• by Danielle Oster , March 2, 2025

When financial services software company Intuit completed its acquisition of consumer technology platform Credit Karma in late 2020, CEO Sasan Goodarzi said the goal was to “create a mobile, personal financial assistant for consumers to help solve their most pressing financial problems.”

It wasn’t until the company’s latest campaign that that it was able to use that messaging to promote both brands together.

“While Credit Karma has been working with TurboTax for a few years now, we haven’t done a major marketing push outside of our product to create awareness around our unique offerings under one unified platform,” Natasha Madan, who leads marketing for Credit Karma, told  Marketing Daily.

Intuit, whose brands also include MailChimp and QuickBooks, launched the tax season campaign last week, building on the “Now This Is Taxes” campaign it introduced for the TurboTax brand late last year.

While hardly the most catchy or creative tagline, the phrase is intended to characterize how the service can help make the experience of filing taxes easier for consumers. In a new 30-second ad, a voiceover illustrates the intent with the line “Taxes was not being able to see how to make the most of your money,” while a woman attempts to read an electronic W-2 form on her phone in a cafe, before the scene shifts to an eyeglass store.

“Now taxes is tapping into a TurboTax expert in Credit Karma,” the voiceover continues, before the spot delivers a central selling point: Inuit’s claim that consumers can get their tax return “five days faster” by opting to deposit it into their Credit Karma account.

Intuit worked with IPG agency R/GA on the campaign.

“It’s important for us to show up as one platform, and we know from consumer research that connecting the two brands drives further trust and intent among consumers,” Madan said. “This first co-branded creative from our two brands is meant to create that awareness, and to convey a tangible and unmatched benefit that tax filers can unlock when filing on Credit Karma or TurboTax” seamless filing, fast access to tax refunds and helping them make their money go further.

“To create more ‘clarity’ around the value props of these two brands coming together, we leaned into the metaphor of ‘seeing things more clearly’ with the eyeglasses theme,” she added.

One word noticeably absent from the campaign is “free.”

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission took action against Intuit for what it argued was a lack of clarity in TurboTax's advertising claims. In January of 2024, the FTC issued an administrative complaint against Intuit, Inc. for “deceiving consumers with bogus advertisements pitching ‘free’ tax filing that millions of consumers could not use,” alongside a “federal district court complaint asking a court to order Intuit to halt its deceptive advertising immediately,” according to a summary published by the FTC.

Intuit’s “ubiquitous advertisements touting their supposedly ‘free’ products—some of which have consisted almost entirely of the word ‘free’ spoken repeatedly—mislead consumers into believing that they can file their taxes for free with TurboTax,” the FTC alleged. “In fact, most tax filers can’t use the company’s ‘free’ service because it is not available to millions of taxpayers, such as those who get a 1099 form for work in the gig economy, or those who earn farm income.”

Intuit subsequently appealed the decision. Despite acknowledging that “There is no monetary penalty in the FTC’s order, and Intuit expects no significant impact to its business,” the company argued that the FTC’s actions were unconstitutional, – a move in line with broader conservative legal attacks on agencies overseeing consumer protections – and that the cease and desist order regarding its advertising practices should be revoked. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments in the case last November.