A New View on Visa

Did I miss something? According to a Brandweek article, the stalwart credit company unveiled a new logo yesterday (it was released overseas back in September 2005). What was Visa thinking? Here's the old Visa logo:


Now here's the new logo. Get ready. Notice the massive sea change in meaning, style and overall impact. According to Visa, the new logo was created to "better reflect the choice of payments Visa offers to Member financial institutions, merchants and cardholders":


Are you kidding me? This is supposed to better communicate the company's capabilities. Please. Let's call a spade a spade - this is clearly just a PR ploy to drum up more interest in its Torino sponsorship.

And why does the USA Visa homepage have yet a different logo? Stop the insanity!

If Visa really wanted to enhance its image and clarify its capabilities, then why not leverage its promotional involvement in the Olympics and create engaging experiences that demonstrate its value. If ever a site screamed for rich media marketing, then this is it. A complex value proposition, millions of prospects and a high involvement purchase decision.

Hopefully the company's upcoming "Visa Championships - Torino 2006" will be a jump in the right direction. We'll see.

Technorati Tags: rich media, rich media marketing, broadband marketing