VP of marketing for the company in Brazil, Carla Mita talks about the brand’s actions for the Paris Olympics
Gone are the days when the brand of a credit card was identified only as a brand. Today, Visa, one of the largest card operators in the world, with more than 130 million partner establishments in more than 200 countries, wants to be recognized as a technology and innovation company. Because, as the company’s marketing VP in Brazil, Carla Mita, states, the digital era allows for various services beyond simple bill payment.
With more than 25 years of experience in the insurance, payments and financial market sectors, Carla, throughout her career, has worked in companies such as Credicard, Santander, HSBC, Bradesco and Porto, working on digital transformation and customer experience projects. Under her management are also the Vai de Visa and Visa Causas programs.
In the following interview, she talks about Visa’s various actions in technology, the sponsorship of the Paris Olympics, which will be held next July and August, and the new campaign, created by VML, which debuts this week.
What is Visa’s profile today?
It is a company over 60 years old, a leader in payments, but also in innovation and technology. Over this time, Visa has changed the way people deal with money. If you think a little about evolution over time, all these great innovations in terms of cards, the construction of the network of networks, our VisaNet, our business model, it brings together more than 200 countries, with 14,500 banks that they issue the card and have relationships with 130 million establishments around the world. Only a company with a lot of technology in its veins can bring this entire ecosystem together and allow you to use your Visa card all over the world, in all these places.
Is Visa the largest credit brand in the world?
Visa no longer positions itself as a brand. We do not talk about our services as a card brand because we position ourselves as a technology company. It’s a change of more or less 10 years. Today, we work much more on this technology for moving international, global money, rather than just being a card brand.
You say you have been using artificial intelligence tools since 1993, but at the time there was no talk of AI?
Artificial intelligence was not the model it is today. The main difference is that today we can use it in our daily lives, technology provides us with this. But Visa has actually been using this tool since 1993, mainly in risk analysis, fraud, and the whole security aspect. These are models that work with large volumes of data, bringing together a series of information to bring this technology to our customers.
Wasn’t it a tool that interfaced with the public?
ChatGPT didn’t really exist in 1993. You didn’t have this interface, but this whole artificial intelligence model to connect all this data, process all this and be able to provide security, a vision of risk, fraud, etc. with technology. It’s something that Visa has been using for a long time.
Visa is closely linked to sports sponsorship. I would like you to talk a little about this public profile.
It is a positioning in which the brand can truly connect people from the most diverse generations, from the most diverse nationalities. Sport is a way in which you achieve inclusion in a very broad way with a global reach. The Olympics are a good example. Visa has been a partner of the International Olympic Committee for over 40 years. And there is no event in the world that you can compare in terms of range of sports, gender, age, it is truly an icon of how we can be together in a very complete way.
In addition to sport, will there be action at the Louvre Museum?
It’s the ‘Visa live at le Louvre’. And I say that there is not only the icon of the Louvre when you think in terms of culture, of art. It’s a way to bring together music, art, culture and get the Olympics off to a good start. It is an event with artists of various nationalities. So it has a more complete, more inclusive aspect, it will even run on the Roblox platform, which I think is another path that we have been working more on here, which is this gaming side. So the platform will be open, you can watch all shows there.
What platform is this?
From Roblox, which is the platform for a well-known game worldwide, so the show will be broadcast from the Roblox platform. And Visa, wanting to bring together the world of the most diverse races, languages, languages, in a totally symbolic place in terms of culture, art. I’m biased because I love art, but the Louvre is a really cool symbol of where to do it. An event that will be broadcast around the world. A huge organization thinking about security here, in terms of technology, all transmission, etc. Visa has been sponsoring the Olympics for over 40 years, it is a major partner of the International Olympic Committee, and we have always been involved with all aspects of payment technology during the Olympics.
In addition to sports, there will now be this event at the Louvre that is more artistic and cultural. What’s more, what kind of stocks does Visa sponsor or invest in?
Sport is what most connects with our global positioning. We have a Visa team that has supported more than 500 athletes over this time, both Olympic and Paralympic.
Read the full interview in the June 3rd edition of propmark
