Post Testing of the Drug Impaired Driving Advertising Campaign

Summary

Prepared for:

Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada

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For more information on this report, please email:

ps.communications-communications.sp@canada.ca

Ekos Research Associates

Contact: Susan Galley

Ottawa Office

359 Kent Street, Suite 300

Ottawa, Ontario

K2P 0R6

Tel: (613) 235 7215

Fax: (613) 235 8498

E-mail: pobox@ekos.com

www.ekos.com

Summary

Introduction

The Government of Canada has legalized, to regulate, and restrict access to cannabis to keep it out of the hands of children, and the profits out of the hands of criminals. There is a corresponding need for the Government of Canada to learn more about the public's awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours with respect to risks and penalties associated with drug-impaired driving. Of particular interest to the government are younger Canadians, among whom marijuana use is more prevalent. The need to explore this area of public opinion is spurred by the recent legalization of marijuana in 2018, in an effort to regulate and restrict access to its use.

Background

Public Safety Canada's mandate is to keep Canadians safe from a range of risks, including drug-impaired driving. Research has shown that many Canadians are concerned about drug-impaired drivers on public roads, and that many cannabis users – particularly younger users – are not aware it impairs driving, underestimating the risk. The Department has therefore been mandated to deliver a public awareness campaign to inform Canadians of the dangers and risks associated with drug-impaired driving in light of its impending legalization. Specifically, this national marketing and advertising campaign was designed to increase public awareness of the dangers and risks associated with drug-impaired driving, even as its legal status changes. The campaign was launched in 2017, continuing in intervals throughout 2018 and 2019, including multimedia advertising.

As the Drug Impaired Driving Campaign exceeds $1,000,000, public opinion research is required by the Treasury Board Secretariat using the Advertising Campaign Evaluation Tool in two phases; a benchmarking phase prior to the campaign, and a post-campaign phase. Data collection to evaluate the advertising campaign supports the Government of Canada's goal of effectively gauging Canadians awareness and knowledge of the dangers of drug-impaired driving, and determining the effectiveness of these campaign tools in influencing Canadians' knowledge and behaviour. Information gathered from this process will provide Public Safety Canada with concrete data that will assist in developing/adjusting future media strategies.

Research Purpose

Specifically, the purpose of the quantitative baseline and post-testing was to jointly evaluate the Drug Impaired Driving campaign and to gauge:

Unaided and aided recall of the campaign and of key messages;
Canadians' awareness/knowledge of the campaign as seen on television, web and social media;
Understanding of the messaging and performance in increasing awareness of the dangers of drug impaired driving, particularly for teens and young adults who may not fully understand the risks;
Campaign effectiveness in promoting personal relevance (i.e., connecting to an individuals' life experiences designed to increase motivation to learn more, as well as engagement and knowledge in the topic, and general recall of the message) among Canadians.

Information obtained through this public opinion research can be extrapolated to the wider population of Canadians as the sample was provided from a randomly recruited survey panel. This allows Public Safety Canada to determine the impact of its advertising campaign and provide direction on areas where the campaign can be adjusted to reach a broader Canadian public. The findings provide useful information to improve future campaigns which are better targeted, more informative and better geared to the target population and Canadians at large.

Sample design

Two bilingual, national online surveys were conducted: one as a baseline, in advance of the campaign, and one following the end of the campaign to measure change in awareness and intent to visit over time, to assess impact of the campaign. The baseline included 2,007 Canadians 16 years of age or older, and the post campaign sample also included 2,016 Canadians, also 16 years of age or older. In each sample, roughly 430 cases were completed across the two target groups (i.e., 209 and 221 with youth in the pre- and post-campaign surveys, and 221 and 206 with parents in the pre- and post-campaign surveys, respectively.) Each survey instrument was based on the Advertising Campaign Evaluation Tool questions used by the Government of Canada in all of its advertising evaluation research, adding a few questions testing the impact on knowledge, perceptions and behaviour targeted through the campaign. Each survey instrument included a sample of randomly selected respondents from all provinces and territories. Each survey sample relied on Ekos' Probit panel, which is assembled using a random digit dial process for sampling from a blended land-line cell-phone frame, and provides full coverage of Canadians with telephone access. The distribution of the recruitment process is meant to mirror the actual population in Canada (as defined by Statistics Canada). As such, our more than 90,000 member panel can be considered representative of the general public in Canada (meaning that the incidence of a given target population within our panel closely resembles the public at large) and margins of error can be applied.

The contract value for the POR project is $45,124.29 (including HST).

Supplier Name: Ekos Research Associates

PWGSC Contract : 0D160-200323/001/CY

Contract Award Date: April 24, 2019

To obtain more information on this study, please e-mail

mailto:TPSGC.Questions-Questions.PWGSC@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca