Credit Karma Tax Campaign 2018-2019
Fast, furious, and fluid — with a trajectory being modified almost daily by analytics and stakeholders — the 2018–2019 Credit Karma Tax campaign was inspiring, challenging, demanding, and some serious fun.

Our Team
Myself, another copywriter, and two designers made up the Credit Karma Tax Creative Team. I collaborated with project managers, stakeholders, brand strategists, and the social media team to create marketing funnels and campaign briefs to guide our creative flow and execute on time.

Creative Flow
Our creative team conceived and constructed conceptual ideas that would function for a multitude of target audiences and across different verticals and mediums. I spearheaded presentations to the Credit Karma managerial team, collaborated with fellow creatives on content, and worked closely with designers to execute our ideas.

Idea Trajectory
We married whimsy with seriousness, gravity with lightheartedness, and cuteness with sincerity to craft messaging and detail product experiences. The result: Higher click-through rates, increased engagement, elevated trust for our product, and smiles!

Objective: Champion CKT as a premier product and expand upon the primary RTBs: Always Free, 100% Accurate Calculations Guarantee, and 100% Max Refund Guarantee.

Look and feel — images and copy:

Problem: We had an awesome product with a ton of features. Touching on each selling point was going to be tough. The copy was heavier than we wanted.

Solve:
Whimsical, useful, bright, conversational, reassuring, and inviting, our tax creative team induced forward momentum to people have trouble starting. We employed a fresh, younger vernacular enhanced by a punchy, deliberate syntax. Our design elements created an organic flow and the primary landing page brought heightened traffic and increased registration.

After we crafted this first landing page, the CMO gave us carte blanche to devise and execute on new concepts. Earning that initial trust freed us up to introduce bold, exciting, and dynamic ideas.

Creative insight:
A primary feature meant to retain past CKT filers was Jumpstart: An auto-population software saving filers time by auto-filling basic tax forms. This was a big chunk of revenue for CKT. We grabbed these filers with a memorable experience. When design presented our rocket/turtle concept, smiles and chuckles weren’t far behind.

Branding opportunity: When we started, I noticed CKT’s premium features (100% Max Refund Guarantee, 100% Accurate Calculations Guarantee, Jumpstart, Error Double-Check, Audit Defense) were all in sentence case and lost in body copy. I immediately suggested these items, unique to CKT, become recognition points, bumped up to title case, and moved high in our content. In short, we branded these premium features, further setting CKT above our competitors.

Objective: We targeted millennials who had filed with CKT in the past and members who’ve started with CKT but never finished filing. Reiterating the primary RTBs, while introducing secondary RTBs: Ease/time, trust, and support.

Look and feel:

Problem: Fitting both primary and secondary RTBs into one landing page was tough. We knew our copy was going to be longer than we wanted.

Solve: Since this audience was familiar with CK and CKT, our license to be more fun and jokey with a less expository message increased. We also upped the ante on the conversational aspect with questions and answers throughout the body copy. We also received stats on our ratings during this time and dropped in a footer to back up our trust RTB and drive home our dedication to product improvement.

Creative insight:
This is a fun example of how we collaborated with design to add a little delight to this banner experience. It also gave me a chance to cut the copy down. “Get your max refund, guaranteed” was the initial go-to copy. I am forever striving to move away from “Get” as an opening verb. It feels stale and lazy. This design inspired me to utilize “Max” as our verb, kick “Get” to the curb, and improve our messaging.