The Insign team at the Effie Awards ceremony on Monday, December 4, 2023. 

Insign wins the Gold Effie for its "Taxes adapt to your life" campaign for the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance, and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty.

On Monday, December 4, 2023, the Effie Awards—celebrating marketing and communication effectiveness—were held at the Théâtre du Rond-Point. On this occasion, Insign took home the Gold trophy for its campaign "Taxes adapt to your life" for the Ministry of the Economy, Finance, and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty.

A major challenge: driving real behavioral change among taxpayers. 

Outside of the annual tax filing season, French taxpayers don't naturally think to update the tax authority when their life situations change. The core goal of this campaign was to shift that habit: encouraging taxpayers to report major life changes immediately, rather than waiting for their annual tax return.

↳ The key insight: you can't just command a new reflex 

Knowing that repetition alone doesn't build habits, Insign tapped into a behavior French people already have when they share big news: telling their loved ones. Now, they just need to add the tax office to that list of people to notify.

Over 12% increase in reported life changes 

Using a positive, non-judgmental tone that highlighted the real-life benefits of keeping the tax office updated, the campaign delivered a 12% year-over-year increase in reported changes across the four key areas (birth, marriage/civil union, retirement, and salary increase). During peak media pushes, we even saw spikes of over 40% (1), clearly showing the campaign's impact on taxpayer behavior. 

Produced by the creative studio Seize-Dix-Huit Images under the creative direction of Franck Luminier, the campaign was directed by Rémy Fournigault, with music by Poumtchak.

↳ A campaign built around real-life milestones

The campaign ran from June 2022 to March 2023 across TV, radio, digital, social media, and billboards. The rollout was timed to match key life events and aired when they were most likely to happen (June for marriage, September for births and civil unions, December for retirement, and March for salary increases).  

"We intentionally designed this bright, creative campaign around the user experience, helping people understand the tax process and build new reflexes naturally."

Frédéric Genre, Associate Director at Insign

 The view from the Ministry (Bercy):

"In a tough, uncertain economic climate (COVID, inflation...), being able to adjust withholding rates and tax payments month-by-month to match real-life changes is a massive benefit for household budgets. We needed to get the word out so taxpayers could fully take advantage of this feature, which was introduced by the tax withholding reform. That was the goal of this campaign."