Copyright 1998
Information Access Company, CardFAX April 13, 1998 SECTION: No. 75, Vol. 98 LENGTH: 232 words HEADLINE: SHIFTING GEARS: BODY: With the staggering growth of offline debit card usage, look for Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International to shift marketing tactics. "We're past the education point now," says Robert B.. Baker, Visa senior vice president. "Now we're focusing on all the places you can use the card and creating incentives for repeat use." Visa says it increased its Visa check card advertising budget in 1998, though the brand did not get the same treatment during this year's Super Bowl as in did for the 1997 game, when the popular Bob Dole ad was unveiled. "That set us on our course to where we are fight now," says Baker. "This year, Visa went with a platinum message at the Super Bowl, but we're going to expand our message beyond TV this year." Irene Katen, MasterCard vice president, would not estimate how much MasterCard will spend on advertising to promote its offline MasterMoney debit card this year, but said that the association would unveil in late spring a MasterMoney ad as part of McCann-Erickson's current "Priceless" television ad campaign. In 1997, Visa outspent MasterCard in promoting offline debit on TV and radio by a four-to-one margin---$46.7 million for Visa check to $10.9 million for MasterMoney---according to Commpetitive Media Reporting Inc. (CardFax, 4/7). COPYRIGHT 1998 Faulkner & Gray, Inc. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH IAC-ACC-NO: 03994863 ND LOAD-DATE: April 18, 1998 |