Animation, Sound & Vibration – How Visa is Reinforcing Consumer Trust in a Changing Payments World

Visa’s suite of sensory branding elements arriving at more than one million points of sale

Cannes, France and San Francisco, CA – June 17, 2019 – Visa (NYSE: V) today announced global adoption of its sensory branding suite in 25 countries via more than a dozen new partnerships. The suite is comprised of sound, animation and haptic brand cues that occur with a Visa payment transaction. In a digital world increasingly filled with voice-commands, networked appliances and unattended retail environments, Visa’s sensory branding cues offer new ways to enhance the customer experience and convey the trust and security that the Visa brand represents.

Visa was the first major payment brand to introduce multi-sensory branding, which included animation, sound and haptic vibration expressions of its brand. Afteran extensive creation and selection process that involved focus groups and elimination rounds, Visa landed on a single ‘energetic’ and ‘optimistic’ sound, and complementary animation and haptic vibration. Since then, Visa has forged partnerships with a range of companies around the world to deploy sensory branding, ensuring more consumers get the confidence they desire when making a payment. 

With the growth of IoT and evolving consumer expectations, Visa’s sensory branding suite is strategically coming to life across the globe. A few examples include:

• Mobile First Experiences:
  
  • Carousell marketplace app in Singapore
  • Monyx Wallet payment app from Nayax
  • 11 issuer mobile wallet apps throughout the Latin America region
• Biggest Stages in Sport:
  
  • In-stadiums across France at the FIFA Women's World Cup™
  • In-stadium at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants
• Prominent Technology and Retail Partnerships:
  • Point-of-sale (POS) terminal providers that provide technology directly to merchants, including Aurus, Equinox Payments (NA), Pax (NA and Asia), Poynt (SF), IBA (Russia), VisaNet (Uruguay)
  • TSYS Genius payment processing platform
  • First Data in Singapore
  • Xpress-pay, a leading, flexible ePayment solution for SMBs
  • Payscout, a global payment processing provider with a platform for enabling transactions in immersive environments
  • Ziosk, a table service ordering and pay on-demand solution deployed in casual dining restaurants such as Olive Garden, Yard House, Chili’s, Red Robin, Outback, and TGI Friday’s

“As consumers continue to change where and how they pay in the world, the entirety of the customer experience must also evolve in ways that have trust built-in from the start,” said Lynne Biggar, chief marketing and communications officer, Visa. “Giving greater dimensionality to our brand and letting our customers see, hear or feel Visa when they pay, is an essential ingredient at a time when the physical point of sale is makingway for greater digital environments. Sensory branding cues provide a way for us toexpress that our brand promise of speed, security, reliability and trust is still behind every transaction.”

To measure the impact of sensory branding on consumer experience, research with a sample of San Francisco Bay Area merchants¹using POYNT terminals was recently undertaken. The in-store research found that consumers who experienced sensory branding were 12% more likely to say that the merchant cares for their security. Similarly, positive perceptions of the Visa brand increased by 14% compared with those who did not experience the sensory branding at the POS, with recall of the Visa logo also increasing.

Partner Reaction & Support for Sensory Branding

“My first reaction to Visa’s sensory branding was, wow, someone finally got it,” said Osama Bedier, founder and CEO, POYNT. “These visual and audible cues will become a really important part of reinforcing the consumer experience.”

“TSYS sees the consumer payment experience evolving at the point-of-sale to be a constant interaction between the consumer and merchant. Sensory branding is a good example of how the consumer can feel their transaction was completed in a safe and secure way,” said Jim Egbert, SVP of business development and strategic partnerships, TSYS. “The consumer experience is seamless, safe and secure.”

“We are excited to be part of Visa’s innovative initiative to build trust, reinforce their brand, and improve the customer payment experience,” said Bohdan Myroniw, vice president of strategic alliances, Equinox Payments. “It’s easy, it’s understood by young and old, and it’s a fun experience.”

Onsite at Cannes

Lynne Biggar will be discussing the overall growth and efficacy of Visa’s sensory branding today at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In a session titled “The Next Frontier of Sound and Sense Branding”, she is appearing at the Debussy Theatre, Palais I, and speaking alongside the founding partner of Listen Agency, Steve Milton. To learn more, follow @LynneBiggar on Twitter or LinkedIn.