Co-branded credit cards: a new advertising medium?

There are a plethora of opportunities online to increase brand awareness. There are branded micro-sites, bulletin boards, blogs, plogs. The list goes on. But one of the most useful branding opportunities is offline - in consumers' wallets.

by Kristina Knight

Co-branded credit cards, such as a Visa or Mastercard with a favorite sports team logo, favorite musician or favorite soda, are a huge business across the globe.

A recent study from Packaged Facts indicates that between 30 and 60 million United States consumers, roughly three-quarters of the credit-card-using population, had a co-branded credit card by the end of 2006. There were more than 300 million co-branded credit cards used (up from 212 million cards used in 2003) in more than $849 billion worth of transactions.

Don Montuori, the publisher of Packaged Facts said, "Most of the experts believe that co-branding still has strong growth potential. Co-branded debit cards, for example, are just in their infancy, and it’s not uncommon to see debit issuers cross selling other products, making the value of the co-branded card all the more important."

Having an advertiser logo on a credit card is huge for name recognition. Consumers use these cards while shopping online, shopping in brick-and-mortar stores and shopping by phone. There is the possibility for these cards to be used multiple times each day, and every time the cards is used in a traditional store, not only does the card-holder see the company name, but so does the store clerk.

Entering into an agreement with a credit card issuer could be a huge step for newer and established brands to increase the pull of their products.