About 2 years ago, the JCTA Board of Directors noticed that insurance was changing from a soft market to a hard market — meaning insurance underwriters were clamping down on types of insurance they would cover. We heard through the grapevine the Lloyds of London was telling its syndicates to review all property coverage, not just tanning salons. With all the claims around the worlds – floods, tornados, earthquake and what happened in Fort Murray (this is considered minor compared to what happened in the rest of the world), all property was now under review. First, we lost coverage on Spray Booths with water lines attached, due to a massive claim. Then, coverage for property was reduced to cover only equipment under 10 years old. Some now only prorate used equipment, which could come out as low as 10 cents on the dollar. Then, one underwriter stopped property coverage all together. Then, salons had to have 2 policies: one for property and the other for professional liability. This became confusing. Some of the policies renewed automatically and others didn’t. So, some salon thought they had both, when they didn’t.

The JCTA, about 18 months ago, started looking to find a new insurance policy with less restrictions and is more cost-effective. The NEW Insurance program is now available, as of March 1st, with a NEW Broker, BrokerLink Insurance Calgary. This is an exclusive program designed by the JCTA for salon owners and exclusively sold by BrokerLink Insurance. No other Broker can offer this program. We encourage you to get a quote and find out all the advantages of having the JCTA insurance program to protect your salon. Also, see the MyJCTA article, which introduces Kelly Guard from BrokerLink Insurance Calgary. His office is the only Brokerlink office that can offer the new program.

Frank Findlay from Miami Tanning and a JCTA Salon Owner Director was one of the first to get a quote on his insurance, and here is what he had to say: “I own 3 salons in New Brunswick, and I just saved $2800 on my insurance switching to the JCTA program, and I get better coverage. It was the simplest insurance process I have ever done.”

In November and January, we did a salon survey of insurance at the Uvalux events (Kitchener and Coquitlim). Based on a survey done with 30 salons in Kitchener, the average cost savings was 26.65%. We heard from salons that have already taken advantage of the program have save around $700. Remember, you must be a JCTA Smart Tan Combo Member to get this insurance.

Some highlights of the program: One policy for both property and professional liability, exclusive coverage, cost effective, minimal restrictions, spray booths covered, replacement cost no matter how old equipment, cancer coverage NOT excluded, teeth whitening and any spa services. The only thing we can’t cover is gyms – high risk ratio.

If you’re interested in getting a quote, you can get an application from our JCTA Salon website link “Insurance.” It the shortest application I’ve seen for tanning/spa salons. This is just one more reason to become a member, so check out the other reason at “Why Join The JCTA.”

If insurance isn’t going to make you become a member, maybe all the marketing we’re doing to drive the Canadian public to salon member locations will convince you. This year, we got away from using stock videos for our Facebook ads. We decided to create our own ads, which allow us to demonstrate the salon experience. You can check out a couple of the ads that are running now at, “Mum Needs a Break” or “Dance Moves.”

The Dance Moves ad was actually a promotional video a salon in the UK designed, and thanks to the JCTA working with tanning association around the world, my good friend Gary Lipman, who is the The Sunbed Association chairman, got me in touch with iXtreme Sunbeds and owner Joe McGlinchey. They allowed me to cut the video down to create an ad to promote the JCTA Consumer Website. We are in the process now of creating more ads like these to promote our salon members.

Along with Facebook ads and Google’s multi-ad platform, we are educating more Canadian consumers about the Please Tan Responsibly message and driving consumers to salon members. As a non-member, this message still resonate with consumers, but you don’t get the salon location redirect members get. Every JCTA salon member is linked to TanResponsibly.ca. Every time a consumer goes to the website, they see the closest 3 salon members to them. Each salon member has all their contact information on the site and links to their salon’s information, whether by website or Facebook page. Here’s the traffic we’ve generated in February:

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FYI, every time you start a new campaign (Lifestyle started Feb 15^th) ,Facebook and Google go in to “learning mode” and it takes 2 to 3 weeks for both to get to know the right audience. Still, traffic to the website is up 50% over last year’s numbers thanks to the new ads on Facebook and a complete review of our Google ads. The last week of February and into March showed 615 people a day went to the website (4300 in 1 week) and over 41,000 impressions (290,000 for the week) were generated. These ads only show to Canadians.

Please become a member: save some money, get better insurance and help fund marketing to Canadians.

Steve Gilroy, JCTA ED and Smart Tan Canada VP