Proximity BBDO wins Visa's digital duties

The creative mandate for the account lies with TBWA.

Proximity, the CRM (customer relationship management), digital and data arm of BBDO, has won the digital mandate for Visa. Industry sources close to the development have confirmed the news to afaqs!.

The creative mandate continues to lie with TBWA; the agency had bagged the duties when Visa appointed TBWA Worldwide as its global agency back in 2008. This was around the time the account consolidated its media mandate with OMD. The global creative and media agency consolidation, which took effect from January 1, 2009, was done in a bid to deliver creative synergies and other operating and cost efficiencies to Visa.

Prior to TBWA, the creative agency on the account in India was R K Swamy BBDO.

For the record, Visa is a retail electronic payments network providing processing services and payment product platforms. This includes consumer credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments, which are offered under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and Plus brands.

Visa was launched in India in 1989. The initial task, when the brand entered India, was that of informing the prospective Indian consumer about Visa and the facility of 'plastic money'. Visa gained popularity with its then tagline, 'Visa Power. Go get it' and its then brand ambassador, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who endorsed the brand from 1997 to 2003.

In 2009, the brand underwent a global repositioning and adopted the tagline, 'More people around the world go with Visa'.