It’s an exciting time to be a Worldwide Sponsor of the 2012 Olympic Games. Not only did we launch Go World—Visa’s Olympic -themed integrated marketing campaign in more than 70 countries around the world—we’re giving the Games a modern makeover and transforming the way Visa-sponsored athletes, trialists, and Visa staff pay at thousands of merchants in London and at the Olympic Park.
Here’s what Olympic-goers can expect to see:
- Visa Mobile Payments: As part of Visa’s collaboration with Samsung, athletes and trialists will be equipped with Samsung’s GALAXY S III. The phone will be powered by an Olympic- branded version of Visa payWave—Visa’s mobile payments application—allowing participants in our showcase to make purchases by simply selecting the Visa icon on the Samsung device and holding the phone to a contactless payment terminal to pay.
- Speed by with contactless payments: With around 37 million Visa payWave-enabled credit, debit and prepaid cards in circulation across Europe, contactless cards enable visitors to the Games to breeze through London and the Olympic grounds with “wave and pay” purchases at thousands of retailers.
- Retailers are game: By Games time, more than 140,000 payment terminals throughout the U.K. will accept Visa PayWave-enabled cards and phones, including 5,000 London taxis and 3,000 point-of-sale (POS) locations at Olympic venues.
- Race ahead with prepaid cards: Visa prepaid cards will be on sale throughout the U.K. and will enable visitors to London to experience the convenience and security of Visa payments, allowing them to make purchases everywhere Visa is accepted and spend less time in concession lines and more time enjoying the Games.
Reshaping the buying experience and simplifying payments at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is just the beginning of what we see as a transformative time ahead.
To see some of what Olympics-goers will experience firsthand, we were recently featured on NBC KTVU’s TechNow pre-Olympics segment:
Let the Games (and future of payments) begin!
Posted by: Elvira Swanson, Visa Corporate Relations on July 23, 2012 at 9:15 am
This is amazing! a new way added to POS!
by Fawn Wane — July 31, 2012 at 7:13 pm