SSQ Insurance has selected Lg2 as its new agency of record as it looks to raise its profile outside of its home province.
The assignment, which does not have a fixed term, covers all of SSQ’s national marketing mandates, including brand strategy across its entire portfolio of insurance products. The account will be shared between Lg2’s offices in Toronto and Quebec City.
Lg2 began working with SSQ in April 2019 on an eight-month commitment to develop a national marketing strategy. Éric Trudel, senior vice-president, strategy and product management at SSQ Insurance, tells strategy this new assignment entails finalizing the strategy and deploying it over the next three years.
“I would say the main mandate is to help grow our brand awareness outside of Quebec,” Trudel says. He notes that, although SSQ Insurance has been around since 1944, it is “relatively new” outside of Quebec, with the company’s Toronto offices having opened in 2002. In 2018, SSQ develop a new brand identity that was revealed through a national campaign that was led by agency partner K72, which SSQ selected in 2017.
In terms of scope and how big of an account this is for Lg2, Jeremy Gayton, partner and president at Lg2 Toronto, couldn’t provide exact figures, but says that this account would fall into the agency’s top five clients within its portfolio. Since Lg2 has been working with SSQ Insurance since last April, Gayton says “a lot of key folks are already in place,” but that the creative agency will be “looking to round out” certain positions and departments like creative and strategy. The selection also marks Lg2’s return to the financial and insurance space, after former client Desjardins picked Bleublancrouge as its new AOR in 2018.
Trudel notes “the fit” between SSQ Insurance and Lg2 seemed to be there throughout the initial commitment phase, but Lg2’s integrated offering answered what it was looking for in a full-time AOR.
“The fact that they’re a really integrated agency that can answer all our needs in a one-stop shop,” Trudel says.
