In April 2019, Welsh Government introduced changes to Welsh Rates of Income Tax (WRIT), meaning money earned in Wales would be spent in Wales on the public services we all enjoy. When broken down, tax and spend is a simple and attractive concept, delivering fairness and equality and investing in the future of Wales.
But Welsh Government’s research showed that understanding of Welsh taxes in Wales was low, and apathy and complexity of information is high. We created a simple and effective, bilingual social media campaign for the Welsh Treasury’s social media channels with the aim of breaking down ‘tax and spend’ by explaining it through the services it funds and we use every day.
The campaign was split into two bursts, October 2018 and March – April 2019. This was designed to allow us time to reflect on social media engagement, giving us an understanding of how the public was responding to WRIT before entering the second burst.
First burst
Our strategy in the first burst was to deliver simple and to the point messages about WRIT to introduce it and announce when it would be coming into effect.
We designed a range of collateral for social media including:
Second burst
In the second burst of the campaign, our strategy was to bring real life case studies to the heart of the content created. We know people relate to people, so using real life workers from different industries funded by WRIT would allow us to demonstrate clearly and directly why Welsh rates of income tax were so vital to everyday life in Wales.
We created three bilingual case study videos from key sectors funded by WRIT. This included a nurse from Gwynedd, a recycling centre coordinator from Aberystwyth and a teacher in Cardiff. The videos asked the individuals how long they had been in their jobs, what they love about their work and more, which allowed us to support the video with key messaging around why these roles, funded by WRIT, are so important.
Welsh Tax and Spend from Working Word on Vimeo.