Case Study for Agency
03-1012361-122

The Client: EMusic.com

The Challenge:

EMusic was the first legal site for MP3 downloadable music. When we
first met with them, they were five people with a breakthrough idea.
Less than three months later, with funding in hand, we were faced with
a very tight deadline.Introduce the first legal site for MP3
downloadable music to a doubting audience in just three months—using
national television, radio, outdoor, print and interactive media.

The Campaign:

• We presented 25 logos and over 100 taglines. “The Way To Download”
was chosen.

• A week later, we produced their first print ad.

• Two weeks later, we presented radio and television spots.

• Within a month, we presented the media plan, including an exclusive
contract with Howard Stern.

• Two months later, all national print, broadcast, outdoor, and online
media were in every major market.

The Results:

• EMusic sold over one million downloads during the first six months of
the campaign.

• The “business to business” outdoor advertising, using just three
billboards in high-impact locations in Manhattan, Palo Alto, and West
Hollywood, inspired Elvis Costello, Creedence Clearwater Revival and
many other mainstream artists to give their digital music rights to
EMusic. This prompted a second round of 93 million in additional
funding.

• We secured EMusic a billboard on the millennium-year Jumbotron in
Times Square.

• EMusic’s logo, the “head” icon, has become the pervasive brand image
most often referred to and synonymous with downloadable music.

The Client: Intuit/QuickBooks

The Challenge:

Intuit revolutionized the consumer accounting software category with
their groundbreaking Quicken software. When a considerable amount of
small businesses began using Quicken for their accounting, Intuit
developed QuickBooks. Previously, small business accountants had been
doing their books by hand because they found most accounting programs
too hard to use.

The Campaign:
• Our previous agency experience working on Quicken suggested that a
“testimonial” campaign would be the approach for QuickBooks. But given
the cynicism of the target audience, we thought they had to hear the
testimonial from their peers.

• “Do I Look Like An Accountant?” became the rallying cry/headline
heard from the mouths of small business people, including farmers,
construction workers, and real estate brokers. • Print ads featured
pictures of these people doing what they needed to do—run their
business. The long, clever copy was based on actual interviews, written
from their point of view—with a dash of both empathy and humor.

• The salient benefit throughout was that QuickBooks was so easy to use
that one could spend less time doing the books and more time getting
work done to make more money.

• The media plan seamlessly supported the creative in ads running in
vertical market publications, including Farm Journal and Real Estate
Advisor.

The Results:

• Our campaign success was based on direct response. Each ad was A/B
tested against its predecessor and paid for itself.

• A landmark product introduction for the small-business financial
software market was firmly established.

• The QuickBooks campaign has been translated and run in major markets
worldwide.• The agency was credited with selling over two million boxes
of QuickBooks software.