Intact Insurance launched a social media campaign using a handcrafted miniature home to demonstrate how extreme weather damages properties and what homeowners can do to prevent it, featuring five scenarios including wildfires, flooding, hailstorms, strong winds, and snowstorms.
- The campaign features a 1:12-scale model home that demonstrates damage from wildfire, flooding, hailstorms, strong winds, and snowstorms
- In 2025, insured damage from severe weather in Canada exceeded $2.4 billion, making it the 10th costliest year on record
- The miniature home was built with interchangeable panels and took 12 months to produce, using real materials like tree branches and actual fire effects
- The series is part of Intact Insurance's Keep it Intact prevention program to help Canadian homeowners protect their homes against extreme weather
- Videos include practical prevention tips alongside damage demonstrations to help homeowners understand and mitigate weather-related risks
Intact Insurance has launched a new social media series using a handcrafted miniature home to show Canadians how extreme weather can damage their properties and what they can do to help prevent it.
The series follows a 1:12-scale model home through five scenarios -- wildfire, flooding, hailstorms, strong winds and snowstorms. Each video demonstrates the potential damage caused by the event alongside practical prevention tips for homeowners.
The campaign is part of Intact Insurance’s Keep it Intact prevention program, launched in 2025 to help Canadians better protect their homes against extreme weather.
In 2025, insured damage from severe weather events exceeded $2.4 billion, making it the 10th costliest year on record in Canada, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
“For many homeowners, the risks of extreme weather can feel abstract. It’s hard to imagine a flood or a hail storm affecting your own home until you see it,” said Mel Wright, VP Communications and Head of Intact Insurance’s Prevention Program. “The miniatures campaign is designed to change that. It’s a serious message delivered in a scroll-stopping way.”
The miniature home and its weather effects were designed and built by miniature artist Spencer Barclay and his team. Barclay was a frequent contributor to Little Canada, a Toronto attraction featuring miniature versions of Canadian landmarks and communities.
The production took place over 12 months, with the model home constructed using interchangeable panels to demonstrate different types of damage. Six versions of the pre-flood basement were built for the flooding scenes, along with a post-flood version.
The production also used real tree branches and bark, custom-built props and practical effects. Pieces of the miniature home were burned with actual fire to create the wildfire damage, while hail, wind, flooding, snow, smoke and burn marks were handcrafted.
“Miniatures are a wonderful storytelling device. They give you the opportunity to show things at a high level of detail in a very contained, focused way -- there are so many educational opportunities in that,” said Barclay.
The series is available through Intact Insurance’s Keep it Intact website and YouTube channel.
