We got America to talk about taxes on a night when all they talk about is the Super Bowl.

Most Americans don’t even start thinking about their taxes until April, with nearly 60% waiting until the last month to file despite getting their W-2’s in hand right before the Super Bowl.

So two months before taxes were due, we turned a super-sized cultural moment into a super-sized tax movement. During Super Bowl LVIII, TurboTax challenged millions of football fans to make their biggest move of the night: join The TurboTax Super Bowl File for a chance to win $1,000,000.

Our objective was simple: break through during the biggest cultural moment of the year; get people to talk about taxes early for once, and do so with TurboTax. Rather than drive awareness with empty entertainment, we drove action, and kick-started tax season with a bang.

America gets their W-2’s just before the Super Bowl, yet taxes are the last thing on their minds during the year’s biggest TV event. Even with forms in hand, +60% wait until the last minute to file, often defaulting to the most convenient and easy means of filing: the same method as previous years.

We had to break through to give people a reason to choose TurboTax. Instead of driving awareness with empty entertainment, we drove people to take action, and in turn, kick-started tax season with a bang.

We teamed up with real TurboTax user, Emmy-winner Quinta Brunson to get people to think about their taxes before the end of the Super Bowl instead of the end of tax season. With $1,000,000 on the line, millions of Americans scrambled to file their taxes early for a change, while discovering just how easy TurboTax can make their moves count.

Our target audience are a young, ambitious bunch who are going through big life changes and seeking solutions that help them progress in life. Additionally, they’re tapped into culture and more likely to pay attention to major events.

This year’s Super Bowl was the perfect stage. Projected to be the biggest TV viewing event since Apollo 11, and gearing up to be as much about the moves being made off the field as those being made on — we knew we had to make it count.

The idea was simple: join The TurboTax Super Bowl File during the game for a shot at $1,000,000. To get people to act, it was crucial we make it easily accessible across multiple touchpoints, from in-game spots to Smart TV and social media takeovers. While other brands led with empty entertainment, we drove simple yet meaningful action that led to measurable business results.

The first phase teased the activation to get people buzzing about what TurboTax had up its sleeve. Bolstered by a PR blitz across digital, social, and network TV, including Quinta Brunson organically revealing her upcoming Super Bowl commercial on late night TV.

While specifics of The TurboTax Super Bowl File weren’t announced until game time, we ran teasers across the media ecosystem the full day leading up to kickoff, including a pre-game integration on CBS broadcast. Additional key elements were surround sound to linear TV, including takeovers of major streaming services and social media with influencers like rising star Bijan Robinson. All this bolstered our hero Super Bowl commercial that was the star of the show.

Afterwards we continued with digital media on CTV, social, search and programmatic, ensuring anyone who missed our commercial could still kick off their taxes for a chance to win $1,000,000.

At a time when most Americans historically hadn’t begun to even think about their taxes, The TurboTax Super Bowl File captured their attention and inspired them into action. The activation yielded 1.5B earned impressions while driving 7x more website traffic to TurboTax than the peak traffic period of the previous year’s tax season. While America most certainly wasn’t thinking about their taxes at all before the big game, they responded with urgency during it, with more than half of overall participants joining The TurboTax Super Bowl File on Super Bowl Sunday.

The activation saw incredible effectiveness at fueling consideration from new customers as well. Interest was so strong, in fact, that TurboTax was one of the Top 5 brands of Super Bowl in terms of search peaks. Not bad for a tax brand.