Phenomenon, the L.A.-based “ideation company” founded by former DDB Worldwide CSO Krishnan Menon in 2006, won the assignment for Intuit’s corporate brand account after a three-month creative review.
The shop does sometimes work on more traditional campaigns like last year’s “Nothing Without It” for Wilson Sporting Goods, but a client spokesperson tells us that the work assigned to Phenomenon will be more about innovations and activations.
The win will also not affect Intuit’s relationships with the agencies assigned to work on its key products, TurboTax and QuickBooks.
From the client:
“This process and the work Phenomenon is driving does not include advertising for Intuit or any of our brands including, TurboTax or QuickBooks. They will be helping on the strategic and creative side to help amplify our brand.”
The client is still in the process of onboarding Phenomenon, which will not be handling any of its projects for Super Bowl 50. That said, Intuit will indeed have a large presence during the game thanks to both its W+K-produced spot (which will be an extension of the “Genius” campaign that launched in December) and its “Small Business, Big Game” contest.
The company revealed the three finalists for that contest in November, with the winning company’s ad to be produced by RPA.
As to what specific form Phenomenon’s assignment will take, we can only guess at this point as its projects seem to run from events and partnerships to retail activations and web/UX design. The agency describes its own work as such:
“Our work manifests itself through four main types of innovation: marketing, customer experiences, culture, and digital. We also have extensive experience in designing and negotiating partnerships between brands (or properties) with similar ‘cultural DNAs.'”
So…definitely not TV spots.