Challenge
Women's health has historically been under-researched and under-discussed during the major life transitions that reshape a woman's body, career, and finances—from fertility to menopause. Manulife needed to close this gap while introducing a new women's health product and its partnership with Maven Clinic.
SJC’s branded content team saw an opportunity to reframe the conversation: instead of treating women's health as isolated problems, position it as a continuum moving through the life stages that most affect a woman's ability to work, earn and plan with confidence. Leaning on Chatelaine's authority, they created "A Working Woman's Guide to Navigating Your Health Through Four (Wild!) Life Stages." The guide provided plain-language, stage-specific information while positioning Manulife's benefits and Maven Clinic partnership as practical tools within that continuum rather than a product pitch.
Solution
The campaign's media home was a custom-designed digital hub inside Chatelaine, featuring four long-form articles alongside an interactive infographic titled “8 Stats, 4 Life Stages, 1 Wild Ride.” Embedded directly on the page, the infographic paired each life stage with supporting data from the McKinsey Health Institute and Manulife's own aggregate claims data, while supporting social content drove traffic back to the destination.
Building it inside Chatelaine mattered as much as the format. Chatelaine already has the trust and direct relationship with Canadian women that a topic like this depends on, and that trust is what lets the guide function as a real resource rather than paid media. Chatelaine's editorial standards ensured the work functioned not only as branded storytelling, but as a service-driven resource, demonstrating the unique value a heritage media brand brings to purpose-led, high-impact branded content.
SJC’s branded content team led the editorial partner role: sharpening the concept, leading original reporting and interviews and ensuring first-person narratives were sensitively told and illustrative of the issues. The Chatelaine-branded landing page, complete with the pink branding readers recognize, carried that same voice through to the page itself.
Result
The campaign delivered twice its pageview benchmark and beat its impressions target by 50 per cent, ranking among Chatelaine's most-viewed branded stories of the year.
More importantly, it did what Manulife actually needed it to do. The guide raised awareness of Manulife's new women's health product and its Maven Clinic partnership, not as a tagged-on mention but inside a resource women had real reason to read and return to. It gave Manulife a credible way to say it understands the health realities women face at each career stage, backed by credible facts and research, rather than a marketing claim.
Manulife's own words on the results make the case directly:
"We were thrilled with the result. In addition to creating an editorially engaging and sound environment to illustrate our brand priorities and raise awareness of our new women's health product, we can stand behind the mountain of solid intel and advice in these stories that will help women the next time they have a health concern at the doctor's office, at home, or at work. That feels very in line with Chatelaine's overall editorial mission and makes this package a powerful example of how sponsored content can equally serve both the reader and the brand."
— Alexandra Whyte, special projects editor, Manulife
