Customer
Aarhus Municipality
Industry
Public sector
Year
2020
Services
Design
Aarhus Municipality
Debt can be a difficult subject for the citizens of the city, not only to talk about, but also to act on. Aarhus Municipality experienced that challenge and therefore entered into a collaboration with us to find out how, with nudging and targeted campaign design, more people can react to their debts.
The result? Campaigns that have created significant behavioral changes and measurable savings – and that won a Danish Digital Design Award in 2022.
Challenge: Aarhus Municipality lacked effective, user-centred digital campaigns and communication, which led to low citizen response to debt information and limited payments because messages were unclear and did not engage the target group.
FROM GIBBERISH TO VALUE
Many people know the feeling: An E-Boks letter from the public sector where you don't understand half of what it says. Our initial research showed that promissory notes in particular were often ignored – not despite the message, but because of the way it was conveyed. The language is characterized by legal wording, which created unnecessary distance and passivity.
That's why we rethought the whole format from scratch. We worked with behavioral psychology, user-friendly design and linguistic simplification of communication. It is only when citizens understand the message that they can act on it.
DESIGN THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Together with Aarhus Municipality, we have over several years developed and tested user-oriented campaigns that work. Campaigns such as:
- Makes citizens open the letters
- Makes them react – and pay
- Makes them take responsibility for their debts
The new approach has not only eased the burden for the individual citizen – it has also had a major impact on the municipality's finances. And then the campaigns have excelled in one Danish Digital Design Award 2022, which we are proud of!
EXCERPT FROM THE CAMPAIGNS
THE DEBT PLUME
When the debt grows so large that it cannot be in space. An empathetic campaign that focused on how much debt can take up if you do not initiate a payment.
THE PUZZLE
As parents, getting things up can be a puzzle, and part of it is paying for daycare – a friendly reminder to the busy parents.
PAY BACK FRIDAY
A campaign that lit up the pedestrian streets around the big shopping day: ”Black Friday”. Here, citizens were encouraged to pay off their debts, rather than consume. After just a few weeks, the amount paid from citizens was DKK 650,000.
UNKNOWN ADDRESS
How do we find those who will not be found? A campaign that focused on registering its address.
LIBRARY CAMPAIGN
This became the stories of how citizens had not handed in their library books on time – a real horror.
“Aarhus Municipality, Citizen Service, Backoffice are very satisfied and happy with the collaboration with KOLLAB (formerly /et al.)
With creativity and high professionalism, they have helped Borgerservice with the development of campaigns and letters that have worked effectively in capturing citizens' attention and making the municipality visible in the cityscape. We are experiencing a burgeoning company that goes to the collaboration and tasks with great commitment and initiative. We experience a complete process – from idea phase, in continuous sparring and to the final result, with high quality.”
Finn Bruun Ravnsbæk, head of Backoffice, Citizen Service, Aarhus Municipality