Credit cards for these crunchy times

Posted by Jennifer Omran, Creative, RLA group

What do we need to get us through times of economic difficulty (apart from a lottery win, that is)? Not a cavernous credit limit on our cards, as trouble and strife lays that way for sure. No, the ideal solution to managing our budgets can only be a Visa card that you top up to use, so that you never spend beyond your means. A unique reference code every time you top up means credit card fraud is virtually eliminated, too.

3V is exactly that: a card that’s used with prepaid vouchers, and that doesn’t require a credit card or bank account to use. To promote its wares in Ireland, our intrepid team in Belfast worked with London agency Elevator Design to come up with a successful strategy and media plan, with the aim of encouraging new registrations and increased usage across Southern Ireland.

Previously using just radio and press channels, deep research into the (vast) target market showed that door drops would reach much of the desired audience at a fraction of the cost, and garner some pretty impressive results.

Two campaigns timed to coincide with the busiest shopping time of the year – just before summer and the lead up to Christmas ’08 – brought about stunning increases in use of the card nationally. In fact, analysis reported record volumes of users and transactions, with eight out of ten top sales days attributable to our campaign alone. Now those are the kinds of figures we like to hear.