But its Olympic campaigns didn’t lock themselves into the Games. In the U.S., Visa’s logo served as background for the origin stories of Pharrell Williams, Visa-backed tennis star Iga Świątek, Visa-sponsored Olympic skateboarding bronze medalist Sky Brown, Visa Cash App RB Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, chef and entrepreneur Roy Choi, and artist/designer Gemma O’Brien. In Europe, its “Level Up Your Game” campaign showed content creators turning athletes’ motions into art and music—a concept that transfers easily to any sporting event.
They’re part of Visa’s strategy to use the campaigns and the events themselves as proving grounds for each event that follows—including a Visa-sponsored 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., and the 2028 L.A. Olympics, which it’s already teasing on social.
“Our sponsorship strategies have always focused on aligning ourselves with best-in-class properties: the NFL, FIFA, and Olympic Games,” said Andrea Fairchild, Visa’s svp of global sponsorships and marketing, just after the NFL’s Visa-sponsored Super Bowl in February. “We utilize other partnerships along the way to enable Visa to reinforce our products. We can’t do everything, but we’re much better when those partnerships and collaborations come together.”
Team USA sponsors have taken varied approaches to a similar issue. Eli Lilly signed on as Team USA’s prescription medicine and health equity partner through the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Though it partnered with gymnast Sunisa Lee this year, Lilly’s “One Body” ad campaign focused on young athletes in Olympic sports without singling out Team USA or the Olympics themselves. Instead of presenting a story about their performance, the spot talks about the need to “fight like hell” for personal health.
Delta Air Lines, which SponsorUnited points out has increased sponsorships by 19% since 2022, is pouring $400 million into Team USA over an eight-year deal that stretches to LA28. While its initial 2024 Olympics ads relegated its planes to the background and focused on athletes’ journeys to Paris, it spent recent days focusing ads on Los Angeles and making its logo the centerpiece of the Olympic flag handover.