide access and advancing commerce for real people in real places around the world.

The firm said its brand identity symbolises change. Visa claimed to have long stood for trust, security, acceptance and inclusion, which are core values, in addition to the goal of enabling access for everyone to participate in the global economy, expressed through a modernized, dynamic visual brand identity, built in partnership with leading global brand design firm Mucho.