Intuit Social Campaigns Inspire Consumers to Spread the Word
In order to continue to grow its business by increasing brand awareness and acquire new customers, Intuit created new ways for people to engage with its flagship brands. The Small Business United campaign and TurboTax SuperStatus contest created new opportunities to energize promoters, connect them with others like them to share their experiences and to amplify their voices across social networks.At Intuit, energizing customers by enabling them to talk about the company's products with their friends is a mix of flash and substance. Intuit mixes innovation and creativity with information and resources that actually help consumers and small businesses put more money in their pockets. It gives the company's brands life and relevancy to customers and to their network of friends, co-workers and colleagues.
Engaging promoters has always been part of how Intuit does business – it is a company built on word-of-mouth. Intuit understands that the opinion of a friend who uses one of its products is the most powerful endorsement the company can get. In fact, engaging consumers via social media is a companywide priority.
The challenge for Intuit is how to continue to find new, meaningful ways to encourage existing and potential customers to interact with its brands. The Small Business United campaign and TurboTax SuperStatus contest, both launched in Jan. 2009, were built on key insights garnered from Intuit's prior social media successes, including user communities and ground-breaking social-media campaigns.
Both programs delivered strong business results. Small Business United contributed to a 12 percent increase in financial management unit sales. The TurboTax SuperStatus contest contributed to a 36 percent increase in TurboTax Online unit sales. At the same time, both helped Intuit learn more about the people who participated, created opportunities to reach out to them beyond the campaigns and generated improved SEO results.
What it is and how it works
- Free software and services from Intuit valued at nearly $1,000 per small business to help them succeed.
- $50,000 in donations to organizations that help budding entrepreneurs and advise existing businesses looking to grow.
- $315,000 in small business grants. 2,000 stories were submitted. 50 finalists each received a $5,000 grant and created videos telling their personal business stories. Judges selected the grand prize and runner-up winners based on quality, creativity and public ratings.
Intuit's Consumer Group launched the TurboTax SuperStatus contest, engaging consumers across Facebook, MySpace and Twitter by asking them to use their status updates to answer a series of questions. For example, one question during the presidential inauguration was, "If you were president, what would you make tax deductible?" One response: "I am a rock goddess and I declare liposuction should be tax deductible." Contestants were judged by the creativity of their responses, relevance to the question and ability to get the word out on social networks. The winners received more than $100,000 in cash and prizes, with a $25,000 grand prize.
How does this entry accomplish business or non-profit goals?
Together, these campaigns drove increase in awareness, familiarity and purchase intent for Intuit's two flagship offerings: QuickBooks and TurboTax.The Small Business United campaign generated more than 1.2 million site visits. The grant competition resulted in nearly 2,000 stories submitted and over 30,000 ratings of the stories by other businesses. Additionally, Small Business United made up 12% of all of Intuit small business online conversations and 90% of it was positive.
Overall, more than 10,000 people participated in the TurboTax SuperStatus campaign. The campaign generated 165 million impressions, which drove an estimated 100,000 people to SuperStatusContest.com. Based on survey data, the contest created a 10 percent lift in purchase intent (vs. control) among those who directly participated in the contest.