Evaluation of Phase IV of the Tax Relief Measures Advertising Campaign: Individuals

Prepared for the:
Canada Revenue Agency
March 2011
Contract # 46558-114525/001/CY
POR 098-10
Contract Award Date: 2011-03-02


Prepared by:
Ekos Research Associates Inc.

Media Enquiries:
Media Relations
Canada Revenue Agency
4th Floor 555 MacKenzie Avenue
Ottawa ON K1A 0L5
media.relations@cra-arc.gc.ca

Background

Phase IV of the Tax Relief Measures advertising campaign took place from January 17 to end of March 2011. An advertising budget of $6.5 million has been approved for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to produce the campaign. The first part of the Phase IV campaign took place in the fall of 2010 and promoted tax relief measures for small and medium businesses. The SME campaign advertising budget was approximately $800,000 from the $6.5 million allocation.

Phase I of the ad campaign was produced in February 2008, Phase 2 in January – February 2009, and Phase 3 in January – March 2010. A post-campaign evaluation, using the Advertising Campaign Evaluation Tool (ACET), is mandatory for all government advertising campaigns in which media buys exceed $1 million.

Phase IV of the ad campaign includes television, print and Internet ads, as well as electronic-based partnership activities, graphics on the T-1 boxes, an information page in T-1 guides, and videos on the CRA social media channels.

The campaign is intended to achieve the following:

• raise awareness of the tax relief measures introduced by the Government of Canada;
• increase the number of individuals who claim the tax credits and benefits to which they may be entitled;
• increase the number of individuals who file electronically and on time;

Specifically the ad campaign is focusing on the following:

1. Pension Income Splitting
2. Children’s Fitness Tax Credit
3. First-Time Homebuyers’ Tax Credit
4. Public Transit Tax Credit
5. Tradesperson’s Tools Deduction

Research Objectives

This research is required to evaluate the effectiveness of this advertising campaign with Canadians.

The objectives are to assess:

• The unaided and aided awareness of the advertisements;
• The message recall;
• The sponsorship/attribution of the advertisement;
• The impact, in terms of action in response to the advertisement;
• The awareness and use of the cra.gc.ca/taxcuts Web site;
• The use of the web site by Canadians to conduct their transactions (i.e. file taxes online); and
• If the creative aspect resonated with the target audience.

The cost for completing this project was $21,783.39 (exclusive of HST), and $24,615.23 including HST.

Date modified:

2011-09-20