Before the event, a great deal was made of sponsor Visa’s iron-fisted approach to the usages of other payment networks at the venues.
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To be fair to them, I’m not sure their instance on exclusivity was motivated primarily by a desire to restrict competition. Sure, there’s a very strong marketing aspect to the decision. Visa’s has probably been the single most visible brand in London over the last few weeks (with the possible exception of London 2012 itself).
But in a sector where public brand awareness has reletively little direct impact on competitive dynamics, the restrictions at ATMs and points of sale must have served another purpose.
The fact is that Visa’s sponsorship deal clears the pitch. It creates an effective closed-loop environment – incredibly useful on a number of fronts.
First there is the data – Visa get a complete, unmuddied picture of spending patterns across the park. Visa Europe often remind us that one in three of our Great British Pounds is spent on a Visa card. Well, the Olympics offered the network an opportunity to glimpse a vision of the future – get a view of what life might be like if that proportion was raised higher.
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By GlobalDataIt’s not clear whether that is exactly what they got. We have yet to see the statistics. There were some hiccups – specifically at Wembley Stadium, which was cash-only for the night – and anecdotal evidence suggests that cash in rather heavy use even where the terminals were functional.
The NFC push
One very readable set of anecdotes came from Gareth Lodge, Celent Senior analyst and VRL Financial News editorial board member. His post-Olympics punditry is well worth a read (bankingblog.celent.com), and he focusses on the big question – did contactless make it out of the blocks? The answer, unfortunately, appears to be no.
Visa Europe – as you would expect – disagrees whole-heartedly. Mark Austin, Head of Contactless, certainly claimed victory saying that one in six card transactions under GBP20 were contactless.
It may not sound like a winning stat, but it is reasonably impressive when you think of all the cash-laden tourists, many of whom would have been frustratedly flashing their mag stripe cards around. This is certainly a better uptake than we have seen in the real world until now. So, definitely close to a vision of the future – One where contactless technology is at least recognised, if not widely used.
