Testing of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Advertising Campaign – Final Rule

Phase II – Post-test of Advertising Campaign

Executive Summary

Following the events of September 11, 2001, the United States implemented a number of policies aimed at improving security at its borders. One such policy, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (hereafter, the WHTI), requires all travellers – including Canadian and American citizens – to present a valid passport or other approved secure document when travelling to, through, or from the United States.

Over the course of the implementation of the WHTI, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has communicated to Canadian citizens in an effort to prepare them and raise their awareness of the new document requirements to enter the U.S. In the lead up and concurrent to the full implementation of the policy on June 1, 2009, the CBSA unfolded the WHTI – Final Rule advertising campaign, which began in May 2009 and wrapped up in June 2009. EKOS Research Associates was commissioned by the CBSA to conduct a telephone survey of the general public to measure recall and effectiveness of this advertising campaign, particularly among the target segment of the population (i.e., those living in border communities).

Survey results suggest that this was a successful campaign. To begin, advertising recognition among the general public is relatively high – both in terms of aided and unaided recall. The campaign is also on target in terms of message communication and attribution. And although most say they have not been influenced by the advertising, those who have are responding in an appropriate manner (i.e., applying for a passport).

Perhaps more importantly, the ads continue to resonate strongly with border communities. Indeed, this group is more likely to be aware of the advertising, to associate the ads with a message of needing a passport for travel to the U.S., and to indicate that they have taken action in response to seeing the advertising. In fact, the proportion of border community residents reporting that they were prompted to take action as a result of the advertising is double what it was following the last campaign.

Apart from assessing the WHTI – Final Rule advertising campaign, the survey also sought to determine the potential impact of the WHTI. As a starting point, reported levels of travel to the U.S. are unchanged over the past two years – even as the WHTI was being phased in – as are plans to travel to the U.S. in the future. These findings would seem to suggest that Canadians do not intend to be deterred from travelling to the U.S., regardless of new document requirements under the WHTI. Moreover, the proportion of the public that would not be able to travel to the U.S. due to inadequate travel documentation has declined significantly since 2008 (-14 per cent among the general public and -six per cent in border communities). Helping to account for this decline is an increase in valid passport ownership and the availability of enhanced driver's licences/identification cards.

The methodology for this study consisted of telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,307 Canadians, aged 18 years and over, conducted between July 2 and July 10, 2009. A national sample of this size provides results accurate to within plus or minus 2.7 percentage point, in 19 out of 20 samples. Over-sampling was also done to reach a sub-sample of those living in border communities, defined as those living within 30 km of the U.S. border (i.e., approximately 100 cases were collected in Abbottsford, B.C., Windsor, ON, and Sherbrooke, QC). The telephone surveys were conducted using the Government of Canada's Advertising Evaluation Tool (ACET).