QuickBooks' Tiny Team Offers a Little Help to Small Businesses

Honey, I shrunk the financial advisors!

Intuit QuickBooks micro-focuses on entrepreneurs, small businesses and the self-employed in a U.K. campaign that introduces a can-do team of specialists the size of action figures.

These diminutive dervishes debut in the spot below, patrolling the counter of a fish-and-chips shop to tout QuickBooks software that helps manage cash flow, payroll, invoicing and more:

Whoa, they’re a mite intense. Such micromanagers. And you’ll note that the work reimagines BTO’s ’70s classic-rock staple “Taking Care of Business” as a capitalist metal anthem. That bass line’s huge!

Developed by Wieden + Kennedy London, Blink director Nick Ball and effects house Time Based Arts, the campaign will roll out fresh spots all year long, with the next installment dropping mid-month and focusing on taxes.

In the current environment, with companies and gig workers struggling amid pandemic pressures, QuickBooks strove to present its range of services in a fun, memorable way, according to W+K. If nothing else, the shouty, sanguine specialists offer something a little different.

“Our goal was to position QuickBooks as the ace in the hole for small business owners across the nation, not just as an accountancy app,” explains W+K creative Florence Poppy Deary. “And so the idea was born: a cut-throat, hard-nosed, no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point, suit-wearing corporate gang, who live, breathe and eat business, answering only to the business owners they serve.”

Miniaturizing the team makes them “much less physically invasive” and entertaining for commercial scenarios, adds Francesca Van Haverbeke, also a creative at W+K.

Of late, several marketers have delivered big ideas in small packages. Examples include dinky dioramas from Adidas and Behr, Boston Pizza’s preciously petite patio set, and Hornbach’s tall tale about the trials of a shrunken man.

CREDITS

Client: Intuit QuickBooks
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
ECD: Tony Davidson & Iain Tait
CD: Hollie Walker & Cal Al-Jorani
Creatives: Francesca Van Haverbeke & Florence Deary
Planners: Michael Hines & Vincent Johnson
Group Account Director: Matt Owen
Account Director: Alice Shaw
Agency Producer: Natasha Johnson / Rose Fairley
Business Affairs Manager: Helena Thomas
Production Company: Blink
Director: Nick Ball
Executive Producer: Patrick Craig
Production Company Producer: Ewen Brown
Director of Photography: Steve Annis
Editor: Tim Hardy @ Stitch
Visual Effects Company: Time Based Arts
VFX Exec Producer: Tom Johnson
VFX Supervisor: Luke Todd & Sam Osborne
Colourist: Lewis Crossfield
Motion Graphics: Andrei Verioti
Lead Designer: Alex Thursby-Pelham
Sound Design & Mix Company: 750MPH
Sound Designer: Jake Ashwell / Sam Ashwell
Sound Producer: Martin Critchely
Music Supervision: Jake Buckley @ Birdbrain 
Stills Photographer: Emily SteinStills