MIAMI, FL: Allstate, the insurance group, has enjoyed various brand benefits by extending its "good hands" positioning to find new ways of authentically connecting with the LGBT audience.

Georgina Flores, VP/Integrated Marketing Communications at Allstate, discussed this subject at the Association of National Advertisers' (ANA) 2015 Multicultural Marketing and Diversity Conference.

"We are the 'Good Hands' company," she said. "We have been putting people in good hands for about 85 years. We're really proud of our history." (For more, including further campaign details, read Warc's exclusive report: Allstate holds hands with LGBT target.)

Talking to LGBT consumers, however, showed that insurance often represented a point of difficulty, as applicants have to "share a lot of personal information", and are unsure about how this might impact the policies they are offered.

"We wanted people to know that Allstate treats all people, all couples and all families with respect and without judgement," said Flores. "Everyone deserves to feel protected and safe, no matter who they are and who they love."

In addressing that issue, she reported, Allstate "went back to our brand and the core of what it stands for: putting people in good hands."

The result was "Out Holding Hands", a multimedia campaign – launched during June 2014, which was LGBT Pride Month – that encouraged this community and its supporters to spread "love and friendship" by holding hands in public.

And the response was both immediate and exciting. "People were taking pictures of our out-of-home boards and of our print [ads] and sharing them online," said Flores.

"Gay and straight media were picking up our campaign; in fact, we got more unpaid impressions than we had paid impressions for the campaign."

Numerous follow-up efforts have built on the hand-holding theme, demonstrating that the brand's commitment to the LGBT audience was long-term and genuine.

"In a category that performs pretty poorly with this target, we were actually named among the ten top overall brands in terms of leadership in the LGBT community," Flores said.

Data sourced from Warc