With creative executions including a daredevil skydive and high-speed stunt car drive, Intuit QuickBooks’ Making Tax Easy campaign was far from your typical B2B (finance and professional services) communications campaign.
On 01 April 2019, the UK government introduced Making Tax Digital (MTD), the biggest change to tax legislation in a generation, revolutionising business compliance.Despite this, our insight found that awareness and understanding was low, resulting in limited up-take among SMEs. There was an urgent need to engage SMEs to ensure they were set up with the technology to comply.
A champion of small business owners, Intuit QuickBooks sought to remind businesses of the pending deadline, back them on their digital journey and stand out as a trusted software partner in a fiercely competitive market by showing how easy tax returns online could be.
Ogilvy UK developed a campaign led by deep insight into SME behaviour combining bold creative thinking with original industry-leading thought leadership. Ogilvy partnered with SME influencers to do a skydive and a stunt car drive while attempting to complete a tax return, resulting in rich, shareable video content. This was backed by a research-led report revealing a multi-billion-pound opportunity for UK SMEs if they embraced digitisation. Drumbeat coverage drawing on research insights further drove our message home.
The campaign, a first-of-its kind for QuickBooks and the industry, drove 200+ pieces of coverage and increased SOV from 19% to 55% (YOY Aug 2018-July 2019). Importantly, the campaign drove real business results by increasing subscriber numbers by 44% for same period.
