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Evaluation of the Electoral Reminder Program (ERP) for the 42nd Canadian Federal Election

Executive Summary

Nielsen is pleased to present this report to Elections Canada highlighting the findings from the evaluation of the Electoral Reminder Program (ERP) for the 42nd Canadian federal election surveys.

Nielsen conducted a multi-phase research program leading up to, and directly following, the 42nd Canadian federal election. The purpose of the research program was to evaluate Elections Canada's ERP. The research program included five waves of an online tracking survey, a telephone post-campaign evaluation survey for comparison purposes, and a series of in-person and online focus groups. Each phase was customized to target audiences of interest to Elections Canada.

The following represent the key findings of this research program:

  • Voter knowledge increased significantly over the course of the campaign. By election day, the majority of electors surveyed felt informed about where, when and the ways to vote. ID requirements were well known by the vast majority of electors. For the various ways to vote, knowledge of advance polls was high (the vast majority of electors), but lower for local Elections Canada offices and by mail. A majority also believed that registration was required to vote and that it should be updated if voter information changes.
  • Overall, the ERP responded to electors' information needs. Satisfaction with the information received from Elections Canada regarding the voting process increased as the communications program progressed. By the end of the ERP, very few electors had information needs that had not been met.
  • Elections Canada was seen as the key source for information on the voting process in the Benchmark survey, and this increased steadily throughout the campaign. Elections Canada was the organization that was named most frequently as a voter's go-to source for information. The majority of electors were familiar with Elections Canada and viewed it as the most trusted and most credible source of information related to the voting process.
  • By target group, general population electors and electors with a disability were the most knowledgeable and aware of the voting process. Aboriginal electors had a fair level of knowledge regarding the voting process as well. Students and new voters had a lower level of knowledge of the voting process throughout the communications program. However, in all target groups, knowledge and awareness of the voting process increased by the end of the ERP.
  • Between the Benchmark survey and post-campaign survey, the unaided recall of ads and communications pieces related to the voting process doubled from two in five to four in five electors. For context, typical unaided recall of campaigns evaluated with the Advertising Campaign Evaluation Tool (ACET) surveysFootnote 1 by Nielsen is less than half of respondents.
  • Unaided recall of ads or communications pieces that were thought to be funded by Elections Canada increased over the course of the ERP from one in twenty to one in four electors. Although this was lower than what Nielsen typically sees when conducting ACET surveys, it was likely a result of the volume of election-related ads and communications pieces distributed by other organizations.
  • Unaided recall of the messages of the ads or communications pieces went from focusing on partisan messages at the beginning of the election campaign to voting logistics, such as where, when and the ways to vote, by the end of the campaign. Throughout, a commonly interpreted message was to be reminded or encouraged to vote. Recall of the date of the election was also high throughout the campaign.
  • The most commonly recalled ads or communications pieces were on television. By the end of the campaign, unaided recall of direct mail (which includes the voter information card, or VIC, and reminder brochure) increased to second-most, followed by newspaper. Radio and out-of-home and Internet ads were recalled by fewer electors.
  • Of the specific communications pieces tested, the VIC and reminder brochure were by far the most recalled pieces. This was expected given the wide reach of these pieces, with the VIC distributed to all registered voters and the reminder brochure distributed to all households. Moreover, the VIC was personalized with information specific to an individual voter, which is more effective than typical, more generic advertising campaigns.
  • The VIC was seen as the most important piece to facilitate voting. Many who believed they were registered to vote knew that they were registered because they had received their VIC in the mail. In the qualitative focus groups, many described the VIC as the communications piece that initiated the voting process for them given that it contained information specific to where, when and the ways they could vote.
  • Overall recall of the ads increased as the campaign progressed. The ERP was a continual campaign for 37 days that transitioned from one key message to the next. Recall was lower for the Registration campaign (which ran from September 14 to 20) and higher for the Election Day campaign (October 13–19); the VIC ad campaign (October 4–8) and Advance Poll campaign (October 7–12) were mid-level in comparison. The high level of recall in the Election Day campaign may have been a result of the cumulative recall of earlier ads since all ads had the election date in them. The level of recall was in line with other ad campaigns Nielsen has tested using the ACET.
  • Recalling any of the prompted Elections Canada advertisements or communications pieces led some electors to feel prepared to vote or to decide to vote. For others, they were not spurred into action since the ads or communications pieces communicated information that they already knew.
  • The majority of Elections Canada website users were satisfied with their experience. Visits to the website remained consistent over the ERP evaluation period. Although voting location was consistently searched by website users, some information needs changed; information sought by website users in the early stages of the ERP focused on the registration process, but shifted to ID requirements in the later stages of the ERP.
  • Finally, reported actual behaviours related to the voting process reflected the success of the ERP. The majority of respondents claimed to be registered to vote in a federal election. Various ways of voting were used, with in-person on election day used by two thirds of respondents and advance polls used by almost one third of respondents. A driver's licence was the most common form of identification used to prove identity and address when voting.

Footnote 1 ACET is a standard tool used by the government of Canada that tests awareness, recall and comprehension of advertisements.