Visa $100K sweepstakes for the holidays

By Jeremy M. Simon

PRESS RELEASE 

How about an extra $100,000 in your stocking?  To most holiday shoppers, the latest promotion from Visa should sound as sweet as sleigh bells jingling.

With its "$100K Holiday from Visa" sweepstakes, Visa is offering cardholders a chance to win that sum each time they make an eligible purchase with their Visa credit card between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, 2006.  Since each Visa card purchase is another automatic entry into the contest, the more you shop the more chances you have to win. Ten grand prize winners will be chosen in a random drawing.

Visa's promotion is getting a push from a national commercial, point-of-sale, and statement inserts.  Meanwhile, the contest's micro-site also offers an instant-win game with over $25,000 in additional prizes, including a $1,000 Visa Simon Gift Card.  With no purchase or obligation necessary to win either sweepstakes, consumers should visit www.visa.com/100K to enter.

Meanwhile, Visa said it is instituting celebrity shopping expert Jaye Hersh as the credit card issuer's "Chief Shopping Officer."  As "CSO," the owner of L.A.-based Intuition will provide consumers with such holiday shopping advice as how to budget for all those-must have items and tips on finding the best last-minute gifts. 

In Visa's accompanying TV commercial which runs from Nov. 6 until the end of December, Ebenezer Scrooge is shown to be capable of generosity when using his Visa credit card for an opportunity to win.  Famous miser Scrooge is shown performing "selfish" acts of charity with his Visa card.

Over 685 member financial institutions and 355 merchant partners, representing more than 1,437 merchant locations, will take part in Visa's national promotion via statement inserts and marketing collateral.

Published: November 20, 2006

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