POR Number: POR 034-14
Contract Number: G9292-151764/001/CY
Award Date: 2014-11-06
End date of fieldwork: February 22nd, 2015
Contracted cost of the qualitative research (including HST): $53,753.77

Narrative Executive Summary - Quantitative Research: 2014-2015 Skills Initiative “Canada Apprentice Loan” Advertising Campaign (Fall 2014)

Prepared for Employment and Social Development Canada
nc-por-rop-gd@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca

March 2015

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1. Introduction

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) commissioned Phoenix Strategic Perspectives (Phoenix) to conduct quantitative research related to the Canada Apprentice Loan advertising campaign.

1.1 Background

The Canada Apprentice Loan (CAL) is an ESDC program designed to help apprentices registered in any Red Seal certification with the direct costs of skills training (e.g., tuition and materials) by providing interest-free federal loans of up to $4,000 per period of technical training.

The goal of the CAL is to encourage greater employment in the Red Seal trades to align with job opportunities in sectors facing skilled trades mismatches and shortages, and to make it easier for Canadian apprentices to train for and find employment. Applications for the CAL have been accepted in provinces and territories as of January 1, 2015.

This campaign sought to increase awareness and take up of the CAL, as well as other Government of Canada apprenticeship programs and services, including the Apprenticeship Incentive Grant, Apprenticeship Completion Grant, Employment Insurance support for apprentices on training, and tax credits. The advertising campaign ran from December 22^nd, 2014 to February 15^th, 2015 with ads appearing on television, radio, newspaper, and web (video and banner ads).¹ The total media-buy for the campaign was over $1 million.

1.2 Research Objectives

According to the Government of Canada’s Communications Policy, federal government advertising valued at more than $1 million must be assessed post-campaign to determine its impact and value. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the “Canada Apprentice Loan” advertising campaign using the Government of Canada’s standardized Advertising Campaign Evaluation Tool, or ACET survey.

The specific objectives of this research were to measure:

unaided recall of the advertising campaign;
aided recall of the advertising campaign by media;
recall of key messages of the campaign; and
awareness of who was responsible for producing the ads.

The results will be used by the Government of Canada to assess the effectiveness of the Canada Apprentice Loan advertisements.

1.3 Total Contract Value

The total contract value of this research was $53,753.77, including HST.

2. Methodology

A telephone survey was conducted with a nationally disproportionate sample of 2,210 Canadians, 18 years of age and older, which included an oversample of young adults, aged 18 to 25 years.

Based on a sample of this size, the overall results are considered to be accurate to within ±2.2% (adjusted to take into account the stratified sample), 19 times out of 20 (95% confidence interval).