Shawn Tallet
← Selected work

Quicken

Turning audience insight into video and paid social

A remarketing campaign built on one idea: see what's next for your money. I led the concepts, copy and art direction, split the message for two very different audiences, and scaled it into a system of 54 statics plus video that ran on paid social.

Company
Quicken
When
Early 2026
My role
Creative lead
I owned
Audience strategy, campaign platform, concepts, copy, art direction, and production across statics and video
Collaborators
Graphic and motion designers on a five-person creative team
Final approval
Creative director, VP of product marketing, and CMO
Status
Ran on paid social
Read as

A1

The brief

Most finance apps show you where your money went. Quicken could show where it's going.

The campaign was built around predictive visibility: projected cash flow, a Spending Plan that shows what's left, and investment and retirement scenarios you can model ahead of time.

The feeling we were selling mattered as much as the features. The emotional line on the board: Confidence replaces second-guessing. Decisions feel intentional, not reactive.

A2

Two audiences

Same product, two different frustrations. One group was missing the full picture. The other had outgrown looking backward.

Feeders

Use adjacent financial apps and manage pieces of their money, but lack one unified view. They want clarity: spending, saving, investing and planning in one place.

Lead line

“Your financial future, revealed.”

Switchers

Use single-purpose budgeting or tracking apps and have outgrown them. They want to look ahead, not just back.

Lead line

“Looking back gets tiring. Know what's coming, before you get there.”

Sponsored Instagram post from Quicken: Looking back gets tiring. Know what's coming, before you get there. A man in a red jacket checks a spending chart showing $2,415 left this month. Caption: Your finance app is still just showing your money history. We're still predicting what lies ahead for your finances.
Fig. A2.1The Switcher version in feed. The caption names their current app's limit without naming the app.

Splitting by audience changed what each headline had to do. Feeders needed to hear that the scattered pieces could come together. Switchers needed a gentle jab at the tool they already had. The sharpest version of that: Historical views of your money is, well… history.

A3

The matrix

Three message pillars, three concepts each, written twice. Flip between audiences to see the same slot answered two ways.

Pillar 1See your runway

Your financial future, revealed. A phone showing Quicken peeks from behind a blue stage curtain.
1A
Come for the forecasting. Stay for the peace of mind. A projected cash flow line above a woman relaxing in a hammock.
1B
You're this close to seeing your full financial picture. A smiling woman on her phone beside a projected cash flow chart.
1C

Pillar 2Know what's available

Ballin' on a budget? Nah, surplus on a Spending Plan. A cat in rainbow sunglasses. Know what's left, always. Quicken.
2A
Wondering what you can actually spend? We got you. A stressed woman surrounded by bill labels, beside a phone showing $1,415 left.
2B
Playing detective gets tiring. Know what's next for your finances with Quicken. A magnifying glass over a phone's spending chart.
2C

Pillar 3Model investment & retirement

Retirement is calling. A phone to-do list: make retirement plan, run future projections, watch it become reality.
3A
See retirement before you get there. An older man looks out to sea beside a projection line ending in Buy surf shack.
3B
Don't just plan your retirement. Predict it. A bearded man gazes at a retirement projection reaching $2.4 million.
3C

Fig. A3.1All 18 final concepts in 4×5. Columns A to C run from straight product proof to the playful swing.

B1

Rough to final

Concepts started as copy on a gray card, so the line had to earn its place before the art direction arrived.

Rough in-feed mockup on a plain gray card: Your financial future, revealed. See what's waiting ahead with Quicken.
RoughThe line, alone.
Final ad: Your financial future, revealed. A phone showing Quicken's projected cash flow peeks out from behind a blue stage curtain.
FinalThe curtain makes "revealed" literal.

I wrote the line and tested it without art direction so the concept had to work on its own. Then I art-directed the execution: “revealed” became a stage curtain, and I worked with the graphic and motion designers to carry the idea through production without losing the message.

B2

Video

Each audience got its own spot and its own metaphor for looking ahead: a rocket launch for Feeders, the road ahead for Switchers.

FeedersA kid's cardboard-rocket launch becomes "Your money mission," and a projected cash flow line maps the flight plan. 25 seconds.
Switchers"Don't plan in the rearview." A breakdown on the roadside turns into "Drive your finances with foresight." 26 seconds.

Both spots land on the same promise. The Feeder spot builds to "See your financial flight plan" and "Lift off today." The Switcher spot answers the backward-looking app with "Know what's beyond your financial horizon" and "See what's next."

Eleven storyboard frames of an end card: the words See what's next for your money build one at a time over product screens, then resolve to a phone and the Quicken logo.
Fig. B2.2From the storyboard: an end card that builds "See what's next for your money" a word at a time, then hands off to the product.

B3

The system

2audiences
3message pillars
3formats
54final statics

Nine concepts per audience, each built in 1×1, 4×5 and 9×16, plus in-feed mockups and a storyboard per audience.

B4

Methodology

Name the frustration, keep one idea, and give every pillar more than one way in.

  1. Name the frustration, not the feature

    Switchers heard that their app only looks back. Feeders heard that they only had pieces. The feature came second.

  2. One idea, three proofs

    Every concept ladders up to seeing what's next, through runway, what's available, or retirement scenarios.

  3. Three swings per pillar

    Concepts ranged from straight product proof to the unexpected: a cat in sunglasses, a tear-off poster on a telephone pole.

  4. Build it as a matrix

    Two audiences, three pillars, three concepts and three formats, so production could scale to 54 finals without losing the thread.

B5

Outcome

Eighteen concepts shipped in three formats (54 final statics) alongside video. Every concept on the board ran on paid social.

B6

Reflection

The system created scale without making the work feel mechanical. Next time, I'd formalize the rough-to-final process before production.

If I did this again, I'd formalize the rough-to-final decision process before production began. With two audiences, three message pillars, three creative approaches, and three formats, small creative decisions multiplied quickly. I would document what had to remain intact in every concept (the audience tension, product truth, and central promise) while giving the visual team clear room to amplify the idea.

I'm proudest that the system created scale without making the work feel mechanical. Feeders and Switchers received different messages rooted in different frustrations, and each pillar supported everything from direct product proof to stranger, more playful concepts. That structure produced 54 final statics and video while keeping every execution connected to one idea: Quicken helps people see what's next for their money. Every concept on the board ultimately ran.