Tata Power takes content marketing route to tap millennials and make them future-ready

Energy companies often face unpredictable, dynamic environmental and geo-political conditions impacting the world. In such a scenario, dealing with obstacles related to government regulations and at the same time gaining the consumer’s trust at massive scale is a challenge for their marketers. The solution? Content marketing.

Energy companies’ marketers want to reach out to consumers to make them partners in managing energy consumption, educate them in managing electric bills while also updating them about economic changes that impact them financially. To do so, consumer engagement through content plays a crucial role.

Staying ahead of the curve and a true believer in content marketing, power utility company Tata Power has devised a content strategy to target millennials on new-age platforms like TikTok, Quora and Snapchat. The brand believes these would be the people making energy consumption choices in the upcoming years.  

Shalini Singh

Shalini Singh, Chief-Corporate Communications and Sustainability, Tata Power, believes the new-age consumers such as millennials and GenZ are very conscious about their consumption patterns and its impact on the environment.

"It is imperative for us for our new-age services to reach out to all relevant segments of customers, and millennials and Gen Z are one of them. These would be the only consumers making choices in the upcoming years," she said.

Tata Power launched a nation-wide campaign 'I Have the Power' last month to promote the core message of opting for environment-friendly means of consuming energy. And to reach out millennials and GenZ, the brand extended its #IHaveThePowerChallenge to the short video content app TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. In its second phase, it is geo-targeting in 30 cities while introducing the products through these digital platforms. 

With a plan to run the campaign for six months, the brand had rolled out an introductory video, the first of a series of videos encapsulating how even the youngest generation has the power to build India sustainably and make a difference by contributing to a cleaner tomorrow. The campaign highlighted the range of smart and sustainable solutions like solar rooftop, EV charging and solar micro-grids that the brand offers.

Singh said that the idea is to keep doing innovations in this campaign. It has taken on board Indian cricketer Shardul Thakur as brand ambassador and influencer to speak to the millennial audiences.

"In this campaign, we have got five times more visibility than we ever got from any campaign because of innovations and 98 media mentions with Shardul on board as an influencer," she said. The brand has also associated with around 35 other influencers.

The brand picks and chooses influencers after a lot of consideration and deliberation. Singh said, "We want influencers to go and experience the product, and it should be an experiential thing. One should pick up influencers for TikTok marketing and otherwise, who have good followers of their own and who resonate with the brand. There should be a brand personality in mind while picking them up. They should be non-controversial and who are capable of representing our brand."

As the energy company wants to educate the millennials and Gen Z around eco-friendly energy solutions, it increased its content marketing spends to 20% of total digital marketing budget this year in comparison to the last year's 15%.

Singh told BuzzInContent the brand has been leveraging the power of content for over 10 years now.

The brand has been running Tata Power Club Enerji (TPCE), an energy and resource conservation club that focuses on bringing about a first-hand realisation of the energy crisis while utilising curated textual content and info-graphics for over 10 years now. Singh said the growth of the website over the years has been organic.

While a lot of brands with significant monies are trying to experiment with branded content, Tata Power has no plans to do so in the near future.

"We are looking for branded content, but we are not sure we will be doing it immediately. First of all, the need of the hour is to educate people around solar energy solutions. When a brand enters a market and the product is not well known, the first need is to educate people. We might explore this in future but we believe our product is so good that if people try it, we don't have to really do branded content."

The brand has plans to utilise Quora to educate customers about the usage of products, which is scheduled for the next round of the campaign.

Discussing why funny videos or hashtag challenges are being used to spark engagement around energy conservation, Singh said, "We believe that if a brand wants to make a difference, you can't scare people through content and it has to be funny. You have to educate them and education and assimilation is more when it is in the language people enjoy and to which the audiences respond better. We should be inclusive to include everybody in the conversation."

Asked if the brand has any plans to collaborate with any content creator or a platform in future for more engaging and witty content, she said, "Partnerships and such collaborations will be upcoming but with like-minded partners and not general partners because it's important that we have partners that have a brand with purpose."