Belairdirect is using different storytelling than insurers usually deploy to better connect with Ontario and Quebec consumers. The Intact brand has released a web series, channeling the popularity of content like 10 Essentials by GQ or What’s in my Bag?, where celebs are asked about items they cannot live without. The strategy is to remind Canadians how important it is to insure a home.

In this series of social videos, six public personalities, including three from Ontario – Inuk singer and activist Shina Nova, actress and writer Julie Nolke and TV host Elaine Lui – reveal five objects that are essential to them, like a silapaaq Inuit jacket made by Nova’s mom or a bracelet Nolke purchased with money from her first acting gig.

“We are active on social, but we had the opportunity to stand out a bit more and connect in a different way,” says Imen Zitouni, chief marketing officer at Belairdirect, who tells strategy having trusted influencers talking about the protection of cherished items was a natural fit for what the company does.

Zitouni says the brand has adopted a tone that allows it to push the envelope a little more. For example, to connect with Quebec consumers over home insurance, Belairdirect did a co-branded pizza promotion on Moving Day, while on the automotive side this past Valentine’s Day, Belairdirect dropped cheesy R’n’B jams to advocate for life in the slow lane. “We are home and auto experts, this is our bread and butter and this is our expertise,” she says.

For the campaign, the insurer is honing in an audience of “do it yourself-ers” who are typically younger people and more digitally inclined and deal-conscious, Zitouni explains. Agency partners include Clark Influence, Hill & Knowlton Canada and PHD.