Justification for Change

To: Katherine T. Astrich, OMB Desk Officer, Food and Nutrition Service

Through: Dawn Wolfgang, Information Clearance Officer

USDA Food and Nutrition Service

From: Alberta Frost, Director, Office of Analysis, Nutrition, and Evaluation

Judy Wilson, Director, Nutrition Services Staff

USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Re: Approved Generic OMB Clearance No. 0584-0524

Request Approval to Perform Formative Research –

Nutrition Education Public Service Advertising (PSA) Campaign

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services (USDA, FNCS) is requesting approval for concept testing under approved generic OMB Clearance No. 0584-0524. The following information is provided for your review.

1. Title of Project: Nutrition Education Public Service Advertising (PSA) Campaign

2. Control Number: 0584-0524

3. Public Affected by this Project: Food Stamp Program and other FNCS program recipients who are mothers of children 2 – 12 years old. Participants will include African - American, Anglo American, and English and Spanish speaking Hispanics.

4. Number of Interview Respondents: 24 respondents

Number of Screener Respondents: 75 respondents

5. Time / Interview Response: 30 minutes per interviewee response

Time / Confidentiality Response: 5 minutes per confidentiality statement

Time / Screener Response: 8 minutes per screening

6. Total Burden Hours on Public: 12 hours for interview responses

2 hours for confidentiality statements

10 hours for one-on-one screener responses

24 total burden hours

7. Project Background, Purpose, Objectives, Methodology and Outcome:

Background

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services (USDA, FNCS) have contracted with the Advertising Council to create a Nutrition Education Public Service Advertising (PSA) Campaign. The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization with a rich history of marshalling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public. The USDA and the Ad Council are partnering to develop the Nutrition Education Campaign to motivate moms and caregivers to provide better nutrition for themselves and their children.

The ads will inform parents and caregivers about the new Food Guidance System. Viewers will be directed to www.mypyramid.gov for more information. The Ad Council has secured the expertise of volunteer advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi to create and produce the PSAs on behalf of the Ad Council and the USDA. The PSAs will encourage moms to learn more about ways they can improve the eating habits for themselves and their children by visiting a website or receiving other materials that provide information on healthy nutrition. The PSAs will be targeted to mothers and caregivers with children ages 2 – 12 years old - with an emphasis on low-income.

Saatchi & Saatchi has reviewed existing research and studies on the issue of healthy nutrition from multiple sources, including industry, advocacy, and government agencies. Based on this extensive research review, they have developed a campaign strategy outlining the main message of the campaign and how to best communicate that message. The strategy has been reviewed and approved by the Ad Council, USDA, and the Ad Council’s Creative Review Committee, a volunteer committee of leading creative advertising executives from various advertising agencies nationwide. The Creative Review Committee is designed to review and approve all creative work developed by the Ad Council to ensure that it is of the highest possible quality and that it will spur the most effective social change.

With strategy approval secured from all parties, Saatchi & Saatchi has developed creative concepts based on the key points in the strategy. The concepts reflect the main message and tonality criteria as they are described in the approved strategy. The creative concepts to be tested will include television storyboards (Attachment 3).

Objectives

An important component of the campaign development process is to market test the proposed creative concepts among the approved target audience prior to producing the final creative products. The feedback gained from the message testing will provide valuable direction on any revisions that may need to be made to the creative concepts in order to enhance and/or clarify the campaign’s message to the target audience.

The objective of the testing is to determine the following:

• How well the target audience understands the concepts (including the main message and the call-to-action).

• The overall appeal of the concepts.

• The strengths and weaknesses of the concepts.

• The relevancy of the concepts to the target audience.

• How motivating the concepts are in encouraging the target audience to follow through on the call-to-action.

Concept testing is critical in order to assess the viability of the creative concepts among the target audience. The resulting information from the message testing will be used by the volunteer advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, to make any necessary revisions in order to increase the effectiveness of the PSAs. These revisions will be incorporated into the creative concepts prior to producing the PSAs in order to ensure the most motivating and effective public service advertising is produced.

Data Collection Methodology

Concept Testing

The concept testing data will be collected through twenty-four individual in-depth interviews (twelve per market) in cities representing two different geographic regions in the U.S (Table 1). The interviews will be conducted over two days and each interview will last approximately 30 minutes. Saatchi & Saatchi has hired a professional recruiting company to enlist the participants in the interview. The participants will be screened to ensure that they are mothers of children 2-12 years of age; they are not employed by a marketing, market research, or advertising company; and they have not participated in a market research discussion group within the past six months. In addition, the potential participants will be screened to provide groups that are diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, education, marital status, income levels, and FNS program eligibility. The detailed screener is attached (Attachment 1).

Table 1

Respondents	Location		Total
	Los Angeles, CA	Miami, FL
African-American	4	4	8
Hispanic	4	4	8
Caucasian	4	4	8
Total Interviews Per City	12	12	24

A professional market research moderator will conduct the interviews and prepare a summary report. A discussion guide will be used by the moderator during the interview to obtain insights from the interviewees about the creative concepts. The discussion guide is attached (Attachment 2). An assistant to the moderator will take notes and use tape recorders to capture participant comments. Verbatim and paraphrased quotes as well as nonverbal cues and impressions will be noted. Representatives from Saatchi & Saatchi, the Ad Council, and USDA may attend and observe the testing and provide their analysis and feedback, as well.

Respondent confidentiality will be maintained through several methods. All respondents will sign and date a confidentiality form prior to the start of each interview (Attachment 4). The form states that all information divulged in the discussion will be kept confidential and that participants may refuse to participate or discontinue participation in the interview at any time. The form will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. In addition, at the start of each interview the moderator will verbally remind all participants that their responses will not be used by anyone except USDA, and will be used for the sole purpose of guiding and enhancing the creative concepts. The summary report will reference the participants’ responses, but will not refer to the participants’ specific personal information in any way.

Data Analysis

Data collected during concept testing will be analyzed in an aggregate manner. All interviews will be analyzed and reported as a whole data set for the respective audience segments that are the targets of this project. Although ethnic differences will be considered, the small sample size will not make it possible to analyze data on a State or local basis.

Burden Estimate

We estimate that the response time for the concept testing will be 30 minutes per interview. The confidentiality form will add an additional 5 minutes to the response time. To identify the 24 interview participants, we estimate that we will need to screen approximately 75 people for approximately 8 minutes each. Thus, the response time will be 840 minutes for the 24 interviewees and 600 minutes for the 75 screened individuals which equals 24 total burden hours. The testing will involve no startup or operational costs to respondents.

Outcome

Information and formative input data gathered from the specific target audiences will help the advertising staff and USDA decision makers to identify concepts that are most effective for this audience. Data collected will be used only for the purposes outlined and will not be published.

8. Participants will be informed of confidentiality and privacy act provisions (Attachment 4) before the interview.

9. Federal Costs: $23,950.00

10. Requested Approval Date: September 15, 2006.

11. Concept Testing Tools:

Attachment 1: Screener for Recruiting

Attachment 2: Discussion Guide for Interviews

Attachment 3: Television Storyboards

Attachment 4: Confidentiality Statement

Contact Information

Questions regarding this data collection request can be directed to Jean Daniels at 202-690-3946 or Pat Seward at 703-305-2428.

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