Initiative | Agency Profile, Contacts, AOR, Client Relationships

• The agency is working on a new global platform, strategy, and series of campaigns, the first of which will launch nationwide during its next fiscal year, which will fall between August 2023-July 2024.
  • Rather than go into platform production immediately, QuickBooks will spend the rest of 2023 evaluating many of FCB's ideas, testing them, and optimizing them ahead of its expected 2024 launch.
  • Therefore, this year is the time to get in touch to secure ad dollars from the upcoming initiative.
• FCB will lead marketing efforts for QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payroll, QuickBooks Payments, and QuickBooks Time.
• The agency is reportedly tasked with increasing awareness of the ways in which QuickBooks's products can help its customers succeed.
  • The brand is shifting away from just being an accounting tool and toward positioning itself ass "an entire ecosystem of small business tools," reportedly.
• The shift concludes a review that kicked off in February.
• It replaces TBWA\Chiat\Day, QuickBooks's incumbent agency partner since 2017.
• The brand will likely:
  • Shift strategy
  • Make forays into additional channels, particularly additional digital channels such as OTT and/or Twitter.
  • Continue increasing digital spend, especially once the new campaign launches
  • Seek additional new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • B2B: Business DMs, especially those at small businesses in need of operations management as well as just QuickBooks's accounting software
  • Consumers: Gen-Z and millennials

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, QuickBooks has spent approximately $26.8m on national TV commercials, only about half of the approximately $52.2m spent within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • Last year: In 2022, the brand spent around $64.9m on this channel after having spent 10% less, around $58.9m, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: QuickBooks's 2023 commercials have targeted the male-skewed audience of shows such as NFL Football, NBA Basketball, Women's College Basketball, America's Newsroom, and Special Report With Bret Baier.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The brand has allocated roughly $35.2m toward digital ads YTD, more than triple the roughly $10.4m allocated by this point last year.
  • YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, QuickBooks has earned ~4.8b digital impressions via Facebook (51%), Instagram (42%), YouTube (4%), desktop display (1%), desktop video (1%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
  • Last year: The brand's estimated full-year 2022 spend of $22m decreased slightly (3%) from that of $22.6m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • QuickBooks utilizes Google Ads along with radio (though barely), digital, local broadcast, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and online video (primarily via Youtube.com) ads.
  • The brand holds planning conversations in Q2 and buying conversations in Q1.
  • Among QuickBooks's top sponsored podcasts are NPR News Now, The Glenn Beck Program, Dateline NBC, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and Up First.
  • The brand also invests in short-form DRTV ads.
    • It has very highly concentrated network TV coverage and will not likely launch a new campaign soon.
      • QuickBooks's top TV networks include TDC, NBCS, MTV, REELZ, and VICE.

Additional agency insights: