IOC TV & Marketing Services Dir Timo Lumme said one reason Visa's 25-year sponsorship of the Olympic Games has worked is you "treat it like a marriage,” according to Kunur Patel of AD AGE. Lumme’s comments came on a panel at the Cannes ad festival that also featured gymnast and gold-medal winner Nadia Comaneci, a Visa endorser and one of “the stars of the financial-services provider's TBWA/Chiat/Day-created ‘Go World’ campaign.” Lumme said, "When you're dating, what do you look for in a partner? A deep relationship and understanding each other. After 25 years, that's what we've achieved with Visa; they take our brand, which we trust them with, and do marketing campaigns that reach out [to] people" (ADAGE.com, 6/18). Visa CMO Antonio Lucio talked about how emotion plays a role in its IOC partnership: "We are normally 50/50 on rationale/emotional in our marketing. With the Olympics, it's 100 percent emotional. But even the rational dimensions of our brand grow with Olympic marketing. With consumers, once the heart is committed, the brain will follow." TBWA\Chiat\Day Exec Creative Dir Patrick O'Neill said of selecting athletes for the "Go World" effort, "We looked at the athletes as humans, not even as athletes. Their level of success almost didn't matter. What mattered was their story. Did it almost make you cry on paper?" O'Neill debuted the spot with Comaneci in Cannes and said that “her story was timeless.” O’Neill: "She goes from Clark Kent to Superman, and you see that happen in 30 seconds” (ADWEEK.com, 6/18).
