• NEWS
    • Agencies
    • Brand Marketing
    • Creativity
    • Digital
    • Programmatic
    • TV / Video
    • FEATURED
    • Challenger Brands
    • Inside the Brand
    • Ad of the Day
    • CES
    • Sponsored
  • EVENTS
    • FEATURED
      • Elevate AI 2019
      • March 21, 2019
        New York
    • COMING SOON
    • Adweek Media All-Stars
    • Fastest-Growing Agencies
    • View All Events
  • WEBINARS
    • FEATURED
      • The Front Line of Customer Experience
      • Tue, Feb 19, 2019
        1 PM EST
    • COMING SOON
    • CMO Tenure Data Is the Secret to Agency Business Development
    • The Definitive Approach to Advanced Media Measurement
    • View All Webinars
  • CONNECT
    • Media Kit
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Agency Memberships
    • Group Subscriptions
    • Newsletters
    • Contact Us
    • ADVERTISE WITH US
    • Brand Awareness
    • Thought Leadership
    • Lead Generation
    • ADWEEK NETWORK
    • AgencySpy
    • MarketerMoves​
    • Social Pro Daily​
    • TVNewser
    • TVSpy
  • ADWEEK JOBS
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • CURRENT OFFER
    • Unlimited Job Postings
My Account Log Out Sign In Subscribe

The Big Game

Intuit Launches Its First Brand Campaign With a Beautiful Animated Short About 2 Small Business Owners

Includes a 15-second Super Bowl spot

By Erik Oster
|
February 1, 2018
Intuit
Share
By Erik Oster
|
February 1, 2018
Share

Silicon Valley software giant Intuit has been around 35 years ago—so why is it launching its first corporate brand campaign now?

The company has long supported two of its biggest brands, QuickBooks and TurboTax, with national ad campaigns. Yet few know that Intuit is behind both of those products in addition to web-based financial management service Mint.

Chief marketing officer Lucas Watson said corporate brand recognition is low despite the fact that Intuit’s services have a combined 46 million customers. “Even among people who use our products, only four out of every thousand use two or more,” he told Adweek—and that’s something Intuit wants to address given recent advancements to integrate its programs, which function better when used together.

Watson said Intuit CEO Brad Smith wanted to start telling the corporate brand story back in 2012, but the product integration and creative weren’t quite there yet, so the project was delayed. Now the wait has ended with the debut of a four-minute animated short which Watson describes as having a “Pixar storytelling style.”

Intuit worked with brand agency of record Phenomenon to animate its message, which Watson and global corporate marketing director Lauren Stafford sum up as “powering prosperity around the world.”

Around a year ago, Phenomenon came up with the idea of using a giant robot to represent the power of Intuit’s services and soon settled on animation as the best way to tell the brand’s story. “[Animation] allowed us to create a metaphorical world instead of confusing it with the real world and sweat the details of how characters are developed and to tell the emotional arc in an inspiring way,” said chief creative officer Chris Adams.

Phenomenon partnered with production company Passion Animation Studios, which may be best known for its Chipotle and Spanish Lottery campaigns, to create the short film debuting today on platforms including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. A 15-second broadcast ad running during Super Bowl LII features characters from the long-form spot and drives viewers back to the full film. The social media component of the campaign also includes a custom Snapchat filter starring the Intuit Giant.

“A Giant Story” uses the robot as a metaphor for the way Intuit’s services harness data and technology to make the complex simple for its customers, Watson said. It humanizes the brand’s story via the tale of a flower shop owner named Pete, who is too bogged down in the minutiae of running a business to enjoy his passion, and Pari, an engineer and entrepreneur who is inspired to help him by building the Intuit Giant.

The fact that “A Giant Story” focuses on a self-employed small business owner is not incidental. The campaign specifically targets freelancers, small business owners and other self-employed individuals.

“There are 750 million people who work for themselves around the world who juggle managing their finances while pursuing their passions,” Watson said in a statement. “With today’s economy, and the pressures of managing time and money, sometimes it can seem like the odds are stacked against them. But Intuit exists to work for them.”

Adams explained that soon after Watson arrived as Intuit CMO in the summer of 2016, he said, “If there’s ever a time to do a brand campaign about the power of the ecosystem and the power of Intuit, now is the time.”

While Phenomenon originally began working with the client as more of a digital and strategy partner, Adams explained that Watson gave the agency a month to come back with an idea for a brand campaign telling a complete corporate brand story.

“That’s really … the business we’re in. It’s what we’re driven for and it’s what we’re building Phenomenon to be,” Adams said. “It was the first time that they’d seen the total story of Intuit and the ecosystem in a way that is also empowering for the cornerstone brands and what they do.”

Pages: 1 2

Share
http://adweek.it/2nvAZ1t

Erik Oster

@ErikDOster
Erik Oster is a staff writer for Adweek.

Popular Now

  • 1
    This Ad Captures the One Thing Every Millennial’s Dad Does
  • 2
    10 Royalty-Free Music Sites Every Online Video Creator Should Know
  • 3
    The 25 Best Ads of 2018
  • 4
    Subaru Highlights the Joys, Anxieties and Lifelong Memories of Owning a Forester
  • 5
    Ogilvy Announces Another Restructuring in the Latest Phase of Its ‘Next Chapter’

Featured Jobs

Account Strategist
Warehouse Twenty One, Inc.
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Anchor
KSFY
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Vice President, Brand and Consumer Marketing
NFL
New York, New York
Editorial Director
UCLA
LOS ANGELES, California
New Business Sales Executive
Thomson Reuters
New York, New York
See More Jobs
Adweek Adweek Adweek

EDITOR'S PICKS

Leadership & Talent

How the Lee Clow Talent Tree Spreads Far and Wide in Advertising and Creativity

by Doug Zanger

Leadership & Talent

Ogilvy Announces Another Restructuring in the Latest Phase of Its 'Next Chapter'

by Patrick Coffee

AdFreak

Thanks to Ancestry, Six Strangers Learn How They're Connected Via the Underground Railroad

by Shannon Miller

Brand Marketing

Nascar Hopes Marketing a New Generation of Drivers Can Lure Fans Back to the Sport

by Jameson Fleming

Streaming & OTT

NBA Superstars Are Here to Remind You That Hulu Has Live Sports Available for Streaming

by Sara Jerde

Agencies

Volkswagen Names Johannes Leonardo Lead Creative Agency in the U.S.

by Patrick Coffee

AdFreak

BMW Creates a Folk Hero for the Modern Age: the Unstoppable, Mysterious Ol' McLanden

by Amy Corr

AdFreak

This Ad Captures the One Thing Every Millennial's Dad Does

by David Griner
View Latest News >
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Media Kit
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Sponsor Content
    • Jobs
  • Subscriptions
    • Subscription Options
    • Digital App
    • Newsletters
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Customer Service
  • Awards / Honors / Events
    • Awards and Honors
    • Adweek Events
    • Webinars
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Trophies / Awards / Seals
  • Publications
    • Adweek Network
    • RSS
    • Backissues
    • Reprints / E-Prints
  • © 2019 Adweek, LLC. - All Rights Reserved
  • About Adweek
  • Contact Us
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy