This week, Roku’s National Brand Sales Lead, Julian Mintz, sat down with Cathleen Ryan, VP of Marketing at TurboTax, to discuss the brand’s advertising plans for The Big Game, the opportunities in TV streaming, and how brands should think about surrounding big tentpole moments in 2022. Below, you'll find highlights of their conversation.
How TurboTax is approaching The Big Game
As TurboTax enters their ninth year as an advertiser for The Big Game, their plan has evolved to include much more than the game itself. The brand plans to be a part of the entire weekend experience by devoting attention and investing in their digital extensions and activations. TurboTax will partner with social media platforms and other apps that will allow the brand to be a part of the excitement leading up to The Big Game.
Q: How does TV streaming fit into your overall marketing plans?
“TV streaming is a huge part of our marketing plan,” Cathleen shared. “We have 13 weeks in the tax season to get our message out there and to connect with consumers. TV streaming is a critical piece to get the reach, to get in front of cord cutters, and to find newer and more interesting ways to drive engagement.”
Q: Why Roku?
Cathleen first shared the obvious reasons for partnering with Roku:
“With Roku, we have the opportunity to reach consumers at scale. Roku has a direct relationship with its consumers, which gives us access to better ad targeting and measurement,” Cathleen said.
“There’s a lot of premium inventory on the Roku platform. We as a brand can advertise with trusted editorially curated premium channels, local networks, film, and TV. The inventory itself is brand safe and allows us to have great content adjacency.”
Roku also gives brands like TurboTax a rich creative canvas. “There’s the opportunity to innovate and be creative with how we build interactions with viewers. It’s well beyond the 30-second ad and really taking advantage of that full streaming environment.”
TurboTax did this last year during the 2021 tax season by partnering with Roku to bring streamers a “NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament College Hoops Hub” and an augmented reality experience.
Q: What advice do you have for marketers who are testing TV streaming for the first time?
"Just start," Cathleen told the audience. "To me, this is the future of marketing. It’s the promise of addressable TV but in a real, scaled, and easy to access way. If you haven’t started yet, just get in the game."
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