Case Study: Visa Masters of Movement – a sponsorship activation created by Imagination
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Visa asked Imagination to build a brand experience to activate its FIFA World Cup sponsorship that would help the brand to be understood more broadly to be more than just a credit card. Here’s how Visa Masters of Movement addressed that.
Visa Masters of Movement
The Visa network enables the seamless movement of money across the world, just like the best football players move on the pitch.
The Idea – A World Cup like no other
With all eyes on Qatar for the first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East, Visa wanted to use their sponsorship of the tournament to demonstrate that the brand is much more than just a credit card.
Visa’s global campaign around the tournament was ‘For Fans Everywhere’, and the brief was to create an innovative, accessible experience for the FIFA Fan Festival in Doha that enabled participation for all.
Visa Masters of Movement was built around a new technology that transformed football moves on the pitch into digital art that could be instantly minted as NFTs.
The first step is to capture the move, with tracking technology that records every action on the pitch, including player movement, ball position, passes, skill moves and goals. The tracking data then feeds an artwork algorithm, which produces flowing real-time visualisations of the move as it unfolds. Then the goal, or piece of skill is exported as a dynamic digital work of art, ready to be minted as an NFT.
NFT Auction
In the build up to the tournament, iconic moves from five legendary players – Michael Owen, Tim Cahill, Jared Borgetti, Carli Lloyd and Maxi Rodriguez – were transformed into works of art, minted as NFTs, and auctioned on Crypto.com, with all proceeds going to the charity Street Child United.
FIFA Fan Festival
In Doha, everyone got the opportunity to be an artist as they stepped into the Visa Masters of Movement arena. For four minutes, the pitch was their canvas as they represented their nation in front of packed crowds in Qatar. Using the tracking technology, all movement was tracked in real time and displayed on the LED surface that made up our arena.
The key moment of each game – either a goal or a skill move – was transformed into digital art, minted as an NFT for each player, and dropped into their Crypto.com wallet. A unique, personalised souvenir of their experience, which they could share, keep or sell – which they did, in their thousands.
Value for the audience
In Qatar, fans themselves were the star of the show, getting to play with their friends and represent their country in front of packed crowds at the World Cup.
Value for the brand
Visa positioned itself at the forefront of innovation by creating a bespoke, data driven experience on the world’s biggest stage. This also drove behaviour change, as 12,000 people signed up and minted an NFT, participating in the digital economy thanks to Visa.
