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Visa champions nationwide chip card education campaign

The company will work with public- and private-sector partners in an effort to educate merchants, policymakers, civic leaders and consumers about EMV.

October 23, 2014

Visa Inc. plans to carry out a national awareness and education effort that it says will reach millions of U.S. cardholders and merchants with information about chip technology.

The campaign entails working with public- and private-sector partners in order to educate merchants, policymakers, civic leaders and consumers about Visa chip technology, a company press release said.

The campaign will use visual and creative content to teach consumers and merchants about the benefits of chip technology and how to use chip cards.

The campaign will be carried out through partnerships with financial institutions and merchants, and will seek to ensure that consumers and merchants have the information they need to use and accept chip cards. 

Visa’s efforts will include:

• customizable marketing materials including card mailers, online associate training, and deployment toolkits for the brand's 10,000-plus U.S. FIs;
• customizable POS marketing materials and signage for small and medium-size businesses, and additional POS educational opportunities developed in cooperation with many of the largest U.S. merchants;
• a new microsite that will feature educational video vignettes and how-to-use demos;
• educational town hall sessions featuring industry-leading experts, to be held in more than 20 U.S. markets, as well as efforts in cooperation with merchant trade groups to educate small and medium-size businesses about chip technology; and
• partnerships with organizations such as the Center for Democracy and Technology and Bloomberg Government designed to educate policy and business leaders about EMV migration.

A recent study conducted by Visa found that 52 percent of consumers and 84 percent of small and medium-size merchants are aware of chip technology and believe it will further enhance the security of their payments.

Among consumers, three in five said chip cards are an improvement over magnetic stripe cards and one-third indicated a preference to shop at stores that are equipped with chip technology.

Among merchants, 71 percent believe accepting chip technology would benefit their businesses and 39 percent of merchants believe their current card reader is already chip enabled.