Content initiatives will be successful only if they don't look like ads, says Jayraj Jadhav of Tata AIG

The insurance sector is relying heavily on content marketing to communicate the policies and transparency being offered by companies, said Jayraj Jadhav, Vice-President, Marketing and E-Business, Tata AIG General Insurance.

"In the insurance sector, most of the searches happen on digital and it has become the medium where most of the content is consumed," he told BuzzInContent.com during an interaction.

“I think content consumption is higher on digital. Typically if 100 people search for insurance, they might not buy policies on digital and through some other medium, but definitely look for it on digital. Most of the consumption of content is on digital,” he said.

Jadhav said that any content marketing initiative will only be successful if the content is informative and engaging.

“Breaking down the content as per users’ need is very essential. Brands try to do very product-centric content. You don’t necessarily need to put all the content at one go but just tell the audience just the key features of the policies. And then give some additional bits on information. There should be no information overload,” said Jadhav on what a creator should keep in mind while designing content around insurance policies.

Tata AIG Life Insurance has its own micro site for people who are planning to travel – ‘Plan your travel’ in association with HolidayIQ. The latter serves information via user-generated content. To a question how much reliable is user-generated content, Jadhav said such content is more about the experiences of the user.

“They are not talking about the product. It is about the individual experience. It brings authenticity from the users’ experiences. It is user-generated and authentic since it is coming directly from the users’ end,” he said.

What's essential for a successful content marketing campaign?

A creator has to be careful while designing micro sites that serve content in various formats, where it shouldn’t look like an advertisement but an engaging piece.  Tata AIG for its campaign, ‘The Great Indian Traveller’ has laid out three layers of user-generated content, said Jadhav. The first talks about the destinations to travel, the second on how to plan the travel and in its third leg, there is information on insurance policies. This structure, he believes, is not advertisement on the face of users.

The site has content in various formats, including words. Content in the form of words might not be consumed as much as in the form of video, music, pictures. Though it still has maintained its relevance, Jadhav said, a brand needs a mix of all of the formats.

Every format has a different purpose and aspect. For visual stories, one can’t really use words. If it is really about the visual story, the video is required. At the same time, there are people spending some serious time on words for deeper understanding.

“There is no winning formula around this. For insurance companies also, it is related to the objective of the content. Sometimes, there is some technical information to put forth, where you can use videos and create a parallel story and explain. Similarly, infographics and blogs also work. It is kind of a challenge to decide what to use. But everything works if it is interesting.”

Consumption habits of consumers are changing and so is the content offering. Some believe it is becoming shorter and snackable. He said, “You need to have a mix of all. When we create the main video, we might not cut it short. But if we are planning more videos around it, we might create shorter pieces. Both formats work. In content, if it is interesting, it doesn’t really matter.”