Undone

Challenge When it comes to taxes, Gen Z has plenty to be scared of. Their generation is coming of age through a rollercoaster economy, the rise of side hustles and gig work, while navigating major personal life changes (and the tax changes that come with them) – all making the thought of doing taxes more daunting than ever for young people. TurboTax has the solutions to ensure Gen Z gets their taxes done right. But they needed to convince a notoriously hard-to-convince generation not to face their fears alone and to embrace simple solutions for seemingly complicated tax situations.

INSIGHTS Let’s face it, no Boomer ever had to do taxes from Etsy earnings or Twitch tips, so we were never going to get on the radar of Gen Z by inviting them into the existing conversation around taxes. Instead, we had to put taxes in their world. And their world? It’s curated with aesthetic in mind, there’s a constant thirst for the obscure, and full of escapism. Maybe even a bit scary. For Gen Z, everything they feel is “with their whole chest” – so we had to be raw and honest about tax anxiety to make sure they felt seen when they say things can get scary.

IDEA To reach Gen Z with a message of understanding about tax anxiety and hope for solutions, we decided to speak to the generation in a language they love and understand: horror. So we took a page out of Hollywood’s best cerebral horror films and crafted a short horror film that shows what happens when people let tax anxiety take on a life of its own. And we did it with one goal: make it really, truly scary. We cut a trailer and ran it as a pre-show ad in Cineplex theatres across Canada and on social media through April before taxes came due, and submitted the short in Gen Z’s favourite midnight film festivals to ensure it was screened (and screamed at) by our target audience. The film was released in full on social media and YouTube.

RESULTS Like any great horror film, young Canadians couldn’t look away, learning about TurboTax’s lineup of tax solutions in the process.