Intuit TurboTax has launched its first Canadian-made national integrated campaign, part of a mission to be seen as more than its DIY software and serve a more diverse range of tax-season needs.
A 30-second TV spot debuted during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast on CTV, focusing on TurboTax Live, which offers digital tax advice from live experts. In the spot, a woman sitting in an economy-class seat on an airplane is given a glimpse of some first-class service to show the benefits of having someone do the work for you.
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“The most important objective here is driving consideration and changing perception of us as a brand,” says Terry Yakimchick, head of marketing and analytics for TurboTax Canada. “We’re on a journey to extend beyond a DIY software brand. We’re on a journey to extend to a full-spectrum, full-service offering.”
Yakimchick says his customers have a range of confidence and capability levels when filing taxes on their own. “One size [of tax service] does not fit all. Our customers were loud and clear, saying they needed support,” he said.
The campaign is TurboTax’s first with its new agency of record Juniper Park\TBWA, which won the account in a competitive review last year (the company has previously worked with Canadian agencies, but this is the first it has enlisted one for a national, integrated campaign). Yakimchick says the agency came to that process with an impressive track record with other clients.
“They understood our business and the problems we were trying to solve from a marketing standpoint,” Yakimchick said. “They got to know our space really well and came back with great strategic and creative ideas.”
Briefing for this campaign began last summer with a focus on tighter integration for his team and all its agency partners (which, in addition to Juniper Park\TBWA, includes Citizen Relations on PR, Camelot on media, We Are Social and Search Engine People). The agencies took part in a week-long briefing that included consumer panels to create “a great sense of empathy” with customer concerns and needs, Yakimchick says.
Beyond the TV spot, other campaign elements appear as online video, digital banners, social media and CRM executions.
TuboTax self-reports that it serves more than five million tax filers every year.
