Though Canada is a progressive nation when it comes to trans rights, trans people have found getting insurance difficult due to rules around IDs and gender identity. We needed a way to signal inclusivity, without being exploitative of the issue or seeming self-promoting. When we spoke to activists and people in the LGBTQ+ community, what we heard was how important representation was to their sense of progress. They didn’t want transgender issues to be a “trend”, they just wanted to be included as part of the normal fabric of life, and have their stories told in a way that highlighted similarities and not differences.

The creative idea was simple: a spot with a transgender actor as our star that didn’t make her identity the story. Instead, it was her optimism in the face of difficulties that became the center of the spot.

The spot features a wedding scene being rained out. Everything is soaked. The bride’s voiceover though, is a message of resilience about how, after triumphing over so much, a little rain is nothing.

Unlike insurance brands, we showed something going wrong but flipped it on its head, turning it into a story of optimism. You can overcome any situation in life when the most valuable thing you have is protected: your optimism.

Our actor was transgender. But her identity wasn’t the story. We did no PR surrounding her casting. We simply let her and the spot speak for themselves.

The rest happened behind the scenes: changing our website and process of applying for insurance. Removing the gender identification section from our application process helped remove any obstacles to access trans people may have, posed by the archaic rules around gender identity.

For the activists we spoke to, one seemingly small change in on our website meant a world of difference. Gender identification boxes were no longer part of our process. Plus, the lack of fanfare around Joslyn made our ad groundbreaking. A transgender actor as the face of an insurance company signaled inclusivity, but also represented a group of people who have felt alienated from the financial category altogether.

Social commentary, engagements and views poured in: with 2.3M views, 2.85M engagements and an engagement rate of 20% (4X our KPI). Despite the choice not to PR the ad, it was covered in publications across North America.

Those numbers were great news. But more important were the hundreds of messages across social thanking Sonnet for being so publicly inclusive. For the LGBTQ+ community, visibility matters and our work was an important step towards better and fairer representation for the transgender community.