News from the profession

A summary of current CICA projects and initiatives

Does Decisions Matter matter? Taking stock of the CA profession’s branding initiatives

Photographs: Michael Dizon

In a few weeks, Canada’s CAs will launch the second phase of their Decisions Matter advertising campaign, introduced in January 2009 as part of a broader branding initiative for the CA profession.

News from the profession recently caught up with Daniel McMahon, FCA, chair of the CA Branding Committee; Tom Arget, research head, Chawla & Associates; and David Williams, vice-president account planner with advertising agency Draftfcb, to find out about the impact of the first wave of the ad campaign and the objectives for phase two.

What were the challenges facing the CA profession that led to the decision to mount an advertising campaign?

McMahon: Today, governments and the business community recognize CA as the most credible and respected designation, not only for essential financial competencies and general business skills, but also for the core values of the profession — namely, integrity, trust and objectivity. They also recognize CAs as leaders in terms of business insight and strategic thinking. So we have an enviable reputation already. Our challenge is quite simple: maintaining and enhancing our position as leader in a more and more competitive market.

Branding committee chair, Daniel McMahon (left); David Williams (top right) and Tom Arget (bottom right) discuss the impact of the first wave of the ad campaign

Some people question whether a profession like ours should advertise at all. What do you think?

Williams: Competitors in the accounting field have started to blur the lines in terms of what accounting designations are really worth through their advertising. Our advertising can stop them from blurring the lines. It can reinforce our market leadership. We like to say that advertising can help keep the CA badge shiny.

What were you hoping to achieve in the first phase of the Decisions Matter campaign?

Williams: The business audience gives CAs credit for being the gold standard among accountants in Canada. Yet many have a narrow view of what roles CAs are suitable for. Not enough of them realize that CAs are well suited for leadership and C-suite roles. We wanted to address that and take a real leadership stance.

We noticed that other designations talk about what kind of accountants they are. We felt CAs should rise above that conversation. As leaders, CAs shouldn’t get caught up in who studies the most or who is more creative. The CA profession should be talking about the end benefits that CAs offer — being the type of people you want around when it’s time to make a decision.

The tone of these ads seems different from other professional services communications. What led you to go down that path?

McMahon: We purposely used a humorous approach because it is warm and memorable. Our ad campaign demonstrates the importance of the decision-making process and points out that when decisions really matter to you, you need to be dealing with a CA.

Where have the ads been appearing?

Williams: We launched a fully integrated campaign that appears on specialty TV, radio, business newspapers and magazines, and throughout major airports across the country. We leveraged consumer insights to connect with influential business professionals where they live, work and play. This led us to selecting media based on premium business environments where we were able to deliver maximum reach and frequency to the managers, owners, professionals and executives (MOPEs) targets.

Are there regional differences in the campaign?

Williams: Regionally, there aren’t any major differences. The campaign was created to work well across Canada — both in English and French. Our French and English teams worked together to create a truly bilingual campaign.

The Decisions Matter campaign only started last year. Does the research indicate any change in how the business community sees the CA profession?

Arget: CA continues to surpass CGA and CMA designations by significant margins. However, overall positive impressions of all accounting designations showed some decline. This can be traced to a more reserved attitude in the business community brought about by the 2008-2009 economic crisis.

Nonetheless, early indications are that the Decisions Matter campaign shows strong communication value. Recall of the ads among businesspeople and affluent Canadian households exceeds previous CA Advantage messaging, as well as CGA and CMA advertising.

Many CAs work in small communities and with small businesses. Did the message resonate with the small-business audience?

Arget: The Decisions Matter campaign resonates equally well with businesspeople in large and small organizations. Among those who recalled seeing the advertising, six out of 10 assigned positive ratings to their overall impression of the message and the way in which it is communicated.

Did the message come across equally to all members?

Arget: At the time CA members were surveyed, they demonstrated a strong long-term increase in awareness of advertising for the profession but were more likely to identify the earlier CA Advantage ads rather than the new Decisions Matter campaign. This might be because of the study’s timing, which was fielded May 4, 2009, immediately following this year’s income tax season, an intensely busy period for many members of the profession.

Some regional differences were also noted among CA members. On a national level, 65% of CAs assigned strong impression ratings to the Decisions Matter campaign. In Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, the number was higher at 75% and 73% respectively, offsetting a lower number of CAs in British Columbia, where 57% assigned positive impression ratings. Members in other regions awarded positive impression scores in line with the national average: remaining Atlantic Provinces (61%), Ontario (63%) and the Prairie provinces (64%). When members did not assign top ratings, they were most likely to be neutral in their assessments of the new campaign.

How durable is Decisions Matter as a campaign theme?

Williams: We feel it can be durable for many years. The good thing is that we aren’t tied to the current formula. Decisions Matter can come to life in lots of different ways beyond the advertising you’ve seen this past year.

Arget: I agree. Pre-testing of the Decisions Matter campaign and results of the subsequent advertising awareness studies suggest the campaign is durable and lends itself to further executions that refresh the decision-making premise inherent in the message.

Did the Decisions Matter campaign fulfill the branding committee’s objectives?

McMahon: As you might expect, the committee’s objectives are long term. The Decisions Matter campaign is a normal evolution of our branding strategy. This new campaign fulfills almost all our objectives at this stage.

Since the campaign seems to have been successful, why can’t we stop now?

Williams: Success means fending off other professional designations. That job will probably never be done to the point where we don’t need to reinforce the value of the CA designation any more. Our competitors aren’t going to stop any time soon — they have too much to gain by blurring the lines and suggesting that their designations are comparable in value.

Arget: Continuity of advertising ensures a cumulative build of awareness that translates to greater efficiencies. Lengthy in-terruptions in an advertising schedule lead to a decline in message and brand awareness, sometimes in a relatively short time. It also creates the need to rebuild awareness to the level previously achieved, incurring costs and possibly a loss of competitive advantage.

From each of your perspectives, how does this campaign position CAs in a different light than other designations?

Williams: I think the best thing about Decisions Matter is that it doesn’t debate other designations on what flavour of accounting is the best. Instead, it says, “We’re the people you want around when it’s time to make a decision. We get it.” That’s how a leader should act.

McMahon: Absolutely. Making a claim is easy. Delivering the promise is a whole other ball game. The business community, governments and the student community are well aware that the CA profession walks the talk.

Arget: The Decisions Matter campaign positions CAs in a clear, convincing manner, consistent with the CA brand vision, which is to shift the image of CAs to one of leadership as key decision-makers in senior executive positions. The majority of businesspeople and CA members participating in this research recalled the strong “decision-making” message in the advertising they saw, and associated this specifically with the CA brand.

What are you hoping to achieve now that we are into the second wave of advertising?

Williams: Brand ideas take hold over time. We’re looking to solidify the campaign in MOPEs’ minds, as well as add a few new elements to it. We want to see Decisions Matter really take root in their minds so we have a strong foundation to build on in the future.

Finally, where do you see the brand/designation’s communication going in the future?

McMahon: Undoubtedly, our communication about the CA brand will continue to evolve but the underlying objective will remain the same — it is all about differentiation, demonstrating the unique and distinctive value of the CA brand. That’s what makes our members the No. 1 choice.

Public sector update — amendment to the Introduction impacts government organizations

The Public Sector Accounting Board approved an amendment to the Introduction to Public Sector Accounting Standards. The board confirmed that government business enterprises — self-sustaining, commercial-type operations — will change over to international financial reporting standards in 2011. This will maintain the ability to compare similar entities in the public and private sector.

The amendment eliminates the classification of government business-type organizations and requires other government organizations to assess the needs of the users of their financial statements to determine the most appropriate basis of accounting, either PSABs’ standards or IFRSs.

The amendment comes into effect for fiscal years be-ginning on or after January 1, 2011.

Go to www.psab-ccsp.ca to learn more.

Taxpayers’ ombudsman speaks at CICA conference

Paul Dubé, Canada’s taxpayers’ ombudsman, welcomes opportunities to speak to tax professionals. Dubé gave the opening keynote address at the National Conference on Income Taxes recently staged in Toronto by the CICA.

He called tax professionals a key group of stakeholders in the tax administration system.

The two-day gathering is the country’s leading in-come tax conference for practitioners serving owner-managed businesses.

Dubé was appointed to the position of taxpayers’ ombudsman in February 2008. His role is to uphold the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and to see that taxpayers get professional service and fair treatment from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

“Until recently in Canada, taxpayers and benefit recipients who felt that they had not received professional service or fair treatment from the CRA had only one place to go if they wanted to file a complaint— back to the CRA,” says Dubé.

In addition to investigating individual complaints, his office identifies and investigates systemic and emerging issues relating to service and fairness. “Many complaints about service are due to an underlying systemic issue that will cause the problem to recur if not corrected,” says Dubé.

In its first year of operation, the taxpayers’ ombudsman office received about 4,000 contacts and conducted reviews of almost 900 individual taxpayer complaints. However, Dubé used his speech to put things into context. He noted that the CRA interacts with more Canadians than any other federal government organization and processes approximately 24 million individual tax returns and 1.6 million corporate returns each year.

“Taxpayers don’t expect the CRA to be perfect — they just want it to fix things when they go wrong,” says Dubé.

New quality control standard for firms effective December 15, 2009

Quality Control for Firms that Perform Audits and Reviews of Financial Statements, and Other Assurance Engagements, or CSQC 1, comes into effect this month. All firms performing assurance engagements should have the required policies and procedures in place by December 15, 2009. Learn more at www.cica.ca/cas.

Skilled workforce mobility subject of Canada/EU roundtable

While there are many new CAs trained every year, the growing number of CAs who are baby-boomers getting ready to retire will create an even greater demand for new CAs in the near future. To maintain the CA profession, there is an increasing need for the talent and expertise of qualified foreign-trained professionals. Ensuring fair and transparent processes for assessing their credentials and helping them prepare to become Canadian CAs is critical as more accountants immigrate to Canada.

This was the subject of a presentation by Tim Forristal, CICA’s vice-president education, at the European Union/Canada Roundtable on the Mobility of the Skilled Workforce, recently held in Brussels, Belgium. A joint initiative of the Canadian Public Policy Forum and the European Policy Centre, this invitation-only roundtable focused on facilitating mobility between Canada and the EU, and in the longer term will contribute to the goal of a Canada/EU free trade agreement.

Canada’s CA profession is known as a leader in international labour mobility and in foreign credential recognition. The national and provincial bodies have considerable expertise in determining substantial equivalency of foreign qualifications in a fair and transparent manner, while ensuring the maintenance of domestic professional standards. The Canadian CA model of mutual recognition agreements garnered widespread interest at the roundtable, particularly because it already covers eight EU professional accounting bodies.

To download the presentation and find out more about the EU/Canada roundtable, go to www.ppforum.com/events/mobility-skilled-workforce-european-unioncanada-roundtable.