Intuit promotes its suite of products with engaging entrepreneurial animation

Intuit Video

Most people know of QuickBooks and TurboTax, but until last year, many may not have known the name of the company behind those popular financial help products.

With the release of its latest brand campaign, Intuit puts a stake in the ground as the go-to ecosystem of financial products – QuickBooks, TurboTax and Mint – with an animated tale of an entrepreneur who uses those products to get her business and her financial life in order.

The 60-second spot, ‘A Prosperity Story,’ a girl named Luisa sits in her father’s coffee shop, designing a hat and coffee cups. When a customer gives her a tip, a new entrepreneur is made. She is seen selling the design on clothes at a street stand, where she loses receipts to the wind. Knowing she needs a better way, she is visited by the Intuit giant – a character introduced in last year’s campaign during a four minute film. The giant shows her positive cash flow through QuickBooks, financial health and tax cuts with TurboTax and financial management with Mint. She finds a storefront and is on her way to her version of prosperity.

Intuit states that it fundamentally believes that everyone deserves, but many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, where even the smallest emergency can send a family into financial crisis. Half of all small businesses fail, according to the company.

“Everyone deserves a prosperous life, but the path to prosperity not easy for everyone,” Lauren Stafford-Webb, head of global corporate marketing for Intuit told The Drum. “We’re committed to turning those realities around. Intuit provides the financial tools so people can take control of their financial realities.

“The giant is a metaphor showing the power of our products,” she continued, stating that those products are powered by the company’s continuous data and advanced technology. “We’re working on behalf of our customers, giving them the confidence they need.”

The reason that Intuit chose an entrepreneur for its tale is that it brings it to a personal level. Stafford-Webb said that all people have some level of challenging financial problems, and that there are 750 million people around world who work for themselves in some way. They all need to manage their finances while following their passions. The commercial animation demonstrates how Intuit can use its suite of products to work on their behalf.

The campaign was created and produced by Intuit’s agency of record, Phenomenon and the film was directed by Against All Odds of Oscar-winning production company Passion Animation Studios.

To get to the story the team worked with, Intuit spent a lot of time with its customers, researching all over the country to find out how people dealt with their financial lives. “The truth (we found) is that people have passions in their lives and are working super hard to achieve prosperity for them. They’re going out on their own, managing their finances. That was really inspirational to us,” said Stafford-Webb.

She added that the first animated campaign exceeded expectations, with 25 million views, and a view-through rate on YouTube that went past the average movie trailer. The name recognition for Intuit is still an ongoing process and one that doesn’t happen overnight.

“We are a 35-year-old company. For the first 33 years, we were building our product brands,” said Stafford-Webb, adding that with people seeing Intuit as the umbrella company, there is relevance. “Knowing the ecosystem of the products, they know they can work seamlessly across them with confidence…It’s only year two for the Intuit brand. We do have a journey ahead of building equity in the brand.”

Intuit also had a 30-second ad, ‘Power of Giants’, in the AFC and NFC championship games, and it plans to unveil 60-second ‘A Prosperity Story’ during the Grammys. The media buy will then cover other big events, plus integrated television, online and social elements.

On social media, Intuit is inviting its customers to tell the company what prosperity means to them. Luisa was decided on as a character after the company talked with numerous self-employed artists. For many of those people, said Stafford-Webb, it was getting to live the life they want, and the company decided to champion that dedication, while providing the tools for people to live that life.

Scoring the film is a newly debuted song by Raiche, an up-and-coming Latina singer-songwriter who identifies with the spot’s protagonist, Luisa, from her own self-determination to achieve her goals as a musical artist. The song in the spot is called Shine, and Stafford-Webb said the walking beat helped create the drive behind Luisa.

Article source: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/02/08/intuit-promotes-its-suite-products-with-engaging-entrepreneurial-animation

Vitaminwater Challenge: Ditch Smartphone For A Year, Win $100K

by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily

Vitaminwater is generating lots of social action with a novel contest that will give one individual the chance to win $100,000… if he or she can refrain from using a smartphone for 365 days.

Those who believe they can endure such a test can enter by posting their description of what a year without a smartphone would look like, using #NoPhoneForAYear and #contest, on Twitter or Instagram between now and Jan. 8, 2019.

Judges will pick the winning contestant based on originality/creativity, brand relevance, humor and submission quality.

But that’s just the first hurdle. To get the $100K, the contestant will have to promise to forego smartphone use for a year — and pass a lie detector test to verify that adherence at the end of the 12 months.

If the contestant fails to reach a year, but manages the feat for at least six months, he or she will still get $10,000. But cracking before six months will mean zero prize money.

Vitaminwater isn’t outlawing all phone usage during the challenge.

To enable calls and texting, it’s supplying the contestant with a throwback, non-smart Nokia 3310: “the most popular phone in 2000, when Vitaminwater launched.” That model was chosen “as a subtle nod to simpler days when the term ‘scrolling’ had not yet entered our lexicon,” explained the brand.

The entry posts (an individual may enter up to four times) are multiplying on the contest’s #NoPhoneForAYear Twitter page.

Intriguing promotion concept — but what’s the connection with the brand’s marketing mission?

The Coca-Cola Company brand “shook up” the water market when it launched by introducing “flavor, color, vitamins and fun,” and it’s still looking to “challenge the monotony,” said Vitaminwater Associate Brand Manager Natalia Suarez.

“There are a lot of people that are guilty of mindlessly scrolling because it’s the norm,” she added. “We see this as an opportunity to take a stance against routine, in a way that reflects Vitaminwater’s ‘personality with a purpose’” brand message.

Here’s a promotional video being used to convey the message and drive entries:

Article Source: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/329295/vitaminwater-challenge-ditch-smartphone-for-a-yea.html

Creating an Emotional Connection with Customers

Social Media, Management — Image Source: Convenience Store Decisions

By John Lofstock

It’s no secret that we are experiencing unprecedented times across retail.

Customers now have access to anything and everything they want in seconds right from their smartphones. Delivery is available on demand for everything from a new car to breakfast sandwiches.

Frictionless retail, where customers can walk into a store, pick up what they want and walk right out—completely bypassing the checkout counter and those important impulse sales—is not only here, it’s expanding to markets around the country.

Amazon and Google have developed devices that allow customers to reorder products and have them delivered right to their front doors in a matter of hours with the simple push of a button. Scared yet? You should be. When you combine these growing trends with other concerning issues, such as the FDA’s assault on tobacco and the growth of electric cars and alternative fuels, which are curbing visits to the convenience store, concerns abound.

All hope is not lost, according to Justin Champion, author of “Inbound Content: A Step-by-Step Guide to Doing Content Marketing.” That’s because customers respond to emotional connections. That’s why convenience stores must work harder at creating a story for your brand that resonates with your customers.

“Stories create emotion and emotion is what people remember,” Champion said. “They help you engage and, more importantly, remind customers who you are, what your values are and why you’re a good business for your community.”

People are bombarded with messages these days. Google processes over 3.8 million searches per minute. That’s a lot of people looking for information. This is happening because the way people buy has changed.

For retailers, the message is clear: You must provide…Continue reading

Article source: https://cstoredecisions.com/2018/12/03/creating-an-emotional-connection-with-customers/

Let’s Get Visual: Five Tips to Visually Market Your Restaurant

Restaurants, Marketing, Management — Image source: Modern Restaurant Management

By Shem Szot

In today’s world, it’s all about the visuals.

In restaurants especially, visual marketing is crucial in growing and maintaining a customer base, and keeping them hungry for more. How can you make the most of your restaurant’s visual presence?

Create #Food

As of the time of this writing, there are well over 170 million posts on Instagram under #food, and over 75 million posts to #foodporn. And that number will only continue to grow. People are increasingly choosing restaurants to visit based on their social media presence, and just as many are taking pics of the food they order and posting it online. The way your food looks online is incredibly important.

visual

Choose a selection of your top dishes, and hire a professional food photographer to take the shots, and share them on your website and social media platforms. Sharing photos on social media can be a great way to advertise new dishes, drink or food specials, upcoming events and more.

Maximize Your Space

If your walls could talk, what would they say? The interior and exterior of your restaurant space is filled with opportunities for further cementing your brand and engaging customers. Get creative with your space: hire an artist to paint a visually stunning mural, hang chalkboards on the walls or use erasable decals to list daily specials or list your social media hashtags on the front of your menus. Try floor decals pointing customers towards the restrooms, artistic window signage that advertises happy hour specials or badges and customized t-shirts for staff to wear that support your brand.

Continue reading: https://www.modernrestaurantmanagement.com/lets-get-visual-five-tips-to-visually-market-your-restaurant/

How David’s Bridal is revamping the online experience to drive people into stores

Fast fashion has lit a fire under David’s Bridal, incentivizing the 60-year-old retailer to modernize its approach to customer acquisition.At the center of its new digital strategy: The company’s 330-strong store network. To compete with digitally native companies newer to bridal, like Asos, Reformation and Topshop, David’s Bridal is improving its online messaging to drive customers to make appointments for an in-store visit, where the conversion rate is 50 percent higher.

To do so, the company worked with the agency January Digital to restructure its customer data system into a single-view platform, building an online marketing strategy geared around driving customers into stores. According to Diana Takach, head of digital at David’s Bridal, the new approach had three goals: to get more customers to make appointments online, to increase revenue and to get more customers to sign up for email newsletters.

“We’re a traditional retailer — we’re talking about customer information being collected on paper, in binders,” said Diana Takach, David’s Bridal’s head of digital. “But fast fashion is happening now in bridal, and it’s throwing people for a loop. It sounds like we’re late to the game, but it’s the industry. It’s been flipped on its head.”

David’s Bridal gathers a lot of customer information throughout the purchase journey, including wedding date, number of bridesmaids, dress style preference, communication preference and information on the mother of the bride. Before revamping its strategy, David’s Bridal’s customer data was scattered across store locations and online. By shifting the data in one place, it fleshed out a sequential marketing strategy, through paid posts on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat.

According to Takach, this increase in paid social was possible thanks to a reallocation of the performance marketing budget, by moving around underperforming spend. It also rearranged its annual media spend. The company used to heavily promote itself on radio and TV between January and April, piling 90 percent of its media budget into those four months, when the most brides we’re in planning mode. Now, the company has shifted its budget away from TV and radio, and distributed its reach evenly throughout the year.

With the goal of getting customers to make in-store appointments, David’s Bridal saw a 76 percent increase in appointments made this year over last, and a 20 percent increase in revenue driven by its e-commerce site. It also reported that 93 percent of customers who made appointments in-store made a purchase. (The company did not share specific figures).

The retailer considers the new strategy to be a better long-term investment than one-off customer acquisition with prompts like promotions.

“Digital is really crowded, so the question was: how do we drive results, especially when retail is so challenged offline?” said Takach.

Tierney Wilson, January Digital’s managing director, said that getting a clearer picture of customer data across channels led to David’s Bridal finding new ways to…Continue Reading

Article source: https://digiday.com/retail/davids-bridal-revamping-online-experience-drive-people-stores/

5 Instagram Marketing Trends We Will See in 2019

Artificial Intelligence, Social Media — Instagram has been growing since it was first launched eight years ago undefined – undefined/iStock

By Robert Katai

Instagram is one of the most important and most powerful marketing channels of our time. It is great for content marketing and paid advertising and, at the same time, for communication and customer service. It has the capacity to drive great engagement and better-than-average return on investment for a marketer, brand or agency.

Instagram has been growing since it was first launched eight years ago. As we can see from the following graph shared with us by Statista , the Facebook-owned photo- and video-sharing network reached a milestone of 1 billion monthly users in June.

This is an impressive number and, when it comes to marketing, impressive numbers are great. It means that you have access to a huge audience worldwide and, at the same time, due to this channel’s nature, you have access to a dedicated and engaged audience.

Moreover, there are more than 4 billion likes per day on Instagram, and each image posted on this platform gets an average of 23 percent more engagementthan its Facebook counterpart.

As a consequence, we need to constantly stay updated with all of Instagram’s latest developments and, of course, the trends that govern it. This is why, with this article, I am going to shed some light upon the most popular trends that are expected to rule Instagram marketing in 2019.

Also, I questioned some of my peers regarding this issue and, fortunately, I received a series of answers from marketers and professionals regarding their expectations for 2019.

IGTV will be a big player

Announced and launched in June, IGTV is the new video platform dedicated exclusively to mobile users. Unlike YouTube and other videostreaming platforms, IGTV is dedicated to vertical video playback and, therefore, suitable for marketers and content producers that are addressing a mobile only audience.

Why vertical? Instagram wants to encourage people to create video content but, at the same time, to do it exclusively for mobile. We already know that people are more likely to use their mobile devices in a vertical position, hence the type of video.

Are brands using IGTV already? Chipotle was one of the first companies to create and distribute a video on Instagram.

“If you’re still not on IGTV, it’s time to hop on the train,” said Plannable’s Vlad Callus. “When thinking about the upcoming trends in Instagram marketing I believe IGTV and Instagram Stories are on the top of the list. IGTV will become the new YouTube in three to five years, and if you’re joining now, you will catch the big wave.”

Other big brands are on IGTV, as well. SocialChain is producing and distributing a regular podcast. All of its episodes are also being…Continue Reading

Article source: https://www.adweek.com/digital/5-instagram-marketing-trends-we-will-see-in-2019/

Two Hotel Brands That Have Mastered Influencer Marketing

by Kristin Burnham

In the era of celebrity endorsements and the Insta-famous, influencer marketing is having a moment.

According to one report, 86% of marketers used influencer marketing in 2017, while half reported it outperformed brand-created content. For the travel and hospitality industry, influencer marketing has become a key tactic for tapping into communities of engaged followers to grow and build lasting relationships with customers.

Hilton Garden Inn and Marriott are two well-known brands that have used influencers as part of their marketing strategies.

How Hilton Garden Inn Taps Celebrity Influencers
The guest experience at Hilton Garden Inn isn’t just about the accommodations; it’s about fine dining, too.

When customer research revealed that the upscale hotel’s food and beverage offering was “a really unexpected and powerful way to raise the perception of the brand as a whole,” said Amy Martin-Ziegenfuss, VP of marketing for Hilton’s focused service brands, the company launched a campaign to revamp its menu through a public voting process in late May.

The brand tapped Dan Churchill, a Food Network television host, to kick off the campaign with a Food Network Facebook Live event, during which he revealed some of the offerings in contention for a spot on the menu. That event received more than 5.6 million views, Martin-Ziegenfuss said.

After the launch, the brand leveraged the Scripps Lifestyle network of influencers to create buzz around voting through Facebook and Twitter posts. The winning menu items were announced toward the end of August by actor Judy Greer, who was signed on in 2017 for a series of ads promoting its accommodations and food.

Collaborating with influencers can be hit or miss unless you have the proper pieces in place, Martin-Ziegenfuss said.

“It’s really important that you find the right partnership—and I say ‘partnership’ because it shouldn’t be transactional in nature,” she said. “Like any good relationship, if you put a lot of work into it from both sides, you yield greater results. If the influencers feel passionate and invested in the cause, they become advocates for the brand.”

Hilton Garden landed on Churchill and Greer because they embody the brand and have a following that reflects its consumer target, she said. It also considered how they paired with brands in the past, their points of view, and the types of content they create.

Also key was the freedom the brand gave Churchill and Greer to tell the story in a way that’s authentic to them, Martin-Ziegenfuss said. While it’s natural for marketers to want to…Continue Reading

Article source: https://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2018/8/24/influencer-marketing.html#gs.js7Bolg

Snapchat and Amazon: A New Mobile Commerce Pairing

By VICTORIA PALLIEN, Digital Media Solutions

Snapchat and Amazon recently united forces to direct consumers to Amazon’s e-commerce site from Snapchat’s social media platform and make headway in the market against competitors like Instagram and Pinterest.

How will the Snapchat-Amazon partnership affect the Snapchat app?

User experience

This collaboration introduced Snapchat’s visual search feature, which allows users to take photos of products or barcodes in real life, whether on the street or in a store. Snapchat then links the user to Amazon for purchase or price comparisons.

Revenue

Leaders in the marketing industry noted this partnership is a smart step for both brands as Snapchat provides a dedicated user base and Amazon offers a large e-commerce platform. For Snapchat, partnering with an e-commerce behemoth like Amazon allows the brand to save money and avoid building visual search technology in-house.

This collaboration may be an effort to increase monetization on the Snapchat platform. While the platform is growing and expected to welcome 1.2 million new users by 2022, eMarketer now predicts Snapchat will only generate $662.1 million this year, as opposed to the $1.03 billion eMarketer had estimated for 2018 last spring.

How will the Snapchat-Amazon partnership hold up against the competition?

While Instagram has been building its ad revenue through shopping tags in storiesand their new streaming service, IGTV, Snapchat has been working hard to compete. Alongside efforts like the Nielsen partnership and Snapchat Shopping, the Snapchat-Amazon partnership is the latest punch thrown.

Snapchat currently holds 0.6% of the U.S. digital ad market, according to eMarketer, but 2019 and 2020 may be better years for Snapchat’s revenue as its recent addition of new advertising tools may entice more marketers. This collaboration could also threat brick-and-mortar shops if Amazon attracts even more consumers through Snapchat’s user base.

Using Pinterest as a Tool to Build Brand Awareness, Engagement

Sprout Social, Social Media, Marketing — Image source: Hotel Business

BY CORRIS LITTLE | Hotel Business

CHICAGO—Social media has become a vital part of how people communicate and a key part of how hotel companies can extend the brand’s reach—from boutique to major chain hotels. Pinterest, in particular, remains a dominant social media platform, especially for hospitality brands. Why? Simply put: It’s good for business.

“Everyone is on in,” said Rachael Samuels, social media manager at Sprout Social. “There are 200 million people globally using Pinterest every month, which makes it a great social platform for business owners. Five percent of referral traffic comes from Pinterest. Marketers and business owners in hospitality can use it to strengthen their social media strategy as it’s an engaging platform.”

Pinterest is also highly visual; enabling hoteliers to curate and showcase various types of travel experiences they can offer to consumers. Additional exposure for the brands can come in the form of “repins,” which occurs when a person discovers something they like and repins it to their board, enabling other people to see it on their home feed on the platform.

Hoteliers can take advantage of the platform by becoming co-creators with travelers or social media influencers via Pinterest, building a wider reach for the brand’s offerings.

“It’s how you make connections through repining,” said Samuels. “It’s a two-way dialogue—the brand and consumer are connecting more than they have before. It gives more freedom to co-curate. Hotels can curate content to specific audiences and how their brand is being placed in different contexts. It can tell you about what consumers are doing with your content and they’re strong stakeholders in the evolution of brand identity and what it looks like long-term.”

Sprout Social is working with hotel brands to exploit Pinterest for maximum benefit. “We do that through Pinterest integration,” she said. “One of the first things you can do is create and publish content on Pinterest and manage it on a unified platform alongside other social media channels such as Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Pinterest—all at one time. Sprout facilitates team collaboration within a content calendar. We also provide powerful analytics and now Pinterest is a part of that. We can tell you what the top performing pins are and leverage it to get the most of your visual strategy.”

For hotel companies deciding whether or not to put time—and money—into marketing efforts on social media platforms, there are various ways to determine a return on investment.

“ROI is such a hot topic,” she said. “At Sprout Social, we believe that the ROI of social isn’t just in the form of dollar signs, it’s the various stages—awareness, consideration and engagement—of interaction with the posts. We offer access to reports, ranging from unique engagement to general performance, allowing a deep dive into the data. Clients can go high-level or granular on how audiences are interacting with content, performance and where it’s coming from and with whom.”

Sprout Social also offers a variety of paid tools to provide another view of a holistic social media strategy. “We help clients to understand the data,” she said. “The reports are elegant and visually accessible. The design team takes great care so it’s easier to digest.”

For hoteliers seeking to maximize their social media efforts, Samuels offer these recommendations:

Customer service: “They should be—and I hope they already are—paying attention to customer care,” she said. “Social media makes it easier to have a two-way dialogue and provide top-notch service. Being responsive and meeting customers where they are in their own environment is key. Sprout Social’s inbox makes it easy, so clients don’t miss critical moments and can handle reputation management, if anything negative comes about.”

Create content to be shared: “User generated content really taps into that with how Pinterest can make a consumer take brand-generated content over to them,” she said. “You can see what others are saying about the experience within the context they’re talking about it. It helps to build awareness and nowhere is that more important than in the hotel industry.”

Lend a listening ear: “It’s not just about analytics,” Samuels said. “Hotels are comprised of many aspects, there is the food, spa, fitness, the outdoor pool and maybe even a nightclub… listening into social and using listening tools to curate better content is paramount. If you realize that the people staying at your hotel are local, maybe dig deeper into a hashtag like #staycation and listen to the conversation. You can dig into the experiences that seem to be aspirational for the consumer and deliver it.”

Article source: https://www.hotelbusiness.com/web-excl-using-pinterest-as-a-tool-to-build-brand-awareness-engagement/