As product-led messaging continues to fall away, insurance marketers are placing greater emphasis on authenticity, shifting towards storytelling rooted in what matters most to customers.
Virginie Faucon, global head of marketing and brand at AXA Health International, said the focus has moved beyond product features towards purpose-led communication.
“We’re investing far more in what we say and how we say it. The days of purely product-led messaging are behind us. It’s now about what we stand for as a brand,” she said.
Matt Field, CMO at Aventum, added that effective engagement comes from translating complex propositions into meaningful narratives that match up with reality.
“As marketers, our role is to communicate a clear message, but we also need to ensure the organisation behind it can genuinely deliver on that promise,” he said. “It’s about telling stories around what matters most to people.”
Faucon also pointed to a shift away from legacy positioning towards relevance and trust.
“People don’t care how long you’ve been around. What they care about is whether you deliver when it matters and whether you pay the claims,” she said.
“Instead, it’s about communicating what you genuinely stand for. For us, that included campaigns around domestic violence, reflecting the support built into our products.”
Alex Murphy, co-founder of The Balance Agency, framed the shift more directly.
“The buzzword I expected today was ‘agentic’, but it’s actually ‘authentic’,” he said. “It’s not about big campaigns alone. It’s about understanding the customer’s problem and creating content that genuinely addresses it.”
The discussion underscored that consumers increasingly care about a brand’s values, with authenticity of message outweighing the prominence of AI or emerging technologies.