January 24th, 2014

Brand to Watch: Intuit’s TurboTax

Author

Ace Metrix

 

It’s a brand new year. Second chances, resolutions and the joy of rehashing everything that happened in 2013 to complete your taxes. Tax season comes with a slew of new advertising creative to get you pumped up about filling out those forms. In fact, it is one of the few categories that has an extremely seasonally skewed advertising period. The scatterplot below shows the time distribution of new tax-themed ads from various brands from 2011 onward. This tax season, H&R Block was the first out of the gate back in November with an ad highlighting credit advances in time for holiday shopping. Overall, 24 days into the new year, we have seen more than one new tax ad a day.

So far, H&R Block, TurboTax, Taxslayer.com, TaxACT and Jackson Hewitt all have skin in the game this season. But the real player who will be out on the field in a big way is Intuit, the parent company of several financial applications including TurboTax and Quicken. Intuit has purchased two spots in the Super Bowl and only one is for the company’s products.

In Doritos-eque fashion, Intuit held a contest late last year inviting small business owners to create a pitch for the chance to be in Intuit’s multi-million-dollar spot. Of the four finalists (GoldieBlox, Barley Labs, Dairy Poop and Locally Laid Egg Company), Intuit will choose one to share the spotlight. Although the contest is not exactly the same, Intuit was smart to take a page from Doritos’ branding book. As you can see in our new Super Bowl Infographic, Doritos has had many successes with their consumer-generated Crash the Super Bowl contest.

Although the Super Bowl will no doubt be Intuit’s biggest TV advertising investment this year, it will not be the first big game they have played so far in ‘14. Intuit’s TurboTax aired a 90-second spot in the Rose Bowl that was a real winner with consumers. The ad “Year Of You” is the highest rated tax ad so far this season and is a good example of TurboTax’s overall messaging and branding. With voiceover from the lovable John C. Reilly, the ad invites consumers to “celebrate” 2013 by completing their taxes with TurboTax, because who knows you better than you? The idea that taxes are a celebration might seem like a stretch, but consumers highly rated the creative in terms of Likeability and Attention—both more than 20% above the category’s norm. 

TurboTax’s new creative strategy, with a lifestyle focus, is a shift from the usual tax ad emphasizing maximized refunds and the professional quality of a brand’s tax services. The new direction is a refreshing take on tax software and not something that has been successfully carried out before by any other tax brand.

With these lifestyle creative-focused ads, TurboTax is able to hit different consumer demographics with different messages. This is most evident if we look at the demographic charts based on consumers’ income. For instance, TurboTax’s ad “Best Person To Do The Taxes”, which stars a darling baby, scored over 13% higher with consumers who make over $75K a year than with consumers who make less than $40K a year. Conversely, TurboTax’s ad “Best Person” scored much higher with consumers who make less than $40K a year than with consumers who make over $75K. This demographic spread means Intuit will need to make some smart choices when it comes to media spend; however, if they do it right, it will mean more targeted ads for the right demographic of consumers.

If we compare TuboTax’s income spread above to H&R Block’s income spread below, you can easily see how H&R Block’s message of maximized refunds rings true for each income group equally. While this makes media spend an easier task for H&R Block, it could also mean their ads are not nearly as targeted toward one demographic or another.

Below is an optional free-response, consumer-generated word cloud covering every TurboTax ad that has been nationally aired and scored this tax season (nine ads in total and counting…). You are likely to notice how the word “taxes” is a neutral color, indicating that, despite consumers’ general dislike for taxes, TurboTax’s celebratory ad campaign is helping consumers find the emotional appeal. This is also obvious with the word “good” being positively mentioned in 12% of the optional verbatims. (However, it is also worth addressing the word “boring” in bright red. This pitfall is not exclusive to TurboTax, but every tax brand shares the plight of taxes being, well, boring.)

While we are still several months from that April deadline, there is still plenty of time for Intuit’s TurboTax to get consumers in the celebratory mood. H&R Block, TurboTax’s biggest competition, is airing a campaign focused around how much money their services can save you. While their video ad campaign is not nearly as emotionally appealing, it is still positively rated from our surveyed consumers.

We are looking forward to watching what Intuit does with their 30-seconds of big game fame in a couple weeks. We will be live tweeting Super Bowl ad Ace Scores as they air, so be sure to follow us on game day.

 

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