Visa, the payments company, enhanced several core brand metrics in Brazil through a program that donated money to good causes when customers made purchases using its cards.

Luciana Resende Lotze, Visa’s regional head/marketing for Latin America and the Caribbean, discussed this subject at the 2018 Festival of Media Latin America (FOMLA).

The brand, she reported, partnered with various charitable groups, which stood to receive a small donations when a transaction was completed on the Visa card of a participating customer.

“Over 175,000 people registered, and they made more than ten million transactions, all of which resulted in donations directly being sent to partner organisations,” said Lotze. (For more, read WARC’s in-depth report: Visa Brazil’s investment in charitable purpose generates brand health.)

This program tackled a clear challenge that was facing Visa, as many Brazilian consumers were automatically reaching for cash when buying goods, rather than paying via their cards.

For shoppers, it helped address a major paint point, too: namely, the obstacle of identifying the right organisations to donate money to.

Visa took a nuanced approach to building out this initiative in terms of its scale and its marketing strategy. It also carefully listened, and responded to, the questions and feedback of consumers.

Equally important was partnering with good causes that reflected its focus on providing reliable, safe payments that can be trusted. “It’s really a win–win idea,” Lotze said.

In tracking the impact of this effort on its brand, Visa has studied favourability among people exposed to the campaign compared to a control group that was unaware of it. “We see a lift,” Lotze said.

Moreover, the people who are aware of the program “really like the brand more” and, even more critically, “they also are more likely to use their Visa card.”

In fact, customers who have enrolled in the charity-focused endeavor registered “a lift in transactions,” she told the FOMLA delegates.

Visa has significant ambitions when it comes to further supporting its partners, too. “We want to help much more. We have the potential to raise $60 million,” said Lotze.

Sourced from WARC