Jun
Products
Contactless Payment Wristbands
Contactless Payment Wristbands promoted by Visa for the Eurovision Song Contest this Year in Stockholm
Visa Europe collaborated with Gemalto as an Official Partner of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest 2016 that was held in Stockholm from 6th May to 14th May, earlier this month. Visitors had the opportunity of getting contactless payment wristbands and could tap them for effecting faster payments. People could pay with their wristbands when they visited the Eurovision Village at Globen Arena, Tele 2 at Kungstradgarden in Stockholm. This was also made possible at numerous merchant outlets who accepted these contactless payments that were done with Visa.
With the help of these contactless wristbands, people could also gain access to VIP treatment in the form of discounts, Fast Tracks and various other special promotional offers on drinks and food items at Eurovision venues. These contactless wristbands have been made valid all around the world till their expiry period on 31st October, 2016. People who have used these payment wristbands will be able to continue to tap their bands for faster payments at all merchant outlets who accept such contactless payments with Visa, even after the completion of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. Its operation is easy enough; all that needs to be done is to connect the debit or credit cards to this wristband to get the funds loaded. These contactless wristbands were taken out for a limited and exclusive edition product that was specially developed and designed for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
The wristbands were first made available at the Eurovision Village in Stockholm, Sweden in the week that led up to the contest before 6th May, earlier this month. This song contest attracted more than sixty five thousand people. It is the first time in the world that people could go through a contactless experience, which culminated at Globe Arena when the Grand Finale took place on 14th May. The contest also attracted an estimated television audience of over two hundred million.
Invaluable Contribution by Gemalto
Visa came out with the contactless payment wristbands for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 after collaborating with Gemalto who are world leaders in the field of digital security. Visa, on their own, are one of the largest payment providers in the world. This collaboration was useful in equipping visitors at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with wristbands that promoted contactless payments. Gemalto came forward and offered solutions for Visa to include packaging, personalization and fulfillment of these contactless wristbands. They made it possible by utilizing their Allynis Smart Event Platform for this type of event management connected with a prepaid payment scheme.
Gemalto’s incorporated solutions made sure that Visa was successful in showcasing contactless experience for participants. This experience included shopping without the need for carrying payment cards or cash. Gemalto made this possible by offering a responsive website that allowed people to access to real-time account details which involved history and prepaid balances. The wristbands were used to enable payments at contactless POS terminals of Visa anywhere in the world. These facilities were promised to continue remaining active much after the contest ended as they had been given extension till the end of October this year.
The Allynis Smart Even Platform offered by Gemalto could be used in conjunction with any type of payment form factors that included wearables and mobile NFCs. This platform also provided management of payments off-the-shelf along with access and data rights with expansive portfolios of all white label applications. This integrated solution supported a wide and rich range of features like `tap and go’ kinds of payments, seamless access management to hospitality areas and venues along with a variety of several applications that had value added to them. The solution also went on to improve and secure visitor experience and allowed the event organizers and various stakeholders to introduce intelligent communication, loyalty and marketing programs that could operate before, during and post live events.
Gemalto churns out annual revenues that exceed three billion Euros. It has its customer base in more than one hundred and eighty countries. It has helped bring on additional trust to an already increasingly connected globe. Its services and technologies have helped governments and businesses authenticate their identities and protect their valuable data in order to remain safe. It has helped enable services in connected objects, personal devices and in the cloud. The solutions offered by Gemalto are at the crux of modern life, ranging from enterprise security to payments and the internet of things. They have helped authenticate transactions, objects and people and also helped encrypt data while creating extra value for software. They have allowed their clients to deliver safe and secure digital services to billions of people around the world.
A Leap Forward in the World of Near Field Communication Technology
Visa has gone on to create a unique contactless payment experience at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest 2016 for both visitors and fans, alike. Along with Gemalto’s collaboration, this was a very big step forward into the future of contactless payments in the world. Sweden is fortunate to get the initial experience. The support offered by Gemalto to Visa has demonstrated how the ecosystem of a live event will ideally suit a Near Field Communication experience. This smart event service that is offered end-to-end made it easy for people to look much beyond the concept of contactless payments and to adopt extra functions like access, data management and visitor entitlements.
These types of contactless payments have seen to be on the rise all over Europe. Before the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, Visa had already taken the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology a step further when it launched its limited edition of contactless payment wristbands.
This contactless wristband is made into a prepaid wearable; consumers could load these wristbands with amounts of their selection from their credit or debit cards before they wanted to use these bands. They also included VIP treatments like fast tracks and food and drinks at the Eurovision centres. Besides receiving these wristbands in the tents provided by Visa at the Eurovision Village, people could also take part in competitions so that they could win tickets to this Contest along with various other prizes.
Users were able to get their wristbands in the Eurovision Village and activate them with the help of a webpage. They could top up their wristbands with debit or credit cards which were powered by Visa. All these wristbands were made ready for immediate use once the activation and the loading were completed.