Sports remains the focus for ING offshoot
Intact Insurance has chosen the Toronto-based S&E Sponsorship Group as its sponsorship agency of record.
S&E will be the first such AOR for the five-year-old Intact Financial Corporation (which broke off from ING Group in 2009). The agency will help develop Intact’s sponsorship strategy and work with both its brand team and agency network.
“We’ve had to build a brand from the ground up since [2009],” says Anna Rajpat, director of advertising, media and sponsorship at Intact.
“Advertising was one of the new things to consider, and quickly we saw a lot of value in sponsorship.”
Intact currently partners with three NHL teams, with rights that include brand spots during broadcasts. It also has a longstanding partnership with Speed Skating Canada, and will partner with TFC for this upcoming season as part of what Rajpat describes as a “test-and-learn approach.”
“Over the past few years we have successfully used sports sponsorship to build our brand, engage the pride of employees, and showcase our leadership to brokers,” said Monika Federau, senior vice-president and chief strategy officer at Intact. “We look forward to working with S&E to further leverage our sponsorships and grow the Intact brand.”
Both the NHL and Speed Skating Canada contracts are coming up for renewal, which will be the short-term focus for P&E, says Rajpat.
Intact says it was inspired by S&E’s corporate values, as well as the work S&E has done in similar categories, with sponsorships for companies like Scotiabank.
