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A 90-minute commercial - Birds - featuring Gere has been shot in Jodhpur for the company's new advertisement campaign that will be aired from June 9 in English and Hindi across Asia Pacific, Santanu Mukherjee, regional head for South Asia, Visa International said.
He said Gere was chosen after a lot of research for a brand ambassador since he suits both Indian as well as Pacific markets.
"India is one of the top performing and fastest growing countries for Visa in the Asia Pacific region. The launch of this commercial further reinforces the increasing importance of India in Visa's brand and marketing strategy as for the first time a distinctly local Indian flavour has been used for one of our regional Asia Pacific commercials,'' he said.
Richard Gere, who was not present at the press conference, was quoted in a company release as saying, ''India is like a second home to me... Hopefully, it's (advertisement) an interesting fusion of East and West and the ancient and modern.''
Visa eyes 60% growth in India
Eyeing over 60 per cent growth in purchase volumes through its cards in India to at least $5.28 billion this fiscal, Visa International will launch an online bill payment service next month.
The company recorded a 63 per cent growth last fiscal when purchases through its cards amounted to $3.3 billion, 18 per cent of which was through debit cards.
"Not only this fiscal, but over a next few years, we are eyeing at least 60 per cent growth on a sustainable basis," Santanu Mukherjee, regional head, Visa International said.
India is still a small market for Visa International, he said, adding the country contributes less than 2 per cent of purchase volumes in Asia Pacific.
As such, the company eyes huge growth in India and is hopeful of recording at least 60 per cent growth over next few years, he said.
For achieving this, we will have to come out with added services, he said, adding that the company will introduce Visa bill pay portal in July.
''We will have a soft launch this month for internal assessment,'' he added. The portal will enable the visa cardholders to pay for various services through their cards online.
The company has signed an agreement with 88 utilities for the services, Mukherjee said but refused to divulge names.
He said eight banks have tied up with the company for its recently launched service in India, Visa Money Transfer, which allows Visa cardholders to transfer money among them.
While these 8 banks can provide money through this service as of now, all 35 banks with whom Visa has tie-ups for card services can receive the money, he said.
Visa International has sold 30 million cards in India as of March 31, 2005. Of this, a whopping 21 million are debit cards, Mukherjee said.