Visa celebrates FIFA Women’s World Cup in new campaign via Saatchi & Saatchi and Starcom

Visa, a world leader in digital payments, has launched a new integrated campaign across Australia and New Zealand to celebrate its 20 year support of women in sports and fifth consecutive sponsorship of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023^TM. 

Created by Saatchi & Saatchi Australia, the campaign “Behind Every Number, There’s A Story” focuses on the story behind every player’s jersey number. The film captures a soccer player’s life from a five-year-old fan to a number five jersey player. 

Digital and OOH celebrate the stories behind Team Visa athletes and world-renowned footballers, Ellie Carpenter (Lyon and Matildas) and Claudia Bunge (Melbourne Victory and NZ Football Ferns), both of whom are returning home this winter to play for their country in the FIFA Women’s World Cup^TM.

Natalie Lockwood, Visa’s Head of Marketing for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, says: “Visa is a data-driven company that analyses numbers for meaningful insights. Beyond the 260 billion transactions^[1], we seek to celebrate the individual stories of the people we serve. Be it a transaction we enable, game statistics or a jersey number, there’s a personal story. In particular, we want to actively celebrate the stories and power of the women who are inspired to play this beautiful game, from parks to stadiums.”

Piero Ruzzene, Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, adds: “We’ve chosen to tell a single woman’s story in film, which not only seeks to show how a moment with Visa can inspire great possibility, but further proves that a person can never know where a seemingly routine transaction can lead them.”

Media strategy was handled by Publicis Groupe’s Starcom. Client Service Director Jacqui Purcell said the agency chose “unmissable media formats to make inspiring connections with Visa’s long association with the FIFA Women’s World Cup^TM”. As part of that, Starcom was also able to negotiate a broadcast and digital sponsorship with the Seven Network (Channel 7 and 7plus) and Optus Sport, allowing for further brand association and aligning with the hype of the FIFA Women’s World Cup^TM on home soil.

The campaign has already kicked off with film across TV, online video and social, followed by OOH in July ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup^TM kick off.  

Campaign Credits:

Client: Visa

SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Asia Pacific: Danielle Jin 

Head of Marketing, Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific: Natalie Lockwood

Head of Consumer Brand Marketing, Asia Pacific: Karen McGregor

Senior Director, Marketing, Asia Pacific: Alex Khoury

Senior Director Consumer Marketing and Partnerships: Simone Moss

Director, Consumer Marketing and Partnerships: Sam Smedley

Senior Manager, Asia Pacific Campaigns & Creatives, Aaron Yang

Creative Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Australia 

Creative Director: Piero Ruzzene

Art Director: Mary Graham

Copywriter: Phoebe Joiner

Creative: Mac Wright 

Head of Strategy: Joe Heath

Group Business Director: Claire Thompson

Senior Business Manager: Emma McLellan 

Business Executive: Dariusz Kuczynski

Head of Broadcast Production: Michael Demosthenous

Senior Broadcast Producer: Tamara Kennon

Print Producer: Holly De Roy

Head of Operations: Greer Macpherson

Production Company: Collider

Director: Beatrice Pegard

Executive Producer: Rachael Ford-Davies

Executive Producer/Producer: Olivia Hantken

DOP: Zoe White

Production Design: Sam Lukins

Colourist: Billy Wychgel

Editor: Adam Wills

Post Production Company: Collider 

Compositor: Stuart Bedford

Music: Level Two

Darktown Strutter: Everybody Everyday

Sound: Sonar Music

Engineer: Timothy Bridge

Producer: Haylee Poppi / Louis Moore

Media: Starcom AU

Client Services Director: Jacqui Purcell

Head of Investment: Rebecca Ho

Performance Director: Angeline Hartono

Account Manager: Mitchell Brown

Investment Manager: Bailey Reed 

Account Executive: James MacGregor 

Starcom NZ

Group Business Director: Paul Hamilton

Business Manager: Beena Dhanji

^[1] For the 12 months ended March 31, 2023; includes payments and cash transactions