As Canada’s largest home, auto and business insurance company, Intact is the nationwide leader. But the brand didn’t always act like a leader. For starters, its visual identity hadn’t changed much since its inception—playing it safe and looking dated, even by the industry’s conservative standards.

But the reality is that insurance is generally an unloved category. Due to the nature of the business, insurance companies are often associated with negative events like accidents or illnesses. Consumers pay premiums each month and get nothing concrete in return. Additionally, trust is also a concern, with many feeling like their insurers prioritize their own interests above all else.

It was time for a change, both at the brand and market level. Intact saw an opportunity to reaffirm its leadership by taking action, with objectives of increasing awareness and strengthening its position as the most highly-regarded player in the country.

Focus groups revealed consumers are sick of hearing about risk and negative events. Our strategy: Intact should be the brand that chooses proactivity when all others are reactive, the one that reverses the trend by getting back to insurance basics.

But how do you signal you’re doubling down on your purpose and those you exist to serve? By shifting the entire focus of your brand from “us” to “them.”

Intact did this by leveraging its most recognizable asset: the square brackets of its logo. And by making them protect not just its own name like before, but everything else too. Family. Friends. Pets. Homes. Belongings. Moments. Our world became their world—embodying all the energy and beauty of human life.

This simple change elevated the Intact brand by putting people at its heart. Just like that, the message was clear: with Intact, if it matters to you, it matters to us.

With new behaviours and new dimensions, the Intact brackets became a more dynamic and meaningful graphic device, at the core of a fully revamped brand platform.

The palette was expanded to include more vibrant and distinctive complementary colours. A new mixed-typography approach was introduced to support more meaningful and flexible communications. This was paired with a more caring, audience-focused tone of voice that allows for more emotion and deeper connections. The imagery also evolved, moving away from category clichés and focusing more on story and authenticity instead.

With these new elements in place, a complete communications ecosystem was launched in fall 2023, including awareness campaigns (TV, online video, out-of-home, digital banners and paid social), materials for broker partners, refreshed assets for employees, as well as organic social media content, public relations initiatives and content partnerships. In this way, the new platform supported the entire consumer journey, including Intact’s human touchpoints.

The new identity is already making an impact, knowing that consumers request quotes from the first three insurance companies that come to mind when they need coverage.

With a record-breaking 75% increase in attribution (+22% in Quebec), Intact secured its spot at the top of the brand recall charts (1st in Quebec, 2nd in the rest of Canada).

Those who saw the campaign were twice as likely to request a quote. They were also twice as likely to believe that Intact offers the best claims experience and the best value for money.

Interestingly, the new platform’s warm tones, visual appeal and modern storytelling got the attention of younger-than-usual audiences for Intact (with brand attribution at 54% among adults 25–29), helping the brand broaden its reach.

In a highly competitive category, Intact was able to reinvent itself, setting the stage for future ambitions, while also renewing its commitment to Canadians.