Credit Card May Be Ticket To Games
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday February 10, 1997
Westpac Banking Corp will today launch its first product since snaring the banking sponsorship rights to the Olympic Games - a credit card which will give users the chance to win tickets to major Olympic events.
The "Olympic" card, offered in conjunction with other major Olympic sponsors, Ansett and Visa, will also tie into Ansett's existing frequent flyers program and tap into Australians' increasing fondness for accumulating "reward" points on their cards.
The main attraction, however, is likely to be prizes of Olympic packages.
It is understood the best packages will be offered, via a lucky draw, to people who initially take up the card and will be used as an incentive tool for the card to quickly build a large customer base.
With a limited number of tickets available to the most desirable Olympic events such as the opening and closing ceremonies, it would be impossible for Westpac to offer tickets to the premier events to everyone who accumulates enough reward points.
Australian card users have become extremely adept at building up reward points on cards, to the extent that it has almost become a national obsession. Some have been known to purchase houses on their cards in the pursuit of points.
Visa has seen usage of its cards double in the past three years, largely thanks to its enormously popular Telstra and Qantas "loyalty" cards, issued by the ANZ Bank.
Australians spent $19.5 billion on their Visa cards in the year to September 1996.
Sponsors of the Olympic Games paid up to $50 million to become "Olympic partners" and Westpac's move to leverage off the sponsorship nearly four years ahead of the opening ceremony reflects its desire to make that investment pay.
Olympic sponsorship is by no means guaranteed to give kudos to the companies.
A survey by the international advertising agency DDB Needham found that only half of the major Olympic sponsors since 1984 had successfully established a link between the Olympics and their brand.
Of those companies that were successful, only half of them gained a significant increase in consumer perceptions of their brand, the agency found.
Visa, for example, had an unhappy experience with its launch of smart cards to pay for goods and services at Atlanta's Olympic Games venues.
Interest from spectators was only muted and smart card use fell well below the company's expectations.
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald
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