Winners & Shortlists

THE PENSION TAX CALCULATOR

TitleTHE PENSION TAX CALCULATOR
BrandTHE SWEDISH ASSOCIATION OF SENIOR CITIZENS (SPF)
Product/ServiceNGO
Category A03. PUBLIC AFFAIRS & LOBBYING
PR Agency JKL STOCKHOLM Stockholm, SWEDEN
Entrant Company JKL STOCKHOLM Stockholm, SWEDEN
Credits
Name Company Position
Stina Nordström SPF Director Of Communication
Anna Eriksson SPF Communications Officer
David Ingnäs JKL Deputy Managing Director
Elias Notini JKL Manager
Sofie Handberg JKL Senior Digital Producer
Fredrik Rendel JKL Consultant

The Campaign

We helped Sweden’s second largest pensioners’ association, SPF, to use the public debate during this election year to engage with their existing and future members, raise awareness amongst politicians and media, and draw attention to an important issue for Sweden’s seniors, the pension tax. 9 in 10 seniors want to abolish the tax. However most of them don’t actually know how much they pay in pension tax. Since the tax system is fairly complicated this is not that surprising. So we decided to make this easy by building a Pension Tax Calculator. The result can be shared through social media, and the Calculator users can sign a petition on the matter - targeting leading political parties Digital campaigns targeting seniors were unchartered territory, and we were overwhelmed by the level of engagement. The Facebook engagement rate were 20 times the Swedish average of 0.6 % and in total over 100 000 people shared, commented and liked posts on the SPF Facebook page helping the reach of the campaign to surpass 3 200 000 individuals as well as growing SPFs Facebook fan page from 2 800 to 12 000 followers. But most importantly the calculator made a difference, for the Seniors and for SPF. The largest party in the new government has promised to abolish the pension tax in three stages starting with low income seniors in 2015 and SPF has stepped out of the shadow of its main competitor and is now no. 1 in media visibility.

The Brief

To become no. 1 SPF needed to meet some key challenges: • Increase awareness from the media • Increase brand recognition amongst key target group – 65+ • Increase political impact • Activate and engage current and potential members We recommended SPF to focus on one particular matter during the election year: Swedish seniors being taxed higher than regular income earners. The so called pension tax is highly unpopular and 9 in 10 seniors want to abolish it.

Results

Goal: Increase awareness from the media Result: Headline on Sweden’s biggest newscast as well as widespread coverage in national and local print media. Total 112 press clippings with the Calculator. SPF surpassed its main competitor and became no.1 in media visilibity. Goal: Increase brand recognition Result: 4x fan base on Facebook since the launch of the campaign. Total Facebook reach of 3 220 306 individuals. Goal: Activate and engage current and potential members Result: 48 000 calculations, 5500 names on the petition, and 2300 emails were sent to politicians. Over 100 000 unique interactions on Facebook. 12 % Average Facebook Post Engagement Rate - 20x the Swedish average of 0.6 %. Goal: Increase political impact Result: The largest party in the new government has promised to abolish the pension tax in three stages starting with low income seniors in 2015.

Execution

Launch - Press release and media outreach towards targeted media. March 2014 Activation- SPF pushed for the Calculator on internal gatherings, website, and member magazine from launch to election day(14 September 2014). Reach -Throughout the campaign (from March to September) we used SPFs Facebook page and boosted the reach of the campaign using paid formats such as sponsored posts and link posts. We also used the Calculator to increase SPFs fan base. Meetings with politicians - the App-version of the Calculator was used in meetings with local and high-level national politicians to highlight the inequality of the tax system.

The Situation

SPF is Sweden's second largest pensioners’ association with nearly 300 000 members. Even though this massive group consists of hundreds of thousands strong-willed people, it is only the second largest association of its' kind and therefore, constantly in the shadow of its larger competitor. We have been working with SPF since 2012 to help them achieve their long-term goal of becoming Sweden’s no. 1 pensioners’ association. 2014 is an election year and one in four voting citizens is over the age of 65. How could this election be used to make a difference? For the seniors and for SPF?

The Strategy

We came up with the idea of a Pension Tax Calculator (PTC). Most seniors know that they pay pension tax, but not how much. We made this easy with the PTC. In addition the platform can be used to sign a petition to abolish the tax, send pre-written emails to politicians, as well as share the PTC on social media. Furthermore we realized the importance of a multi-channel strategy. And therefore we: i) created an App-version of the PTC, that SPFs members could use when meeting friends and politicians during the election year to showcase the inequality of the tax system ii) targeted some key traditional media to raise awareness iii) used SPFs Facebook page to increase the reach targeting Swedish seniors