To celebrate their rebranding initiative "everywhere you want to be," Visa gave Michael Sam, who was set to become the NFL's first openly gay player, the opportunity to set the record straight on how people should judge him by explaining his "everywhere" in his own words.
Earlier this year, Visa began an all-new rebranding initiative with the purpose of helping people reach their goals to be "everywhere you want to be." To explain the meaning, we looked to align with inspirational and celebratory moments in culture.
In the 2014 NFL Draft, Michael Sam was set to become the first openly gay player in the NFL. We all knew this was going to be historic milestone, but we didn't know how the public would react.
To proactively steer the news cycle the right way, we had to guide the conversation to a story that embodied both Visa's new positioning and Michael Sam's true goal: to play football in the NFL.
Our strategy was to twist the expectations of the audience and media, treating him like any other NFL athlete, cheered and booed, judged for his flaws and feats, but only as a football player on the field.
As the clock started in the NFL Draft, Visa's Michael Sam film was launched through social channels and an ESPN.com exclusive. The message immediately struck a chord spreading across news, sports, pop culture, and LGBT channels.
By the end of the draft coverage, Visa received 49MM total impressions from PR and social media. This resulted in 47% positive sentiment compared to 4% positive buzz from last season's entire NFL campaign, and over 15,000 engagements on Michael Sam's content on Facebook alone– signifying a huge shift in support for Visa's brand beliefs and willingness to take a stand on an important issue.
