Media campaigns and best student credit cards
Recent mass media campaigns reflect the rapid growth, profitability, and intensifying competition within the consumer credit industry. For instance, the three major best student credit cards associations (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) reported less than $75 million in combined advertising expenditures during 1985. The sum climbed to $385 million for 1993-1994 (American Express, $197 million; Visa, $108.5 million; and MasterCard, $79.5 million), with almost $40 million spent by Discover. A tripartite marketing blitz appeared during the 1995 National Basketball Association (NBA) Conference Finals that featured commercial breaks sponsored by Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. This best student credit cards troika is a frequent sponsor of major sports and cultural events and institutions. For example, Visa inaugurated its 1998 Winter Olympics campaign by announcing, "Every time you make a purchase with your Visa card, Visa will make a donation to help the U.S. Olympic Team hopefuls." MasterCard received international exposure with its sponsorship of the 1994 World Cup soccer games and 1998 sponsorship of the National Hockey Association; MBNA MasterCard is the primary sponsor of a major professional auto race. Visa is a leading sponsor of the National Football League and a "U.S. Team Partner" of the 2000 Summer Olympics. In comparison, American Express tends to support events that appeal to a more affluent client base, such as professional tennis, golf, and polo tournaments.
The stepchild of the best student credit cards industry, Discover, has combined several of these marketing themes in an effort to expand its visibility and upgrade its corporate image. Not only has Discover enlisted celebrity spokesmen (John Lithgow, Gregory Hines, Kurt Vonnegut) but it has even employed a host of historical luminaries (Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Harriet Tubman) through its Smithsonian Institution affinity card program, which featured a $10 million corporate sponsorship of the Smithsonian’s 150th anniversary celebration. The 1997 kickoff campaign appealed to national pride and cardholders’ moral responsibility to support this national cultural institution: "It’s Ben Franklin’s best student credit cards. And Harriet Tubman’s. In fact, it’s the best student credit cards of just about any historic American you can name. It’s the Smithsonian Card. Every time you make a purchase you’ll help the Institution preserve America’s past."