The Problem
COVID-19 brought an immediate acceleration of eCommerce and digital shopping, creating a ripple effect across the global economy. Businesses of all sizes were impacted but small businesses were hit especially hard – forced to either shut down or quickly find new ways to conduct business digitally to align with new consumer behavior and expectations. As part of an ambitious response to COVID, Visa wanted to help them bounce back– leveraging its global network, partners and products.
The Solution – How we Uncomplicated the Complicated
We created a narrative to serve as a framework for products and initiatives laddering up to a tentpole blog post by Visa committing to taking action on that would guide its efforts to support sellers in the sudden shift to digital, including the rough road ahead for small businesses. We generated content and buzz week after week – blog posts, press releases, media interviews, speaking opportunities, and more – each telling a different story tying back to the umbrella “supporting the immediate shift digital,” with a particular drumbeat going deep on the neighborhood entrepreneurs who employ half the world’s workers. And we did so globally, working with counterparts and partners in APAC, CEMEA, LAC, and EU to drive consistency across regions. With these synergies, we told more cohesive product stories that gave individual efforts their own spotlight but also drew connections to other recent Visa efforts and ultimately to our greater COVID recovery purpose.
Results & Impact
We saw top-tier online and broadcast coverage across business, tech and payments media including Axios, BBC, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Cheddar TV, Forbes, MarketWatch, NPR, PYMNTS, TechRadar, Tearsheet, Yahoo Finance, and more. On Visa’s own channels, we amplified content across LinkedIn, Twitter and the Visa Blog.
This framework also proved incredibly valuable in elevating a thought-leadership platform, allowing us to leverage Visa executives and go deeper on storytelling for specific truths. Key players and spokespeople penned blog posts, spoke to platinum press and appeared on industry-forward fireside chats, panels and podcasts. The six truths were the foundation for a keynote speech by CPO Jack Forestell and began to serve as a rally for Visa employees. Forestell even reported having two fintech CEOs play back the truths to him – a testament to the impact of having the right content hit the right people at the right time.
