Executive Summary

Concept and Message Testing for 
Canada’s Economic Action Plan (EAP):  Credit Card Regulations Campaign

January, 2011

POR 077-10

Prepared for:
The Department of Finance
140 O’Connor Street
613-943-0193
e-mail: webmaster.webmestre@fin.gc.ca

Prepared By
Léger Marketing

Ce rapport est aussi disponible en français sur demande.
For more information, contact webmaster.webmestre@fin.gc.ca

Contract Number 60074-100200/001/CY
Awarded November 18th, 2010

Executive Summary

Léger Marketing is pleased to present Finance Canada with the results from the advertising pre-testing of the Credit Card Regulations Campaign.  Leger Marketing conducted an on-line survey of 403 Adult (18+) Canadians between November 23rd and November 26th, 2010.  The following report details the audience’s perceptions and attitudes towards the proposed advertising concepts. 
1.1	Research Objectives and Methodology 
The objectives of the research were to test three creative approaches to the advertising campaign in order to determine which approach will be the most effective in achieving the following:
•	raise awareness of  the new credit card regulations recently introduced  by the Government of Canada (GoC);
•	increase the percentage of Canadians who visit the FCAC website, including the interactive tools. 
•	Assess the communication effectiveness of each creative concept 
•	Identify which of the concepts is strongest overall in communicating the intended messages
•	Identify possible revisions to each creative concept that might improve its communication effectiveness

The research was conducted using an online survey that hosted the creative concepts.  Three radio concepts and two web banners were tested. Participants viewed (or listened to) the concepts and then answered a series of questions about the concepts.  

8,928 emails invitations were sent with a stratification process applied to invitation lists to ensure optimal representation of respondents by geographical region and the survey was opened by 847 individuals and completed by 403 individuals.  Concepts were randomly shown so as to account for an order bias in the survey. 

The data was weighted to be representative of the overall Canadian population by region, gender and age.  The survey took approximately 20 minutes to complete (median completion time).  It was in field from November 23rd, to November 26th. 

Prior to fielding the study, a pre-test of 20 interviews was completed, including 10 interviews in English and 10 in French, to ensure proper flow and timing for the questionnaire and proper understanding of survey questions.  The pre-test was completed on November 23rd, 2010.  Five open ended questions asked participants to expand on their experience and comprehension of the survey.  No major technical issues were reported, and participants did not note any issues in comprehending the questions.  

1.2	Overview of Findings

In general the radio concepts were better liked than the web concepts.

The Change concept was the leading radio concept tested with 68% of Canadians “liking” this concept either “a bit” (30%) or “a lot” (38%).

The Change concept was liked a lot by females (37%) vs. 23% of males.  French speaking Canadians are more likely to dislike the concept compared to English speaking Canadians (21% vs. 9%).

The News concept was liked by approximately half (50%) of the respondents.  It was not liked by younger Canadians, 18-24 (32%) compared to Older Canadians, 55-64 who like the concept (62%). University educated Canadians were more likely to “dislike a lot”  (11%).  French speaking Canadians dislike news a bit (27%) compared to only 16% of English speaking Canadians.

The Self Defense concept is liked by a higher percentage of French speaking Canadians (52%) compared with only 39% of English speaking Canadians

Of the two web concepts tested, the “Wallet” concept had higher likability scores with 17% of Canadians liking the concept a lot and 36% liking it a bit for a total likability score of 53%. The “Credit Card” concept had lower scores with 10% liking the concept a lot and 31% liking the concept a bit for a total likability of 41%.  In general the Internet concepts did not perform as well as the radio concepts.

1.3 Political Neutrality Statement and Contact Information

I hereby certify as Senior Officer of Leger Marketing 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.  Specifically, the deliverables do not include information on electoral voting intentions, political party preferences, standings with the electorate or ratings of the performance of a political party or its leaders.
Signed: Christian Bourque

The contract value for this project is $19,385.15  

2. Note on interpretation of research findings

This report was compiled by Leger Marketing based on the survey results conducted specifically for this project. 
2.1 	Findings
Results for the quantitative portion of this research are deemed representative of the adult Canadian on-line population. Data was weighted according to Statistics Canada census data to emulate the overall Canadian population. 

Leger Marketing is a certified member of the Gold Seal of MRIA and follows the principles, norms and standards of MRIA, ESOMAR and the Government of Canada's Internet surveys. Leger Marketing is an active member of this professional association and supports the policies pursued by it, including failure to report the margin of error for online surveys.