Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) Advertising Campaign Creative Testing – Spring 2015

Executive Summary

July 3rd, 2015

Call-Up # G9292-164260/001/CY
POR 005-15
Contract award date: 2015-04-30
Contracted amount (inc. HST): $42,041.65
Fieldwork: June 1^st to June 3^rd, 2015

For more information please contact: nc-por-rop-gd@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca

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Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• Background
• Research objectives
• Key Research Findings
• Methodology
• Political Neutrality Certification

Executive Summary

Background

In 2006, the Government of Canada introduced the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB), which provides all families with up to $1,200 per year for each child under the age of 6. The UCCB currently provides direct federal support to approximately 1.6 million families with young children.

As part of the Family Tax Cuts and Benefits Plan announced in October 2014, the Government of Canada has enhanced the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) by increasing the benefit from $1,200 to $1,920 per year for each child under 6, and by introducing a new benefit of $720 per year for each child aged 6-17.

The UCCB enhancements took effect January 2015 and has been reflected in monthly payments to recipients.

Employment and Skills Development Canada’s (ESDC) advertising campaigns will exclusively focus on promoting the enhanced UCCB initiative to all Canadians while tailoring and targeting messages to reach hard to reach audiences.  The ads would be skewed to mothers, as mothers are mostly the ones to research information about their child’s welfare.

Research objectives

The goal of the creative testing was to determine whether the creative treatment resonates with the target audience and meets the advertising campaign’s objectives and to determine what changes, if any, were needed in the creative. Pre-testing the creative elements of the communications campaign is critical to the success of the overall campaign. More specifically qualitative research was utilized to ascertain participants’ reactions to the following elements for the creative tested:

• Main message
• Clarity of message
• Success in getting message across
• Purpose
• Intended audience
• Emotional reaction
• Stand out elements

Key Research Findings

Impressions of the advertising concept were positive in all sessions. Specific feedback collected was very consistent from one group to the next in all locations. Key findings across all audiences included:

• The ad was well received by participants in all three locations.
• The ad was easy to understand.
• It was considered informative (participants in all locations felt they had been provided with new information).
• The ad would compel participants to take action or seek out more information via the Internet or by phone.
• There was no confusion among participants as to the sponsor of the ad; the ad was sponsored by the Government of Canada.
• Although respondents did notice the website, few retained the URL.
• Some participants questioned whether there was a need to apply for the benefit. Feedback collected suggests that altering the super wording to ‘Find out if you need to apply’ would be helpful in clarifying this.

Participants in all sessions said they had heard of new tax measures introduced by the Federal Government to help Canadian families.

According to participants the key messages communicated by the concept were:

• The Government wants to help families.
• The Government understands that young families face challenges and wants to provide some assistance.
• The assistance will be provided to all families with children under the age of 18, regardless of income levels.

Methodology

A total of 6 focus groups were conducted with parents of children under the age of 18. We recruited 10 participants to each session for 8 to show. Fieldwork was conducted from June 1st through June 3^rd, 2015 in Montreal (French), Mississauga and Vancouver. Two groups were conducted in each location.

Each group was scheduled for 90 minutes, but most groups took slightly less than an hour to complete. Participants in Montreal and Mississauga received an honorarium of $85; those in Vancouver received a $100 honorarium.

In addition to ensuring all participants were parents of children 18 years of age or younger, we also used recruitment screening questions to ensure a good mix of age, educational attainment and income levels in each session.

One advertising concept (in rough cut format) was tested.  The ad was shown twice in each session, followed by a group discussion. Participants also filled out a short worksheet prior to opening up the floor for a more detailed discussion.

Please note that this research is qualitative in nature and, therefore, findings detailed herein cannot be extrapolated to the Canadian population; they should be viewed as directional.

The total expenditure for this research was $42,041.65 (including HST).

Political Neutrality Certification

This certification is to be submitted with the final report submitted to the Project Authority.

I hereby certify as Senior Officer of Marc Beaudoin that the deliverables fully comply with the Government of Canada political neutrality requirements outlined in the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada and Procedures for Planning and Contracting Public Opinion Research.

Signed: