Canton de Genève — Campaign , digital by twks: My taxes? I’ve got this!

Services: Campaign; Digital
Industries: Institutional

How the Canton of Geneva turned the tax return, students' number one dread, into something you handle without breaking a sweat.

For a young person filing their first tax return, tax isn't just an administrative chore. It's jargon you don't understand, the fear of getting it wrong, and the sense that you're paying for nothing you can actually see. The Canton of Geneva wanted to speak directly to students and young workers, with a platform built for them.

Three moods, one tax return

A tax return has its own emotional journey. Better to own it than deny it. Before you start, you puff out your chest. While you're at it, you try to stay relaxed. Once it's done, you savour it. Three very real states of mind that most tax campaigns ignore entirely in favour of one uniformly serious tone. The campaign matches its pace to that emotional rollercoaster: "My taxes? Sorted!" in confident blue, "My taxes? Chill mode." in calm purple, "My taxes? Done!" in triumphant orange. Three posters, three moments, one promise kept.

A zen character for a stressful chore

Classic tax imagery is a folder, a stamp, a calculator. Here, it's a yogi. The same character, drawn in a simple line, runs through all three posters: sitting cross-legged on his tax return like a plate, lounging on a cloud with his laptop, or balancing like a triumphant waiter. No institution would recognise itself in this imagery, and that's exactly the point: make the tax office feel a little less like an office, a little more like an accomplice.

What it funds, not what it costs

Nobody gets worked up over a cost they can actually see the benefit of. Young taxpayers rarely see the link between their tax return and the public services they use every day. The platform flips the logic: three bright tiles spell out exactly what tax money pays for, parks, festivals, beaches and skate parks, access to a study grant, a housing allowance application. Tax stops being an abstract line item. It becomes the direct funding of what actually matters to them.

A platform that finally speaks their language

Two profiles, student and young worker, one interface built to lose nobody along the way. The site carries the campaign's codes, hand-drawn illustrations, bright colours, an unguarded tone, and turns them into step-by-step journeys tailored to each situation. Nothing to guess, nothing to second-guess: every step says exactly what to do, and why.

Tax is still tax. With this, at least, you can handle it.