Advertising Age: H&R Block vs. TurboTax: Who Had a Better Media Strategy?

Two brands enter. One brand leaves. It's Mad Max Thunderdome, for tax brands . . . but without Tina Turner.

Advertising Age ranks Dailey/Initiative/Intuits work versus H&R Block's agencies' execution in this article. and we're thrilled at the overall results.

SOME EXCERPTS:

"TurboTax, given its base of e-commerce sales and history as a heavy online user, showed a lot of digital savvy in social media, online display and search. Its TV strategy with NBC Universal was a highlight."

"In February TurboTax teamed up with NBC Universal to deliver one of the most innovative broadcast-partnership programs of the year. The unique deal, worth an estimated $20 million, integrated NBC programs and talent into TurboTax commercials and gave NBC Universal creative ownership. It developed custom TV spots for nine different TV shows on six different NBCU networks."

"TurboTax's 2009 social-media approach involved Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Two notable programs were Freeloader Nation and Super Status."

" TurboTax was the first advertiser to use ad units throughout Google's AdSense network to send clicks to its Twitter page."

Check out the full article for head to head comparisions in Social Media, Online Display, Promotions, TV, Mobile, and Print.

5 Ways TurboTax Is Reinventing Tax Day With Social Media

It's tax day, and we're proud to be part of the success that Intuit has been recognized for this year as a leader in innovative social initiatives. Here's an article on Social Media Today that highlights some of Dailey's social work for the TurboTax brand.

On another note, for the first time in AOL history, the masthead logo has been "taken over" by a sponsor . . . you guessed it: TurboTax.

Read the AdWeek article here . . . but ONLY if you've finished eFiling with the IRS.

An Insight Into Insights

Much of the time agencies/marketers spend talking to consumers involves gauging responses to work in progress. Such an approach serves an immediate purpose – namely, finding out whether the work is “on target” – but on balance, it’s likely a superficial exercise. We don’t really get inside the consumer’s head as much as we could.

This article in the NY Times about Disney’s efforts to find out what drives boys ages 6 – 14 reveals a different approach. Far from superficial, they deep dive into boys’ lives – literally into their bedrooms: looking under their beds, at the back of their bookshelves and into their dressers. It's nothing new, by any standard, but what's refreshing is Disney’s willingness to commit 18 months to the process. This is, after all, a company driven by quarterly profits. But the more they dig, the more they find. In other words, taking a longer view, they're getting a bigger picture.

It’s an old advertising truth that to get people to talk about you, first you must talk about them. Gleaning the insights that drive strong communications is little different. We have to start with the consumers first, not ourselves...

> read the full article

Ever wonder who's on Facebook? Is it still primarily college kids? Has it surpassed MySpace? The answers are NO and YES.

Click the link to see how this has quickly become the largest social network. The latest statistics about Facebook, by Facebook, posted today.

Twitter and Status Update Hysteria

Here's a series we've worked with Mashable.com to develop in concert with our SuperStatus.com campaign for Intuit—the first social media contest that uses status updates to answer challenges.

April 8th, 2009 | by Jennifer Van Grove

Every time you change your status on instant messenger or send a tweet, you’re taking advantage of the simplicity and power of status updates. How did status updates begin and how have they evolved since their first iterations?

For a brief historical analysis of how the status update as we currently know it has evolved from an early form of instant messaging in the 60s to the multifaceted, rich-media update of today, we’ll take you back in time and highlight some of the important milestones as short-form messages transitioned from static to status.

A LOOK BACK

The rise of the status update in popularity has been a long time coming. Before you could tweet, update your Facebook status, or even edit continue

Dailey/Intuit First Advertiser to use New Google Twitter Unit

Dailey has worked with leading innovators at Intuit to help develop advertising for a new Google AdSense option that harnesses Twitter. Here's an excerpt:

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Twitter may still be tweaking its own business model, but Google has found a way to use the popular microblogging service to sell ads.


When a user clicks on an ad from Google, it takes them to TurboTax's Twitter page.

The search giant has started offering marketers ad units that stream their five most recent "tweets" across the Google AdSense network. The first marketer to use the ad units is Intuit, whose TurboTax brand is trying to boost its Twitter followers. Intuit used several of the measures available for any AdSense campaign to target the ads, which are running on sites such as Bebo, Facebook, Hi5, MySpace and Alltop.
"It's syndicating whatever the team that works on the TurboTax Twitter account [@turbotax] posts," said Seth Greenberg, director of marketing at Intuit. When a user clicks on an ad it takes them not to TurboTax.com but to twitter.com/turbotax. read the full article