Building community through intrigue.

Through numerous interviews with QuickBooks users, we heard the same request: Talk to us like people. We discovered that recent communication from ProAdvisor had relied heavily on wonky lecturing, sterile messaging and even professional stereotypes. To convince users to return to ProAdvisor, we needed to do something that would seriously subvert their expectations. As the QuickBooks annual QBConnect conference approached, we knew it was our chance to make it clear that this wasn’t the ProAdvisor accountants had come to know and ignore.

To reposition ProAdvisor enrollment as a badge of honor for QuickBooks users, we inducted members into our secret order of accounting masters: The Society of ProAdvisory. Cryptic campaign messaging was displayed via dashboard cards within QuickBooks, and social media influencers received premium brand kits to help spread the word. To bolster the aura of mystery and intrigue, we developed an Illuminati-inspired visual identity and accountant-themed wisdom (“ProAdvisor Proverbs”) for a themed microsite. During the conference, we created a secret lounge just for Society members, filled with exclusive giveaways, accountant-themed drinks and, most importantly, a clear sense that ProAdvisor had achieved a higher order of accounting enlightenment.

We knew we’d hit the mark when hundreds of social media shoutouts started rolling in from conference attendees who couldn’t help but show their ProAdvisor pride.