CD

Inland Revenue
Te Tari Taake

7 May 2015

The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union

requests@taxpayers.org.nz

Dear New Zealand Taxpayers' Union

Thank you for your request made under the Official Information Act 1982, received on 9
April 2015. I have answered each of your questions below.
Background information
Each year Inland Revenue conducts a marketing campaign from April to July that
encourages use of our online services. The objective is to reduce phone calls related to
transactions that can be completed online. This ensures that our phone lines are
available to deal with more complex issues in a timely manner. It also reduces our long
term costs as more people are registered for and using online services.
The campaign this year targets 18-34 year olds, including part-time workers, those
earning under $48,000 per annum and those who have more than one job as these
people are more likely to phone Inland Revenue about refunds.
Given the youthful target audience, the campaign is predominantly online, and the
format is engaging. The message is:
'Think you're due a tax refund? See if you qualify in 3 simple steps. Work it out
here. ird.govt.nz/taxrefund'.
The message plays on 'working out' and 'three steps' by parodying an 80's style aerobic
step workout.
Our website includes written content and a video detailing the three simple steps, and
which step customers can take right now. The content and video changes over the three
phases of the campaign which include nnyIR registration, requesting your Personal Tax
Summary, and confirming your Personal Tax Summary.
Answers to your questions
1.
What was the total cost of producing the Tax Refund Workout video?
2.
How much money has been allocated to promotion of the video and campaign?
Please provide details of funding allocated, e.g. Social media advertising,
newspapers etc.
3.
What was the total cost of creating the Tax Refund Workout webpage?
The total cost of the campaign is $418,308, which includes $40,912 for the creation of
three versions of the video, for each phase of the campaign, and $21,920 for the
creation of the campaign web pages.
As mentioned above, we run a campaign with similar objectives each year, and the total
campaign cost this year is less than previous years.

www.ird.govt.nz

4. What are the KPIs or similar schedule against which the effectiveness of this
campaign will be evaluated?
The following measures will be used to track effectiveness by comparing figures for 2015
with 2014.

Individual phone calls regarding Personal Tax Summaries

Personal Tax Summaries requested and confirmed online

myIR online registrations

Other measures being used include:

Individual phone calls to the general queue

Visits to the campaign webpage and associated activity Visitors arriving as a result
of clicking on advertising

Video views and engagement

Feedback from customers and staff

Post campaign market research checking awareness, recall & action taken.
As at the end of April, the campaign has been live for 24 days, and early results are
encouraging.
17,000 calls less than forecast to the line that deals with tax refunds
36,000 registrations for our online service, myIR, which is up 34% on last year
127,000 views of our campaign page, 22% up on last year
The video has had 20,000 views

This response fully covers the information you have requested. I hope the information I
have provided is of assistance to you.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Stott
Group Manager Marketing and Communications