H&R Block Celebrates Getting Billions Back With Social Media Record Label
The YouTube campaign will include ten original songs that celebrate tax refunds and push the brand’s Billion Back messaging.
The YouTube campaign will include ten original songs that celebrate tax refunds and push the brand’s Billion Back messaging.
H&R Block has launched Billion Back Records, a music video campaign that helps America celebrate getting its billions back this tax season.
The brand teamed up with 10 YouTube personalities to push its Billion Back messaging via what it calls a social media record label. Through April 15, the selected talent will release “original songs and music videos all about getting your tax refund.”
Each song is unique and the artists cover a range of genres from rap to country, the brand says.
The songs “[focus] in on the excitement of getting your piece” while also “having fun and celebrating what you are going to do with that larger return,” says Kevin Cobb, senior marketing manager of social media at H&R Block.
The Billion Back Records promo includes: Pomplamoose, Dia Frampton, Julia Sheer, Clara Chung, iJustine, Joey Graceffa, Jason Chen, Jimmy Wong, Meghan Camarena and Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers.
Each artist’s music video will debut on his or her Facebook page and other social channels. H&R Block, in turn, is adding the videos to a playlist on the Billion Back Records website.
According to Cobb, the brand was looking for YouTube personalities “that have a good balance between music talent, creativity and a good social audience to spread word and ones that would also be able to produce original songs and videos and do so in a great way.”
As of March 19, an intro video has 63,000 views.
Chung’s video was the first to be released on March 10. As of March 19, it has 22,000 views.
Chen’s song followed on March 11. As of March 19, it has 62,000 views.
And Sheer’s Right on the Money, which was released March 17, has about 11,000 views.
The remaining songs will be released one at a time at a rate of about two per week, Cobb says.
In addition, fans can get involved on Twitter through a “variety of fun challenges that channel their inner ‘rockstar’ for the chance to win music-themed prizes, including concert tickets, tricked-out multimedia equipment and a custom guitar,” H&R Block says.
“The goal is to get the word out about getting a piece of the Billion Back in a fun, entertaining way online,” the brand says.
H&R Block also says it is releasing songs and videos to “engage more Americans on social media and build excitement around getting their tax refund.”
@HRBlock has 20,000 followers and 377,000 likes.
The brand invites fans to use the hashtag #billionbackrecords.
“We thought [music] was a really great way to focus on the celebration piece, particularly working with really creative YouTube influencers,” Cobb says. “Really music is a great way to celebrate and a fun way to extend Billion Back and focus on that fun and engagement and celebration.”
Billion Back Records targets Millennials, but Cobb says that target is really “anyone online and consuming content from a digital standpoint and who is digitally savvy.”
In fiscal 2013, H&R Block says it had annual revenue of $2.9 billion with 24.8 million tax returns prepared worldwide.