CEDAR RAPIDS, IA — (Marketwire) — 02/06/12 — The nearly 300 voters on USA TODAY Facebook Ad Meter viewer panel rated TaxACT-s “Free to Pee” spot the 11th most liked Super Bowl ad. TaxACT-s commercial ranked 7.86 on a scale of 0 to 10, finishing just 0.08 points behind 10th place.
Volunteers in the McLean, Va. and Phoenix, Ariz. panels rated how much they liked or disliked ads on hand-held meters as they aired live during the game.
“The panel-s ratings show our ad elicited an immediate and strong emotional response, and that-s exactly what we wanted,” said Kris Peterson, TaxACT-s vice president of marketing. “Rather than focusing on the act of doing your taxes, we wanted to connect viewers with the emotion of being totally free — the same feeling you have when using TaxACT-s free product.”
TaxACT Free Federal Edition is the only free federal tax preparation solution to include all e-fileable forms for simple and complex tax situations.
“Given the size and scope of previous Super Bowl audiences, we decided a national spot was the best way to cut through the industry noise and tell as many consumers as possible that frees are not created equal,” said Peterson.
According to The Nielsen Company, Super Bowl XLVI is the most-watched show in U.S. television history with 111.3 million viewers, beating last year-s 111.0 million Super Bowl XLV viewers.
The ad was part of a comprehensive marketing campaign spanning Web, email, social media and public relations channels designed to increase brand awareness and engagement. Efforts used free or cost-effective means to generate buzz before and after the ad.
The fast first quarter game pushed TaxACT-s 30-second spot to early second quarter. Just hours before kickoff, the company posted the full ad on its web site at free.taxact.com after airing exclusively on Friday as part of NBC-s “TODAY” show ad coverage.
Along with the full spot, TaxACT released a 53-second web version on free.taxact.com featuring additional characters and a few more frustrating situations for Tommy, the little boy in the commercial.
The USA Today and Facebook Ad Meter will continue until 6 p.m. tomorrow, February 7, and winners will be announced Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on usatoday.com as well as in Wednesday-s print editions of USA TODAY. TaxACT-s 30-second spot is also a contender in Twitter-s Ad Scrimmage and YouTube-s Ad Blitz. Links to the contest pages can be found at free.taxact.com.
TaxACT is critically acclaimed as a leader of affordable digital and download tax preparation software for consumers, business owners and tax professionals. In the 2005 tax season, TaxACT became the first to offer free federal tax software and free e-file to all U.S. taxpayers. TaxACT has been the 2nd most visited online destination for tax preparation services for the past six consecutive years(1). Since 2000, TaxACT Online has assisted with more than 20 million e-filed federal returns. TaxACT is a business of InfoSpace, Inc. (NASDAQ: INSP). Learn more about TaxACT at and .
(1) According to collective week end reports for taxact.com and taxactonline.com released by Hitwise during the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 tax seasons.
Jessi Dolmage
TaxACT Public Relations
(319) 373-3600, X2193
E-mail:
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