Green Shield has tapped Broken Heart Love Affair as its agency of record as it looks to transform its brand in the Canadian market.

BHLA, known for its strong brand work and mission to “bring back the love for brands,” is mandated to help the not-for-profit enterprise reposition itself as Canada’s first integrated payer-provider. Green Shield has spent the past few years rolling out a suite of services in the mental health, pharmacy and medical services areas, and promoting that breadth of service will be a key part of the new assignment.

“As we lead the industry in creating a new category, we needed an agency with deep expertise in brand love, strong strategic capabilities and equally strong creative chops to help us clearly differentiate ourselves,” explains Mandy Mail, Green Shield’s SVP of marketing and communications (pictured above). “Broken Heart Love Affair and its senior team of decorated brand experts was absolutely the right choice for us at this important juncture in the life of our organization.”

Mail was hired by the organization earlier this year with the mandate to build out the organization’s marketing and awareness efforts, particularly related to its social mission. As a not-for-profit enterprise, Green Shield reinvests its earnings into professional healthcare offerings for local communities and underserved Canadians. Last year, nearly 41,000 such Canadians benefited from these efforts, and building awareness for them – as well as a planned 5-year investment of $75-million expected to be complete by 2025 – is part of Mail’s new role.

BHLA, meanwhile, will bring its award-winning creative and strategic chops to bear for the organization to help push awareness of those social enterprise efforts, as well as the integration of new health services into the health and dental insurance programs the organization has offered for more than half a century.

“We are inspired by their courage to lean into a unique business model that not only breaks the mold in their sector, but also generates real benefits for Canadians in need,” says Beverley Hammond, partner and chief business officer at BHLA.