A Charming Giant Robot Puts a 'Human' Face on Intuit in Brand's Super Bowl Push
Brand Tells Its Story Through Lens of Pixar-Style Character
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Intuit is getting animated in its first Super Bowl commercial promoting the corporate brand. The Super Bowl ad itself is only 15 seconds, but it will attempt to drive viewers to the four-minute short film above.
The company debuted the film, "A Giant Story," on Thursday. Its goal is to showcase how the company's products, which include TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mint, can work together to help people be more prosperous.
The film introduces Pari, an engineer and entrepreneur who watches her friend Pete struggle as the owner of a small flower shop. She becomes inspired to create an Intuit Giant for Pete, which helps him manage the finances of his company so he can focus on growing his business.
"This is a crazy time right now, #MeToo and Trump and tax reform, it's a tense time," says Intuit's chief marketing officer, Lucas Watson. "We are a company that's been historically very humble, we are very customer-driven, customer-obsessed, we think we have a pretty clean track record on our ethics and our values. We take our relationship with our clients super seriously. We are one of the best places to work for women. We had permission to stand up and say for all the bad in the world there are a very good stories going on. So we think the time is right."
Intuit was careful when creating its characters and premise for the film, wanting to make sure the story was inclusive both from a gender point of view and ethnicity.
"We had debates about the role and portrayal of the protagonist," Watson says.
The hero of the spot is an Indian entrepreneur and engineer, which Watson says reflects the workforce at Intuit, where 37% of its engineers are women and 40% of the leadership team is female.
And the giant character, which comes in to make it easier for business owners to manage their finances, is androgynous. "It doesn't have a name and we wanted to stay away from gender stereotypes in either direction," Watson says.
While Watson says they thought through all of these points, they weren't trying to make a social statement.
Aside from generating awareness for Intuit's brands among consumers, Watson says they are also using the spot to attract employees from the likes of the Procter & Gambles and Googles of the world. And it is also meant as a rallying cry for Intuit's own employees, Watson says.
Intuit worked with agency-of-record Phenomenon on the spot. The animation was created by Passion Animation Studios, the studio behind the Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning 2015 Spanish Christmas Lottery campaign, "Justino."
Credits
- Date
- Feb 01, 2018
- Brand :
- Intuit
- Client :
- Intuit
- Agency :
- Phenomenon
- Chief Marketing Officer :
- Lucas Watson
- Global Inuit Marketing Director :
- Lauren Staford-Webb
- Group Marketing Manager :
- Ed Brinkman
- Group Marketing Manager :
- Jake Witman
- Senior Marketing Manager :
- Lina Reeth
- Senior Marketing Manager :
- David Jacobs
- Founder and Chief Executive Offier :
- Krishnan Menon
- President :
- Erica Hoholick
- Chief Creative Officer :
- Chris Adams
- Creative Director :
- Brandon Sides
- Creative Director :
- Ted Kapusta
- Associate Creative Director Writer :
- Spencer Cook
- Associate Creative Director Writer :
- Scott Hanson
- Senior Art Director :
- Shawn Coogan
- Senior Art Director :
- Zachary Smith
- Director, Integrated Production :
- Chris Kyriakos
- Senior Integrated Producer :
- Julie Rousseau
- Integrated Producer :
- Karin Ostrander
- Senior Integrated Producer, Digital :
- Jenny Court
- Jr. Integrated Producer, Digital :
- Anoosh Voltaire-Behi
- Senior Designer :
- Nic Brenden
- Designer :
- Seth Stephan
- Senior Post Producer :
- Josh Abbott
- Assistant Editor :
- Evan Sartory
- Print Producer :
- Laurie Bloom
- Studio Manager :
- Celine Nahas
- Senior Business Affairs Manager :
- Nancy Espinal
- Chief Strategy Officer :
- Jason De Turris
- Group Planning Director :
- Michael Allen
- Group Brand Director :
- Jenn Cook
- Brand Director :
- Jamie Friedman
- Brand Development Supervisor :
- Amanda Tutora
- Assistant Brand Manager :
- Amber Style
- Production Company :
- Passion Animation Studios
- Director :
- AAO
- Executive Producer :
- Debbie Crosscup
- Head of Production :
- Mike Turoff
- Producer :
- Adriana Piasek-Wanski
- Production Manager :
- Steve Riley
- Production Assistant :
- Paige Sullivan
- CG Coordinator :
- Joost Zoetebier
- CG Coordinator :
- Suzanne Forward
- CG Coordinator :
- Sade Tah
- Head of CG :
- Jason Nicholas
- Visual Effects Supervisor :
- Dave Walker
- CG Supervisor :
- Chritian Mills
- CG Supervisor :
- David Roman
- Creative Director :
- Christian Mills
- Animation Supervisor :
- Catherine Elvidge
- Animation Supervisor :
- Aldo Gagliardi
- Compositing Lead :
- Andre Bittencourt
- Editing :
- Daniel Budin
- Music Company :
- Good Ear Music Supervision
- Artist :
- Freedom Fry
- Sound Design Company :
- Therapy Studios
- Sound Design :
- Eddie Kim
- Picture Finish :
- The Mission Studios
- Audio Finish :
- Lime Studios
- Audio Engineer :
- Rohan Young
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