H&R Block spices up tax season through ChaCha

For those of you not familiar with ChaCha – it is a free ad-supported mobile answers service for people on the go. According to Blog “Branding Unbound” ChaCha is the fastest-growing mobile search service. You can text ChaCha questions such as “Where is the closest coffee shop to 900 Broadway in NYC” or “Who is the tallest woman in the world?” and you will get an answer back from humans who are paid by the service to be “guides”. ChaCha has a core audience of 18-34 year olds, which H&R Block recently decided to tap into.

In a pilot program started last month, any user that texts in a tax-related question will not only get an answer, - they will also get an advertisement from H&R Block. In a February 12th article in AdAge, Paula Drum, H&R Block's marketing VP states "We are looking to acquire customers for life ... to serve their changing tax-preparation needs as they move through their life stages."

Even though I’ve never used ChaCha, this is a genius idea from H&R Block. They can’t really get any more targeted than advertising to someone who has just asked a question about how to do their taxes. The user will instantly be reminded that H&R Block can solve their problems. H&R Block is playing it smart and relevant to an age group that is very sensitive about where and when they receive ads. Such unexpected resourcefulness and creativity from a tax-related company.