Andrea Fairchild
Senior Vice President, Global Sponsorship Strategy
As a whole, financial services remain the biggest category supporting sponsorship, and Visa is a longtime devotee, employing top-shelf deals with the likes of the Olympics (global sponsor since 1986), the FIFA World Cup (since 2007) and the NFL (since 1995). The payment card services brand added sponsorship of the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 teams last year. Competition from online digital payment brands is increasing, so defending long-exclusive category rights are at or near the top of the agenda for Andrea Fairchild, a veteran of two of the most-respected sports endemic brands: Gatorade and Nike. “It’s really focusing not so much on brand awareness, but creating these kinds of experiences that you can’t otherwise get,” she said, at this year’s World Congress of Sports.
