This project started out as a small, Canadian campaign about the relationships between small business owners and their accountants.
However, it quickly caught the eye of QuickBooks’ global team, and soon the campaign was being blown up across the globe, including the United States, France, Australia, India, and the United Kingdom:
100s of deliverables in an integrated campaign. 7 countries. 1 concept.
And I was lucky enough to create and lead the approach.
AGENCY McMillan
ROLE
Creation of Go-to-market Campaign Concept and Direction, Video Direction, Photography Direction, Copy Direction.
Quickbooks Canada wanted to show their small business customers that working with an accountant would make their business better. As an art director at McMillan, I was tasked to come up with the idea and approach for this campaign, lead its design, and direct its flow across the campaign.
Approach
The idea revolved around a relationship: small business owners and their accountants are a perfect match. Accountants can be the Watson to their Sherlock Holmes.
They are someone who frees up your time so you could get back to focussing on what you do best.
What better way to show this than with real pairs of small business owners with their accountants?
Honest and playful copy overlay the pairs to quickly tell the viewer their story, both as individuals and how they connect together. This friendly and authentic storytelling is the steady beat that you’ll find across the full global campaign.
Capturing the Story
I flew to Toronto, Boise, Idaho and Memphis, Tennessee with a video/photo team to capture the “perfect pairs” in their own worlds. We set up in the small business owners’ shops where I directed and spoke with them about their relationships with their accountant. It was a pleasure seeing them laugh, share stories together, and see many of the benefits of their business relationships first-hand. We followed up with a photoshoot and testimonial sheets which were used for hero shots and support graphics across all the digital and print products.
“Hiring an accountant has given my team the gift of time. Time to focus on our business, but also time to have a greater work-life balance.”
Jordan Bradburn, Owner of the Bradburn Group Inc.
Getting the consistent beat
I wrote and assembled a 26- page photography production guide to direct the campaigns for India, Australia, France and the U.K. It included everything the national teams would need to produce shots of their own regional pairs, including the goals of the campaign, what equipment to rent, how to set up the studio, what wardrobe considerations should be kept in mind, testimonial sheets for great copy, and post production step-by-steps.
QuickBooks reported that they saw great results from the Find-an-Accountant campaign, and has extended its use by over a year. It’s still being used globally today.
